(the following appeared in the BDN as part of the Sounding Off Column)
 
For media types, some of the most interesting comments Greg Cronin made
Monday came after his press conference announcing he was resigning as a
coach in the University of Maine hockey program.
 
Cronin was interviewed by WZON's Dan Hannigan, who hosts an afternoon sports
program for the Bangor radio station and does play-by-play for its UMaine
hockey games.
 
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.
 
While covering any sports team -- high school, college or professional -- a
journalist does have frequent, sometimes daily, contact with a coach.  A
coach with a good understanding of how the media operates will allow the
contact and also attempt to put his own slant and spin on what is happening
in his program.
 
A good journalist will attempt to establish a good professional rapport with
the coach and use that information to balance his stories.  If the
journalist allows friendship and an overreliance of confidentiality enter
into the equation, then he is not being fair to the public.
 
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