Unbalanced reporting in MKE News

[real chili 83]

I can appreciate Hunt's tone of .....lets see what comes out of the investigation before we smear Ball, Bielema, and Wisconsin.

It's too bad they don't apply that approach consistently with student athletes from other programs.

If I lived in Milwaukee, I would not be a customer of the JS for that reason. 

Fortunately, where I live, when I dropped my subscription to the Red Star, I had the option of the Pioneer Press, and a little "garage logic". 

[NersEllenson]

Interesting article by Hunt....all in all decent.  I will say, however, that in what I recall reading about the MU player incidents, the article didn't attempt to paint them as isolated, or end the article with Marquette's good name is never to be messed with.  A nicer spin on this article I'd say, than those written on MU's bar incident this past winter..

[GGGG]

That was a good article, but this line made me roll my eyes:

"But one question is why he was walking the streets with friends last Wednesday at 2:15 a.m."

Uh...because he's a college-age kids and they are regularly out at that time???

[M@RQUETTEW@RRIORS]

That was a good article, but this line made me roll my eyes:

"But one question is why he was walking the streets with friends last Wednesday at 2:15 a.m."

Uh...because he's a college-age kids and they are regularly out at that time???

I believe people tend to exaggerate this a bit.  My friends and I definately werent prudes.  And we werent "regularly" out at 2:15.  Especially during the week.  As in all groups/sects of people you have a certain % who do certain things.  If all 40,000 students at the UW were out at 2:!5 on a regular basis that would be quite a scene.

[Benny B]

There has to be some credit given in that Hunt didn't wait until the second-to-last paragraph to set up the inference to be taken that there's more to this story than what's coming from Bielema, Ball, etc. and that there are a number of questions that must be answered.

As others noted, the only criticism I have about the article is the double-standard that is implied... UW athletes are written as though presumed innocent (and matters are isolated) whereas MU athletes are written as though presumed guilty (and matters are a trend).  But again... the JS knows their audience, and in the name of profit they, like most businesses, would rather pander to the ignorance of the masses than dispense hurtful truths.

[The Process]

the JS knows their audience

... is leaving them?

[4everwarriors]

Why are MU fans so sensitive? The UW "rivalry" exists pretty much in one's own mind.

[mu03eng]

Why are MU fans so sensitive? The UW "rivalry" exists pretty much in one's own mind.

Because in this day an age media perception is what reality becomes.  If you take an unbiased look at a list of incidents by UW athletes and MU athletes over the last 10 years I would argue at worst the two programs are equal in depth, breath and frequency of issues.  However, if you look at the perception of the two programs they are different, partly because the media portrays them differently.

I am certain that if a major media outlet like the JS pushed on this Ball story it would turn into a much bigger deal than it currently is perceived as with no changing of what is known.  Call it the Apartment 720 effect.

At the end of the day, the sad reality is that newspapers like the JS are catering to an audience, and they need as large an audience as they can.  So that means treating the college sports team with the largest fanbase in the state with kid gloves and also nailing the local university to the wall because they are disliked by same large fanbase and it'll generate eye balls.

[GGGG]

I believe people tend to exaggerate this a bit.  My friends and I definately werent prudes.  And we werent "regularly" out at 2:15.  Especially during the week.  As in all groups/sects of people you have a certain % who do certain things.  If all 40,000 students at the UW were out at 2:!5 on a regular basis that would be quite a scene.

I shouldn't have said "regularly."  I should have said "often."  I really don't think it should be an indictment for a college kid to be out late.  (And I have two of them that age.)

[PaintTouches]

At the end of the day, the sad reality is that newspapers like the JS are catering to an audience, and they need as large an audience as they can.  So that means treating the college sports team with the largest fanbase in the state with kid gloves and also nailing the local university to the wall because they are disliked by same large fanbase and it'll generate eye balls.

Completely agree with you mu03eng; very eloquently stated as well. This is the biggest threat to the "objectivity" of the media landscape we live in today. People have options now. Whereas before you had to wait til your newspaper hit the front door to read the news (and only had one or two options), you now have an almost limitless source of news on the internet. In order to stay financially viable (barely at that), newspapers have to cater to their audience.

Think about it. Many posters, myself included, no longer rely on the JS for any MU news and rarely, if ever, read their stories. Yet I would hazard to guess we remain very well informed. The same could be said for most UW fans should they be in the same situation. The difference comes in the size. The JS can afford to alienate MU fans by skimping out on coverage because there simply aren't enough eyeballs to matter. Contrast that with those of UW fans, which we can safely assume is much much larger. I hate to quantify it because I have no idea what the real numbers are, but let's say there are 50,000 MU fans and 500,000 UW in the state. It doesn't take a math nerd to see who matters more.

The problem comes when it is time to report unfavorable news. When MU is in a shady situation, there are 500,000 fans who will gleefully enjoy a bit of schadenfreude at MU's expense. Hence day-to-day breaking news of Apartment 720, what normally would be a blurb at best. Turning the tables, the JS has no incentive to go digging into the Montee Ball situation because UW fans have no desire to read that. They risk alienating their base by kicking the hornet's nest.

It's not fair, it's just business for the Journal Sentinel.   

[NavinRJohnson]

Evidently, there's a girl in the middle of this who - if the claim is true - could likely shed a pretty bright light on the issue.  If they haven't already, it's probably in everyone's best interests that Mad PD gets to her before TMZ does.

Of course there is. It took me about 2 seconds to come to what I'm sure is the accurate version of what happened. My immediate assumption was that he was hitting on some guy's girl, banging some guy's girl, or insulting some guy's girl, etc.,  fight ensues, doesn't end there, and he gets his ass kicked a couple days later. At no point did I ever believe  this was just some random attack.

Do I care? No, these things happen. I can't say I have paid much attention to the media coverage, nor how it compared to the MU coverage. Just as with the above, I don't really have to. Been around long enough to know without having to witness it first hand.

[Niv Berkowitz]

In Hunt's defense - and I'm not a big fan of his - he did write an opinion piece of 720 if I recall that basically said if what's been reported as happening is what really happened...relax, it's college kids. What do you expect? They were in a bar and not drinking. But taking that along w/other stuff...it does paint MU in a bad light.

And as much as I hate to admit it, it does. Now, it's up to the individual to determine just HOW bad of a light it shines, or, should I say, how bad does it hurt MU's image. Every case is subjective. And that's the rub w/MU vs UW I think.

Here, you have a kid that got the shite kicked out of him, most likely due to an event that occurred previously...an event that included more people from your team...an event that the police and university appear to openly attempt to cover up. Yet, UW is getting the benefit of the doubt and people like Hunt opine "how dare anyone speak poortly or sully the mighty reputation of UW!!!" That's where the joke comes in and what upsets people like me.

[mu03eng]

First I'm not even remotely comparing the crimes, but this lack of "keeping them honest" kind of media reporting(one could even go as far as being complicit) is what leads to the environment that allows stuff like what happened at Baylor and Penn State to happen.

As an example, the media hammered Marquette on the sexual assault stuff, which whatever the true story was had the effect of appropriately rattling some cages at MU to make changes and make sure something like that doesn't happen.  What if the media didn't shine a light on it, would that type of stuff still be going on? 

The example of that is how two separate incidents at ND semi-slipped through the cracks(SMC girl's suicide and the kid dying on the scissors lift).  While there was media attention, both happened, ND rode out the storm without an repercussions that I recall and now what is to stop them from doing the same with another incident or something worse?

As a news organization I think it is critical to investigate issues and report, if there is no problem found then so be it, but at least do the research.  The JS in particular seems to not want to bother investigating in the first place.