by Paul Jordan
With all the hoopla and drama being caused by the New York Times story on Eric Bledsoe, one very important issue is being basically ignored by the mainstream media: Who leaked the Eric Bledsoe transcript to the media?
I am not a lawyer, but on the surface, it would appear that the leak of Bledsoe’s transcripts to the media is a serious invasion of Bledsoe’s privacy. Was it illegal? I don’t know the answer on that, but I do know that high school administrators and the college coaches who the transcripts are supplied to have a very strong moral obligation, if not a legal one to respect the student’s privacy. Yet, the New York Times and ESPN have been pretty open and even proud of the fact that they have a copy of Bledsoe’s transcript and have readily bragged on the fact. It would appear that a major line has been crossed, yet non surprisingly, the national media does not seem that concerned about the invasion of Bledsoe’s privacy.
From all appearances, Eric Bledsoe is taking the invasion to his privacy very seriously and there are rumors that he is considering suing the people that released his transcripts to the media. But don’t count on a major rush by the media types to uncover where the leak is coming from.
The media have long held on to the “sources” for their stories for decades. The question of who was the infamous “Watergate deepthroat” has been an iconic debate for years, and the history of the media has been littered with scores of journalists who have gone to jail to “protect their sources”. And in this case, Pete Thamel may keep mum as to his source of who gave him the grades, but the blogging community is bound and determined to get to the source of this and drag the guilty parties into the daylight.
Yes, the Bledsoe situation has evolved into a “bloggers versus journalists” battle and for my money, I would have to put it on the guys that do not write for the newspaper. Yesterday, I commented on a rumor I had found that said Richard Pitino was the source of the leak. Granted, I was repeating a rumor. But other bloggers have started to do investigative work and not surprisingly, their work is also leading to the leak coming from a college assistant coach.
I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio fame, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Thanks to his connections and friendships with those in the national media, we can rest assured that his site will be one of the leaders to put the pressure on the national media to report the real issue. And while a lot of the Kentucky bloggers may have personal and philosophical differences, in the end, we are all part of the Big Blue Nation and we are all on the same team. So Matt definitely deserves props for him becoming a bulldog and putting this leak first and foremost on his agenda.
It’s a huge story, yet no one wants to touch it. But the story of a NCAA assistant coach, hired to protect the best interests of the student athlete, is invading the privacy of an athlete due to a seemingly personal grudge. is one that needs to be reported thoroughly. I am not usually one to dump on the local media in Lexington, but I have to admit that I was very disappointed by the recent actions of the Herald Leader’s Jerry Tipton.
Tipton recently hired a private investigator. Not to investigate the Bledsoe leak, mind you. But to further his ingrained belief that Kentucky was in the wrong to pursue Bledsoe. And so the time and money spent on an investigator goes not to support and defend a Kentucky athlete, but to serve as a vanity project and to give a big “I told you so” to the BBN …. instead of being a champion to the fanbase that pays his salary.
Disappointing yes, but not unexpected, Too many media members have their own person Calipari agendas to get through, so who really cares about the rights of an 19 year old kid. To their credit, Greg Doyel of CBS and Mike DeCourcy of The Sporting News have published Cal friendly articles yesterday. And our old nemesis Dick Vitale has been one of the biggest Calipari defenders around, tweeting constantly to defend Cal. But on a national level, that’s about it.
The bloggers are pretty unified about getting to the bottom of the Bledsoe leak … even if our national professional brethren are not concerned. And the good thing about being a blogger in this situation? Right now, we are akin to that angry mob carrying torches and we do guarantee that we will show no restraint in ripping the offender to shreds.
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