Final Project

Bridges burned and restrictions: The modern challenge for sports reporters

"I hope they don't f**k you like they f***d us," said UConn head coach Dan Hurley as he walked into the tunnel with his fallen Huskies.

He lost his cool as he warned the Baylor Bears about the refs after the reigning champs lost to Florida 77-75 in the second round of the men's NCAA tournament.

Why did this private moment go viral?

Oh, that's right it wasn't private. Joey Ellis, a sports reporter and anchor for Carolinas' Own Queen City News caught this heated moment on camera and posted it on X. The issue would have blown over a lot faster if UConn's Men's Basketball Director of Communications Bobby Mullen didn't further escalate the situation. The viral clip of Hurley had exceeded 1 million views and Mullen threatened to "ruin his life" if he didn't delete the post.

Mullen felt justified in the moment, as he explains in a statement requested by CSL management.

"The lasting image of coach Hurley leaving the court should have been his talking off the court arm-in-arm with his seniors, overwhelmed emotion," Mullen said. "Instead, a reporter was in an area he should not have been, recorded on his cell phone a private comment made to members of another coaching staff."

uconnhuskies.com

Bobby Mullen apologized but still felt like 

his coach's "private"moment was mistreated.

He apologized to Ellis after the incident. Hurley also apologized for his embarrassing outburst.

"Those are three great officials on that game, so, although I said something in the heat of the moment, in an area of the arena that in pretty much every game I've ever coached in college has been media-free," Hurley said. "Past the tunnel, by the locker rooms, in the hallway where the coaches go, that's for the combatants, that's for the competitors. That's not for camera phones."

Does the reporter have the right to document these intense moments that are typically away from the screaming fans in arenas?

For media members it's a challenging line to walk because many want to show sports fans the truth, while also respecting the privacy of athletes and coaches. However, the digital world has made journalists jobs more challenging because so many people report on the same topics and the fight for audiences' attention becomes more complicated with audience members turning to social media accounts for their news gathering methods along with the more traditional outlets, like publications and news stations.

Journalists having access to athletes and coaches has always been up for debate, especially in the locker room. Ludtke v. Kuhn, 1977 demonstrated the struggle that women have experienced in the sports world. Melissa Ludtke was a reporter for Sports Illustrated. She was denied access to the locker room as she covered the World Series. She filed a civil rights action against Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He claimed that these players were uncomfortable at the thought of females having the ability to be in the locker room. However, Ludtke won the case because the policy banning female reporters to have access to locker rooms violated Ludtke's fundamental right to pursue a career under the equal protection and due process clauses enforced by the Fourteenth Amendment.

melissaludtke.com

Ludtke's book details the struggles of

women in journalism in the 1970s.

Now, it isn't just an issue for women reporters. Athletic departments at universities control the access that reporters have to athletes and coaches. Then athletes and coaches, like Hurley, are shocked when they are held accountable for bad moments. Limited access leaves journalists to fend for themselves and even become hungry hounds looking for any story that will differentiate themselves from other reporters and get them clicks.

Are sports information directors doing a disservice by hindering the relationships between media members and college athletes and coaches?

I sure as hell think so. These journalists have to make a living in what many view as a crumbling industry and they can't do so without having access to athletes and coaches. Sports journalists are supposed to cover stories that show the humanistic aspects of the athletes and coaches that many of us put on a pedestal.

Pat Forde, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, had the opportunity to cover the Kentucky vs. Utah game in the 1993 NCAA March Madness tournament. The head coach of Utah, Rick Jerus, gave Forde and other reporters full access to the team. Nowadays, this doesn't happen. Coaches and sports information directors hand pick who reporters can talk to.

"I’d say that it’s because the athletic department wants to put the best image of themselves out there, and they don’t want to take the risk in something coming out that is not favorable to them, said Forde. "Of course, these are 18-to 22-year-old kids who are going to slip up at times, but they’re going to find other ways to get their message out. That’s just how it is these days with social media."

dailyiowan.com

Colored Women's basketball players were handpicked

by the athletic department for this press conference,

like many other universities do.

The increase in social media accounts and publications reporting on the same games and stories, and limited time to write stories, has led to reporters rarely getting the opportunity to conduct one-on-one interviews. Reporters can't get the colorful quotes that show the humanistic side of sports anymore, and it is a shame that a gap has been created between reporters, athletes and coaches. Sports information directors also have a better chance of producing new and exciting content for fans on their athletic websites because they can control the stories that reporters are able to produce depending on who they give them access too and what information they allow these individuals to share. Without these relationships stories don't resonate to audiences like they used to. The stories that do formulate from these interactions aren't always positive. Such as when coaches have outbursts when reporters ask questions that coaches see as "gotcha" questions. 

St. Johns men's basketball head coach Rick Pitino had a negative reaction to a reporter who he thought was trying to get him to talk badly about one of his players. This interaction can be seen below. As you can see, many coaches feel attacked, and this reflects poorly on the reputation of media members. Players and coaches are taught by their PR practitioner to be selective with their answers, and they don't always give extensive answers. This is frustrating to the reporters, especially those on deadline.

Reporters ask these tough questions to try to get a reaction out of players and coaches to tell a story with a unique angle that draws readers in, but if they cross the wrong player or coach, they lose a relationship with this team and sometimes the university as a whole.

Is a juicy story worth burning a bridge of connections?

The answer will certainly depend on who you ask. But one thing is for certain: the digital age, the trend of protecting brand image and overstepping for the sake of clicks has destroyed much of the excitement of reporting on college sports and has eliminated the positive connection that reporters used to have with athletes and coaches. 

If we saw both sides and understood each other, maybe the flow of information would happen more freely, and the animosity would decrease.

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