At 4:51 PM -0500 12/11/96, Deron Treadwell wrote:
> (the following appeared in the BDN as part of the Sounding Off Column)
...
> Before getting into the interview, Cronin thanked Hannigan for all of his
> support in the past year. He said Hannigan had become a good friend, one in
> whom he had confided and who had kept those off-the-record items off the air.
>
> Those words left a chilling, sickening feeling among journalists, a group
> Hannigan apparently does not want to join. Hopefully, his example is not
> one aspiring journalists will follow.
...
> That's simple. That's in the first chapter of Introduction to Journalism.
> It's a course Hannigan should consider taking.
>
> -- Joe McLaughlin, Bangor Daily News
I read this a couple of times but couldn't find the punch line. So, I have
to assume Joe is serious.
Joe has a lot to learn. That, or he's just entirely unrealistic and
unaware of how journalism really works. That seems quite clear from what
he wrote.
In any aspect of journalism where a person works closely with the people he
or she is covering, that person becomes aware of certain things that are
clearly off the record. Either you're told that those things are off the
record or you're left to decide on your own.
In the first case, where you're told "off the record", that's just the way
it is. Usually what follows is something that is intended to help the
journalist understand the situation better in his own mind but which should
not be disseminated to the public at large.
In the second case, it can be difficult to decide what to do. The good
journalist develops a keen knowledge of what things should be made public
and what should not. Being around a coach or team often, you're going to
learn things that are not meant for public consumption - things that the
public really does not need to know but which could damage the individuals
involved.
An example: several years ago Merrimack coach Ron Anderson suspended a pair
of players indefinitely for "violating team rules". The official release
from the school did not state what those violations were and when I
inquired "on the record", I was given the statement. But through other
avenues, simply because I am around so much, I was able to learn what the
violations were.
Should I have made them public? Of course not. What would the point have
been? And more importantly, if you do go public with such information, you
run the great risk of alienating yourself from the very people whom it is
your job to cover.
If Dan went public with the things that Cronin referred to, he likely would
have alienated himself from Cronin and the team. They would not be able to
trust him. With the position Dan is in, he was only privy to such
information precisely because of the trust that the staff and team had in
him. If he went public with those things, the probable result is that
Cronin would have been either completely unwilling to talk to him or at
least quite careful about what he did say and allow Dan to discover.
Either way, that would certainly have hindered Dan's ability to do his job.
Joe McLaughlin is the one who needs to think about taking an Introduction
to Journalism course. One of the first things he would learn is that you
do have be quite perceptive of what is on and off the record and respect
the wishes and desires of the people you report on. I'm sure he would
realize this if he ever spent any time covering politics, or any other area
where you come upon information that is clearly not meant for public
knowledge. And this is one of the most important things that any aspiring
journalist needs to realize.
Unless, of course, your aspiration is to go to work for Hard Copy or A
Current Affair.
If I were Dan, I would take Cronin's comments as a great compliment. It is
a good journalist who is able to discern among things that should be
reported and things that should not - things that the public needs to know
and things they do not. That seems to be the kind of journalist that Joe
McLaughlin does not want to be. It would also make him part of a very
small minority.
I'd be proud to be considered the type of journalist that Joe considers Dan
to be. I hope I get a chance to meet Joe someday and tell him this. His
commentary did a grave disservice to respectable journalists everywhere. I
also hope that aspiring journalists will read Joe's words, put them up on
their wall, and look at them every day - as an example of what NOT to do.
That's the only thing Joe's column was good for.
Maine fans are lucky to have someone as professional as Dan covering their
team. But I'm sure they know this. Too bad Joe does not.
--- ---
Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93
***** (Part-Time) Color Voice of Merrimack Hockey WCAP 980 AM *****
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