Posted on 09/14/2007 5:38:42 PM PDT by Bobibutu
It pays to be on the media’s approved victims list.
After Don Imus made his “ho” comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team on April 4, the media went into a feeding frenzy. In the first week after the story broke, the three major networks aired a total of 19 segments. On cable, CNN had 60, with Fox News at 21 and MSNBC at 13.
The New York Times ran 12 articles, USA Today and The Washington Post each ran nine, and Newark, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger ran 11.
But after the Sept. 7 Navy-Rutgers football game, at which Rutgers fans crudely and obscenely abused the visiting Midshipmen players, fans and families, the media were nearly silent.
Star-Ledger columnist Mark DiLonno, a Rutgers grad and Navy veteran, broke the story on September 11 in a first-rate smackdown. He reminded the spoiled, face-painted kids in the stands that young men and women their age were risking their lives in the Navy and other services to defend their freedom. He also wondered why colleges were increasingly allowing such incivility to visiting teams.
As DiLonno reports it, here’s how some fans reacted when Navy kick returner Reggie Campbell got up limping after being tackled:
‘“You got f--ed up. You got f--ed up. You got f-ed-up,’ they chanted.
“Reggie Campbell is a senior. After graduation in June he has a five-year commitment to the American military, which, like it or not, is at war….
“Navy was booed and peppered with ‘You suck!’ chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen.
“‘F-- you, Navy. F--you, Navy. F-- you, Navy.’”
On Tuesday, Rutgers President Richard McCormick apologized to Naval Academy officials in a letter in which he said, “No student-athlete should ever be subject to profane language directed at them from the crowd, and certainly not the young men of the Naval Academy who have made a commitment to serve our nation in a time of war.”
Meanwhile, Rutgers athletic director Robert Mulcahy and Greg Blimling, vice president of student affairs, wrote an open letter saying the outbursts were “undignified, disrespectful and unacceptable.”
So how have the media responded? On Sept. 12, the Washington Post, UPI and AP ran less than 300 words each on the Rutgers officials’ apology. The New York Times, meanwhile, with Rutgers in its backyard, referred to the incident in the sixth paragraph of a Sept. 14 column by Harvey Araton about the overall Rutgers football program. The networks have ignored the incident completely.
In contrast, the media were all over the Imus incident from the beginning. When Imus apologized, they smelled blood in the water, and paid even more attention to the story.
Surely the outrageous behavior by the Rutgers fans should have elicited a national reaction and comparison to the Imus sacking, but the media’s collective yawn told the public: No big deal.
It might still be a smart PR move for the widely-publicized Rutgers women’s basketball team, which netted tremendous sympathy over Imus, to issue a press release lamenting the behavior of their school’s football fans. It could run along the lines of, “We know how it feels to be abused. …”
If nothing else, they might wind up on Oprah again.
Robert Knight is director of the Culture & Media Institute at the Media Research Center, www.MRC.org.
Years ago, I went to see UF play Rutgers at the Meadowlands, we took a bus to the game, after the game (which we won 15-3), a bunch of Rutgers students tried to attack our bus.
I think Navy can take care of themselves. I do remember when we marched to the home games passed St. John’s. That was a hippy school when Hillary was still in grade school.
Sometimes a Johnny would try to grap a Midn’s Cap and would get pulled into a Company formation...out the back as we marched along would come a non-wandering shred of human debris. Only to be picked up and recycled by the next marching Company.
Once a Johnny..took of with a Cap and headed for a dorm. A single Plebe was sent in pursuit. He came back with the cap....
“May be football, but I hate hearing all the swearing that passes for commom speech nowadays.”
To me this is indicative of low self esteem and ignorance. The root cause being weak and ineffective parental models and few school teachers worth their salt.
“Unfortunately, it is this author’s attempt to make it sound like it was a widespread issue instead of something about .01% of the crowd was part of makes me believe he was hoping to make his career by creating a story.”
Perhaps it would be good if you (as an ear and I witness) contacted him and set him straight because this story is now getting some traction in the .mil on-line community and we wouldn’t want there to be misplaced hard feelings.
Outstanding ... a picture is worth ....
Old enough to remember when Rutgers decided to go “big time” after losing to Lehigh in football by 40 points. Better to be the least of a greater class than the least of a lesser class, I guess. Life’s always been a bitch on the banks of the old Raritan.
*snort*
You have a way with words ;)
It's not about the football, is it? Once, at the annual Amherst-Williams game, not known for its professional quality of play, I heard this:
"Higher mean S-A-Ts! Higher mean S-A-Ts! Higher mean . . ."
I imagine that they treat all visiting teams/fans in every sport this way. As the old saying goes, “What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?”
I imagine that they treat all visiting teams/fans in every sport this way. As the old saying goes, “What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?”
What else would one expect from a gaggle of ho's and jerkoffs?
“I believe that there’s an intelligence to the universe with the exception of parts of New Jersey.”
Hmmm sounds like he was thinking of exit 9.
I asked one of the nurse’s aides in the old folks home to read me the football scores. Rutgers beat Norfolk State 55-0. I’m old enough to remember the scurrilous Norfolk cheer that opposing teams fans took juvenile pleasure in chanting.
Heh, heh, one of the other geezers told me that yesterday in their game with Norfolk State, Rutgers was leading 45-0 near the end of the second quarter and called three time-outs in an effort to rack up another score.
I’ve been to Jersey bro. How do you think I know Rutgers was exit 9.
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