And it’s perfectly illustrated in this story involving a reporter wearing a Florida hat to a Petrino presser (stupid) and the reaction to that faux pas by the Arkansas fan base (insane).
Unreal.
(h/t EDSBS)
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UPDATE: I guess Petrino thinks she’s a bad guy after all.
“It wasn’t a stunt I was trying to pull, and I wasn’t trying to get any attention. It was just a dumb mistake,” said Gork, who added that her station (KAKS Hog Sports Radio) fired her because it didn’t appear that she would be allowed to cover practice any longer. [Emphasis added.]
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UPDATE #2: Chris Dufresne offers some employment advice.
Today’s lesson: Be true to your school but loyal to your direct deposit. We’re in a recession, times are tough. Sometimes the only gig someone from Gainesville can get is in Fayetteville. Do what your boss says. Root for the Hogs from 9-to-5 and for your team in front of the mirror.
Get The Picture 
At last we may learn whether Gator Fans are a protected class.
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Good for Arkansas. That’s typical of a Gator – works for the Arkansas Radio Broadcast station and has the arrogance/hubris to wear their gator cap to the ARKANSAS press conference.
Why would anyone do that other than out of pure arrogance, the need to irritate Arkansas, or ignorance?
Move to Gainesville and work for their station you twit.
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+1 Attention HO. She knew it would make news and that’s what the new journalism is all about, making the news not reporting it.
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It’s not just that she wore it to the presser. She WORKS FOR ARKANSAS. She works for the friggin’ radio broadcast team for the school… how would you react if you saw a sideline reporter for the UGA radio broadcast walking around in Ole Miss gear or a Gator hat? You’d be livid. This is Category 5 stupidity. It’s harsh to lose your job over it… but then again, it’s really not that harsh. She’s a MORON.
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Check that… I’m not sure if “The Hog” is Arkansas’ official broadcast partner or not. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been wrong.
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It would be akin to a WSB radio announcer or sideline reporter wearing a Gator or Tech cap to an interview or while walking the sidelines during the GA broadcast.
Idiotic.
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And where, exactly, did our beloved Andrea Adelson matriculate?
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You can catch Florida grad Adelson on video, if you so desire, here.
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I have no trouble with Gator grads working in Florida or anywhere else but to claim to be a “journalist” and do something as bush league as that just boggles the mind. She luck she got out of the presser alive.
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It’s a hat. She claims it was raining and she grabbed the first thing she could find to put on her head.
Sheesh. When did we get so sensitive?
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I got this sensitive 47 years ago.
If I was an Arky fan, and I REALLY liked her work, I’d give her the benfit of the doubt. It makes me think she was marginally liked by the audience in the first place.
If I’m an astute station manager with a rabid audience and I’ve got a reporter marginally liked by my audience + wearing opponent’s logo to homer’s preseason press conference = GTFOOH.
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Wow. She isn’t cute. And she’s horrible on camera. And she is pretty stupid.. Yeah… way to go with that hire, ESPN.
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Of course, if being cute was really a requirement for ESPN, almost all of the male staffers would lose their jobs.
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You people are insane. They’re situations like this that make me ashamed to be such a rabid sports fan.
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seriously guys, this is totally f-ed up. i’m all for team spirit, but to can the chick b/c of her hat…maybe the facebook postings add to it, I don’t know. but a journalist to get fired b/c of her hat? wow!
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While this it is kinda pathetic that they would fire her over this can you imagine if a press member were to wear an AL hat to a Meyer press conference tomorrow? Not only would the person be fired but Meyer would expect the police to arrest her on the grounds of hate speech, inciting a riot, and attempted murder by causing him too much stress.
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And he would point and stare and say: ” You’re not a good guy, you’re a bad guy.”
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And they would be forever in the mind of Urban Meyer.
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And the mind of his football team.
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On a positive note, I am sure they are flying her to Orlando, Gainesville or somewhere in Florida where she can kiss Corch’s @$$ and write pro-Gator stuff and get paid for it.
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Well, people like to laud the SEC when they win everything, then say that these people are being ridiculous for firing the girl.
You cannot have it both ways. The idiots who call the Paul Finebaum show and hock every single possession that they have ever owned for tickets are the reason that Alabama football is so great.
Do you like to take pride in the SEC’s athletic dominance or do you like to ridicule the passionate, redneck fanbases? It cannot be both ways.
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Who made that rule?… I don’t see why we can’t have it both ways unless there is a law of physics that says we can’t….
Besides, who says the Cackalacs aren’t passionate? And what has it gotten them?
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Guarantee you she wouldn’t have gotten fired in Athens. CMR is too nice.
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That’s ridiculous, Petrino didn’t fire her.
Her employer, Hawg Sports or whatever, decided that this would be her final act. Apparently she has stirred the pot several times before on blogs, Twitter, et al, and they grew tired of it.
Funny how employers are about protecting their product.
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My brother!
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As a former fourth-estater, I don’t have much of problem with this outcome. Sure, a suspension might’ve been more reasonable. But the point is, this hack crapped the nest with an important source by committing an incredibly obvious faux-pas that any night-school journalism grad would’ve known better than to commit. Every paper I worked for had strict rules about attire, bumper stickers on your car and anything else that flaunted your biases. How did she get a relatively major beat like Arkansas Football not knowing this?
Sure, we’re human and, by definition, have our biases and allegiances. But just as you wouldn’t cover an Obama presser wearing Bush gear, why would you cover one SEC team wearing another SEC team’s gear? For that matter, I’d be mortified to cover any team wearing that team’s gear — you just confirm to your colleagues that you’re that team’s mouthpiece before they ever read your stuff. Why is it always the Florida and Alabama reporters who are so shameless?
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No question that what she did was dumb – she didn’t even have the presence of mind to take her hat off at the presser – but it still seems like it engendered an enormous overreaction. I can’t help but think about how Richt would handle something like that (probably with some pointed but gentle humor). In any event, more professionally than Bobby Petrino did. (Admittedly, I’m still in somewhat of a state of shock to discover that Petrino has suddenly found religion regarding institutional loyalty.)
Funny, though, I’m not sure I blame her employer too much for the decision to fire her. If the last few months of Houston Nutt’s tenure in Fayetteville proved one thing, it’s that there’s a significant segment of the Arky fan base that is batshit insane. I’m not sure I would have been willing to risk having people like Pork Rind Jimmy show up the next time the station’s FCC license was up for renewal.
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I’m pretty sure Petrino’s questionable loyalty is exactly why the lady was fired. Nothing like getting someone fired to assure the homebase you know where your bacon is frying.
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I agree with the firing…she had a visible job and she acted in a careless manor. This would be no different than being employed by Coke, sitting in a strategy meeting with the CEO and drinking a Pepsi. If your dumb enough to do that you probably are too stupid to work there.
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Pretty stupid by this woman…what did she expect? SEC football (especially) is a brand, and when you supposedly support/represent one brand, yet where a different brand’s logo, you’ve got to expect a backlash.
She’ll fit right in with the “journalists” in Florida, though.
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OFF WITH HER HEAD!!!!…….errrrrr ……HAT!!!!
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http://www.maxpreps.com/news/VNeO9am2Ed-YiQAcxJSkrA/lemay-to-skip-senior-season.htm?tag=headlines;collegefootball
Totally off subject but according to this article LeMay is going to concentrate on graduating early so he can enroll at UGA in the spring. Guess that quells any rumors about him backing out on his commitment to UGA and means that depth at qb should be fine come next fall, unlike this one where it is kinda scary should something happen to Murray.
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