For those of you who aren’t from Tennessee, or who don’t follow college football, you may not be aware of the big drama this week when the University of Tennessee’s football coach, Lane Kiffin, abruptly announced that he was leaving UT for a head coaching job at USC, only one year after coming to Knoxville to head up the Vols’ football program.
Here in Tennessee, this was a VERY BIG DEAL, and the way it all played out – with only a few hours from first rumor that Kiffin was leaving to late evening, official press conference on the UT campus – made it even more dramatic. Locals, Vol fans all over the country, and UT students were NOT happy with Kiffin’s graceless exit, and by the time the press conference was ready to roll inside an Athletics Department building on the UT Campus at around 10pm that evening, a large crowd of angry students were gathered outside the building, and a large crowd of anxious journalists were gathered inside, ready to hear what Kiffin would say to explain himself.
One of those journalists was my former News Director, Bill Shory of WBIR-TV, the NBC/Gannett affiliate here in Knoxville. He accompanied his reporter and photographer to the presser, and it’s a good thing he did because when he got there, the UT Athletics Department media spokesman announced that Kiffin – a public employee giving a press conference inside a public building to which press had been summoned late at night – would be setting the rules for how his comments could be covered. UT’s Athletic Department media rep told the broadcast journalists in attendance that they could not roll on the whole press conference; they were informed that they could only shoot Kiffin’s brief, prepared remarks, and would be required to turn the cameras off for the remainder of the press conference. In other words, Kiffin and the university told the broadcast journalists that part of the press conference would be on the record and part of it would be off the record. Print and radio reporters would not be at the same competitive disadvantage, as they could continue to roll audiotape during the entire event, but Kiffin and his handlers clearly did not want any video of Kiffin’s reaction to reporters’ questions or of anything else that might take place in the highly charged room.
Everyone in the room agreed to this dictate, seemingly without much concern about it. Everyone, that is, except Bill Shory, who – as you will see in the fantastic video below – held his ground under extreme pressure from both the UT reps and against many of the other journalists in the room who seemed just fine with doing as they were told by the subject of this major news story, and who mostly seemed to consider Bill’s position an annoyance rather than an ethical stand on an issue that should matter to all of them.
Bill held firm as the pressure mounted. Watching him on this video makes me so proud to have worked in his newsroom and so proud to call him a good friend. This video is the best example I have seen in a long, long time of why real journalism and real journalistic ethics still matter. Maybe this was just a story about college football, but it could have played out exactly the same way in the White House press briefing room. Bill Shory’s willingness to take a stand against manipulation of the press and the public by a government institution sets a shining example for journalists all over the country. See for yourself in the video below.
20 Responses to “VIDEO: WBIR’s Bill Shory shows us why real journalism still matters”
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Real journalism? That’s nonsense. Off camera is not equivalent to off record. TV can run audio clips or have a reporter read quotes just like radio can. All Shory accomplished was imposing overstated television concerns on everyone else and minimizing the opportunity and information.
That was awesome! Really interesting to watch.
Who’s the dirty-mouthed blond?
You know the reason the reast of them are spineless . . . they are mostly recent J-school grads – without a clue.
What the video shows is what utter human trash these coaches are.
No institution should dictate what a free press should and should not cover. It is up to journalists to stand on their hind legs and object to such manipulation.
If you let public officials dictate the rules here, what’s to say they won’t dictate more stringent requirements down the road? Suppose they ask to “review the quotes” before publication? Suppose they call after the presser’s over and take back certain statements? Giving in now teaches them that you’ll roll over in the future.
David Rhoden: There is a helluva difference between showing footage of a coach making an asinine statement and a reporter reading a quote on camera. Images are powerful. Images are permanent. UT officials knew that. That’s why they tried to place such an unprecedent restriction to protect their coach.
Bill Shory has guts and determination. He’s a pain in the butt to everyone who wants to shape the story their way. God bless him. I’d buy him a drink. Maybe two.
Damn, that whiny girl was annoying.
I worked in journalism for more than 2 decades, and I don’t know that this is some great principled stand. As I understand it, the press conference was going to be on the record regardless of what happened–that’s the important part. Shory just wanted it to be live–which gave him a competitive advantage over the print media. Shory wasn’t fighting for an open meeting, it would be open regardless of what happened. (actually, there was a just it might not happen at all because of his stand). Shory was fighting primarily for a competitive advantage.
Lou: I was a bit hurt that you addressed that comment to me, then I realized, it does look like I made it. The problem is with this blog’s layout–the comment you are addressing is by Rikki, not me.
Bully for Mr. Shory. The press works for the public, not for the government.
If Shory agreed to turn off video for some parts of the appearance(making it “radio”), shouldn’t the radio reporters stop their primary reporting device (making them use text) to be fair?
The other reporters were cool with the limits because it didn’t affect them. This time.
What a pathetic collection of losers: A bootlick aide sticking up for his loser coach; a tiny, beardless little Pop Warner coach promoted beyond his depth due to his breeding; and a bunch of vulture old-guard journalists scraping the carrion bones for their dying old-media outlets.
I agree with Katie. Bill Shory gets my respect for standing up to the whole lot of ‘em. And thank God for blogs and bloggers. If we had to depend on J-school grads for our news, we’d be well and truly screwed.
It’s interesting that the proprietor of this blog thinks Shory is some kind of journalistic hero. She either doesn’t have a clue about what she is watching, or she is deliberately misrepresenting what is going on. And of course Mr. InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds, laps it up.
Shory’s argument is the whole news conference needs to be videotaped. No problem there, I’d expect a TV guy to say that. But because of his insistence, the coach, Lane Kiffin, agreed to speak for only 30 seconds (according to the Tennessee minder guy) instead of longer if the camera was turned off.
If I’m there as a newspaper or radio reporter, I’d be pissed and I’d have every right to be. I’d be pissed at Kiffin for setting these conditions, but I’d also be pissed at Shory. Because of what he’s doing, the press and public will be getting less information out of Kiffin, and that is the whole point of being there. But to Shory, unless it’s on video, it doesn’t exist, even if you have audio without video or notes. That is a TV person’s self-serving world. It does NOT serve the interest of people who want more information than a 30-second statement, which is what Kiffin was going to give unless his conditions were agreed to.
To recap: Yes, Kiffin’s conditions sucked. Yes, he deserves to be pilloried for imposing them. But you have to deal with the situation as you find it. Would a reporter at this news conference choose less information, with all of the information being on videotape, or more — perhaps a lot more — information, with all of it recorded and some of it not being on videotape? Any reporter, except Shory I guess, would take the second option.
Shory isn’t defending some high journalistic principle. In fact, he’s being dishonest by equating “not on video” with “off the record.”
You want to have this guy as your hero, you’re welcome to it. But as a result of what he’s doing, you’re getting less information instead of more. That’s the fact of the matter.
Dexter Westbrook and Frank are exactly right.
Dexter:
Yes, but at least we got to see that 30 seconds unedited and uncontrolled. If you keep giving in to the demands of government officials and other VIPs, you end up with slobbering interviews in Vanity Fair and unsourced “ranking administration offical” quotes in the Washington Post.
You might get a lot more words, but I’m not sure I’d call it information.
Marc:
Oh, please. A 30-second prepared statement is preferable to longer remarks, and Q&A, just because one is on video and the other is not? That is nonsense.
The objection of this news director, Shorey, wasn’t about whether something was “unedited and uncontrolled.” It was about whether it was on videotape or not. Because he wanted everything on videotape, he deprived the other reporters there of information, because they cared about what Kiffin said — not about whether he said it on videotape.
It is amazing to me that this guy’s actions are spun as some kind of journalistic bravery. They were not. It was stupid television parochialism, pure and simple.
“It’s our building,” says Bud Ford.
That says so, so much.
The guy in the argyle sweater was a jerk. “You’re in our building, you know that?” Geez.
Katie-
Thanks for posting this. I enjoyed watching the clip, and reading your analysis and the comments that followed. It was eye-opening for all the reasons already mentioned, but I never would have known about it had you not drawn my attention to it.
(On a totally unrelated note, I found out recently that my little bro just worked with you on a project in OR and really enjoyed it. Small world, as I started reading your blog last year.)
Just to clarify your statement… are you saying that the university refused to allow the cameras to roll at all? After watching the video, I’m under the impression that they were allowed to record, but prohibited from broadcasting the conference ‘live’. There’s a difference.
Regardless, kudos to Shory for standing his ground while every other ‘journalist’ in the room rolled over. What a pathetic display. Forget the whole issue re competitive advantage, any self-respecting reporter should’ve immediately recognized this as manipulation and walked. I certainly hope these aren’t the same reporters who cover Knoxville city government meetings. God knows what we’re missing out on if they are…
Fortunately, this whole ridiculous adventure falls under the category ‘entertainment’, and not ‘hard news’.
Can anyone provide names of all the key players in this clip?