(01-31-2013 01:45 PM)PittsburghBucs Wrote: Fact of the matter is any mainstream media press a practice basketball court is going to have, and it's going to have no interest in the mainstream, is going to come from a press release. So in this case ETSU really does control the message, but the thing is the message (SCANDAL! Practice court for students now goes to players after corporate big wig throws his money around! Film at 11!)
So how close do you know Mullins?
We went over that, more or less, in 2003. No need to go over that again, unless you have a specific question about it.
As far as news releases go, they serve a purpose, but I don't think you just run the release as it is, unless it's something about the piano recital, something about the Civil War history lecture, or unless you're
The Loafer or
News & Neighbor, of course (and yes, that's a dig at them). It's a starting point, if it's any story at all, for asking questions. That's *especially* true if the news release comes from the ETSU Athletics administration, because of past sugar-coating that we are all too familiar with. Maybe in this case, the release fills the bill all by itself - and from the viewpoint of John Q. Public - that's probably sufficient. Mo' better would be if the student newspaper asked deeper questions since for the most part it affects other students negatively.
Is this is big deal in the grand scheme of things? No. I could make an argument that it's a bigger deal than a player's serious injury, or that a player is going to be on academic probation for a semester, and I might be right, or at least borderline. Point is, if I'm a
JC Press reporter, lets say Joe, Kelly, or Trey, I see that and I think, "Hey, that's cool, but what are the people who've enjoyed using that space for decades going to do?" Yes, some of them can play at the CPA, but many can't, because of the time constraints of where it is. P.E. classes used that space, too. Kids from Little Bucs used to use it - don't know if they still do or not.
I really didn't mean to beat this to death (didn't there used to be an icon for that?) - I'm just sayin' that at least a simple mentioning of the negative implications of this was warranted - imo. That's all.