In professional journalism, the amorphous idea of objectivity is what separates reporters from the masses.
You see, there is no test to take, no licensure and no grand swearing in when one becomes a journalist. When you enter the office of an editor, there is no framed certificate from the Board of Journalism Overseers. The hoops a journalist jumps through are simply cosmetic, if not entirely illusory.
Objectivity is the flimsy rack on which journalists hang their newsy caps. When they cover a story they are supposed to be a detached observer, explaining the situation through the eyes of “both sides” in a way that an uninitiated reader can consume, consider and digest.
In this age of Twitter, blogs and insta-everything, objectivity is dying a death of a thousand pokes.
Regarding the story of UMass’ “contentious” decision to upgrade football, objectivity went three-and-out.
For those that don’t know the story, here it is in a nutshell: Some members of the Faculty Senate are upset with the financial side of UMass’ decision to upgrade the football program. Many of these same members want to either downgrade football or eliminate it entirely. They once voted to not vote on suggesting this course of action. They will vote again, and the results of this vote on whether to vote or not are unclear. Regardless of how they vote, the Faculty Senate can only suggest a course of action, and that suggestion is not binding.
That’s the objective story, and to be honest, it’s really a nonstory. However, because papers must sell and soapboxes are made to be stood upon, journalists from the Big Apple to Hoop City have latched on and plan on beating this thing to death – objectivity be damned.
The whole thing started when the Boston Globe’s Bob Hohler penned an article about UMass’ first-season struggles and relied heavily on quotes (and numbers) from the Faculty Senate. I have been told by a number of people close to the situation that members of the Faculty Senate pushed the Globe to write the article. They did so because, while their non-binding suggestion isn’t particularly powerful, an outraged public packs a serious punch.
So, if what I hear is correct, Hohler took the Faculty Senate’s feed bag and basically wrote their press release. From there, the Globe’s lifeline – the New York Times – grabbed on and wrote a piece that also focused on UMass’ problems. It was from there that the now-infamous Kumble R. Subbaswamy quote arose:
“It’s a very easy matter to one day say we won’t do it anymore.”
While the Boston Globe’s piece caused a ripple in the Twitter stream of consciousness, the New York Times kicked up a tidal wave. Recruits started getting nervous, opposing schools used the article as a weapon, fans of the program were confused, and Charley Molnar had a brushfire on his hands.
Finally Subbaswamy stepped forward and did some damage control.
All of this – every last bit of it – was caused by a handful of journalists who wrote knee-jerk articles in the wake of Faculty Senate meetings that led to absolutely nothing. Max Page, the mouthpiece for the anti-FBS contingency, got what he wanted out of the media. All it took was a little reframing – a little tweak to the angle – and this nonstory could be spoon-fed to a journalist looking to whet his “objective” appetite.
Meanwhile, most of the local media followed the nonstory as they should – with tact and coverage that fit the task at hand. Both the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Matt Vautour and MassLive’s Harry Plumer covered the Faculty Senate meeting, explained what happened and what it meant. Since nothing happened, it effectively meant that there was nothing else to report. Neither wrote a long feature on the major struggles of the program or fed misinformation to their readers.
They acted like journalists.
Vautour explained the situation well a little later on:
But while the faculty protests didn’t lead to a recommendation to the chancellor, it did get them media attention. Twitter buzzed with people retweeting headlines where the faculty called for football downgrade even though 140 characters was too few to point out that it was only some of the faculty, that most of them had dismissed the need to even recommend the downgrade and the faculty have no power here anyway.
This Thursday, the Faculty Senate will meet again, and again there probably won’t be much of a story. However, much like Groundhog Day (albiet a bit early), a few journalists are going to poke their heads out of the ground and make sure this nonstory lasts another few weeks. MassLive’s Ron Chimelis is already stirring the pot by calling this whole thing “a classic battle of jocks versus nerds.”
For those keeping track at home, he also promised to “not to pass any judgments on this FBS journey until the first season was over – at the earliest,” then said the loss to Ohio was encouraging, and then a month later indicated that “the project has been a total, absolute and unmitigated failure.”
Good thing there’s no Board of Journalism Overseers.
To me, this is not a battle of jocks and nerds. At the end of the day, this is the telephone game being played poorly at a middle school dance. Then, when the slow song plays and the jocks and nerds try to find their dates, the chaperones stand idly by as misinformation dances a little too closely with an “objective” media.
I would prefer UMass professors to be more active in obtaining grants or working with UMass Development to close gifts that will help their departments than fighting over crumbs. Unfortunately many departments are not proactive in either and rely on the state to fund UMass and become needy. My gut feeling is that this is the case with some of the faculty. I hope I am wrong. Maybe a journalist can ask Max. I emailed him a few weeks ago and he was somewhat short and did not respond to my return email.
The Massachusetts has a history of underfunding UMass. The Athletic Department should be held accountible to properly forecast and realize revenue and there should be consequences if they are way off the mark. With that said, it is hard to determine expected revenue for something new and very different. Professors should be involved in creating stuff that people want to buy or invest in, obtaining grants and teaming with Development to close gifts for their departments by Alumni. I also emailed the Chancellor with my thoughts.
In the end GO UMass! I am a proud Alum and became a season ticketholder last year with the move. I look forward to successes down the road and I am patient. I am confident good things will happen and that the student and Alumni experience will be enhanced by it.
I will be buying 4 season tickets for next season. Despite the losses going to Gillette to watch our Minutemen was a thrill for me and my family. Does anyone know if they have gone on sale yet? I didn’t see anything on the UMass Athletics website.
I’m pretty sure nothing has been done with tickets yet. Last year it was real late so I’m assuming that will be the same this year.
Excellent choice. Last season was a blast, despite the poor results. And really only the first home game was a bust (if you don’t include the UConn debacle), other home games were real good games. Forgot about BG, that sucked too.
I wish the season started again on Monday, right after the Super Bowl. I can’t wait to tailgate, have fun and enjoy big time football, and then tailgate some more. My buddies and I were sharing a laugh again the other day about our first game fun which included one final game of cornhole in a driving rainstorm as the street sweeper tried to clean the Gilette parking lot around us.
SJG
Like your style guy. Hope to meet up with you at Gillette sometime.
Larry sec 109
Same here Larry. Everything about the experience is superior to Patriots games, except the product on the field. And from a competitive standpoint we can only say that about the Indiana game (beautiful day, first FBS game ever so who cares). BG game was boring. Other 3 home games were excellent competitive games. Driving to and from game is a breeze. Parking close to stadium and taking up a couple of spots for tables, games, friends etc is a breeze. And I love Saturday games, have all the next day to take care of family, chores, etc all while recovering from a hangover!!!
I bought a bunch of extra tix to first game and my friends had a blast. Couple of the games it was just the 4 guys who have season tix. One game we bought extra tix and each of us brought our sons, ages ranged from 20 to 10. All had a blast and can’t wait to do it again. Final game I worked till 1 and then lone-wolfed it to the game and enjoyed every minute of it.
If you like football and you love your alma mater then you have to get on board and buy season tickets and go to every game and bring a crowd with you. Make it a habit, make it a guaranteed part of your life and sit back and enjoy. My friend and I bought 4 season tix last year. The friends we brought to games will be buying tickets this year and bringing their friends so the following year they will buy tickets to. Keep building it, we’re coming!!
First of all unless I am really out of touch the faculty senate can voice their “opinion” on anything they want but this has little to nothing to do with how the athletic program is run.
Real simple solution to this so-called problem.
Buy season tickets.
Money talks and b/s walks (or is hardly heard from or appreciated).
If more season tix were sold it would be pretty hard for this “opinion” to have much merit.
Just sayin’
Larry Sec 109 (and a season tix holder for the last 6 seasons and will be again in 2013)
This could get ugly folks. I wish I could be there Thursday night. Anyone that can make the meeting should definitely do it.
If you can’t make the meeting you should email the pro-FBS faculty and administrators that are going to be there and remind them how important it is that they are prepared for this meeting. They need to be vocal to combat the likes of Max Page.
Faculty Athletics Representative to NCAA (FAR): Glenn Wong, Prof. in Sport Mgmnt, long-time supporter of UMass Athletics. gwong@isenberg.umass.edu
Director of Athletics, serving ex officio (non-voting): John McCutcheon jmccutch@admin.umass.edu
Associate Athletic Director for Finance, serving ex officio (non-voting): Jaime Seguin jseguin@admin.umass.edu
WHILE OUR FACULTY DINK AND DUNK AROUND, UCONN UPGRADED AND RUTGERS JOINED THE BIG 10.
But sleepy UConn is a state school and flagship campus! UMass can’t do that stuff.
(Actual comment I’ve heard when comparing UMass and UConn with another UMass student. Also, according to him, the reason we have to say ‘UMass Amherst’ is because we have multiple campuses unlike UConn and Penn State.)
Speaking of UConn…I saw a guy in a UConn sweatshirt walking into the classroom I was coming out of today and gave him a nice elbow on my way out. So tired of seeing UConn and BC stuff on campus.
Why are we rehashing this b.s., football is here to stay. Furthermore, name a major flagship university that doesn’t have a big time football program. Enough said, Go UMass!
um, because as Bob just pointed out in his article, the Faculty Senate are meeting again and a topic of discussion is the move to FBS. As it did the first time,this to will gain media attention starting with today’s article by Dick Chimelis.
As a senior at UMass who has seen the first part of this transition take place, I am fully in support of a critical evaluation of our upgrade to FBS. On the topic of objectivity, even the term “upgrade” is charged with our beliefs about the move from FCS to FBS. Critique is crucial whenever a university makes a change that has large financial ramifications. That being said, critique is clearly different from stirring up a media frenzy to paint the university or program in a negative light.
I’ll alert Hohler so he can take a break from fetching Larry Luchino’s laundry and get ready to write an article again. My email exchange with him the first time was comical; I called him out for “losing” the real story to a cub reporter like Harry Plumer and from what I heard Hohler was running around crying like a little bitch about my attack on him (I know people there). He is simply a low talent hack.
I’ll be wearing UMass Football gear on campus Thursday. Where’s the meeting at?
Just follow the fat guy with the goatee, his name is Max Page. Remind him that it would be a good idea if he just kept walking and left Amherst.
step one- take away chimelis’ press pass.
the faculty senate can’t see past their nose – end of story
This is less of a battle of jocks v. nerds than a battle of those with a greater vision for this University and those without it. Unfortunately, as former Chancellor Holub learned, having a greater vision for UMass can be dangerous in this state. Lord forbid we invest in a second public med. school in this state, invest in a national football program, or build a law school on the campus of the state flagship.
brilliant! Great job and hopefully the powers that be at umass take a look at this and don’t feed into the vocal minority in the faculty senate