ducks
09-05-2004, 01:04 PM
Barkley anger justified
Paola Boivin
Morning Juice
Sept. 5, 2004 12:00 AM
www.azcentral.com/sports/...n0905.html (http://www.azcentral.com/sports/che...boivin0905.html)
It's not uncommon to hear Charles Barkley rail against the media, but Thursday his criticism had an angrier edge.
"They come in the locker room smiling like they're your friends," he said on ESPN-AM's The Positive Side of Sports. "But like I tell Kobe (Bryant) all the time, they're not. They'll turn on you."
Barkley took exception to the way the press covered the recent story of a woman who accused him of groping her at a Philadelphia nightclub. You know what? I'm with him on this one.
The story deserved to be covered, even though Barkley may think otherwise. It's what happened afterward that made much of the media look bad.
On Thursday, the woman withdrew her complaint. On Friday, many of the newspapers that ran the first report didn't run the subsequent one. Many that did gave it much smaller play. To The Arizona Republic's credit, both stories were treated in a similar fashion.
"Journalists need to be careful on both ends of a story," said Aly Colon, an ethics instructor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. "We can be so hot about the front end of a story that we don't treat the back end with the same intensity."
One of the worst cases of this occurred in December 1996, when the Dallas Cowboys' Michael Irvin and Erik Williams were accused of sexual assault. The story broke on New Year's Eve, when there were bowl games and little else in the news. The story was splashed all over the front pages and led many television news reports.
Several weeks later when the woman recanted her story and no charges were pursued, the story was an afterthought for many media outlets.
Barkley said this incident soured him and that for the first time, he considered not giving fans autographs anymore.
"Michael (Jordan) never does and that's the one thing I never agreed with him on," Barkley said. "Now I'm starting to understand." . . .
Paola Boivin
Morning Juice
Sept. 5, 2004 12:00 AM
www.azcentral.com/sports/...n0905.html (http://www.azcentral.com/sports/che...boivin0905.html)
It's not uncommon to hear Charles Barkley rail against the media, but Thursday his criticism had an angrier edge.
"They come in the locker room smiling like they're your friends," he said on ESPN-AM's The Positive Side of Sports. "But like I tell Kobe (Bryant) all the time, they're not. They'll turn on you."
Barkley took exception to the way the press covered the recent story of a woman who accused him of groping her at a Philadelphia nightclub. You know what? I'm with him on this one.
The story deserved to be covered, even though Barkley may think otherwise. It's what happened afterward that made much of the media look bad.
On Thursday, the woman withdrew her complaint. On Friday, many of the newspapers that ran the first report didn't run the subsequent one. Many that did gave it much smaller play. To The Arizona Republic's credit, both stories were treated in a similar fashion.
"Journalists need to be careful on both ends of a story," said Aly Colon, an ethics instructor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. "We can be so hot about the front end of a story that we don't treat the back end with the same intensity."
One of the worst cases of this occurred in December 1996, when the Dallas Cowboys' Michael Irvin and Erik Williams were accused of sexual assault. The story broke on New Year's Eve, when there were bowl games and little else in the news. The story was splashed all over the front pages and led many television news reports.
Several weeks later when the woman recanted her story and no charges were pursued, the story was an afterthought for many media outlets.
Barkley said this incident soured him and that for the first time, he considered not giving fans autographs anymore.
"Michael (Jordan) never does and that's the one thing I never agreed with him on," Barkley said. "Now I'm starting to understand." . . .