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I have always been a fan of the PG.. I NEVER read the Trib. I must tell you I am growing very impatient with the two of you and the PG's CONSTANT defamation of West Virginia University. Every day for the past two to three months it is a different story of slander toward the University. As an alumnus of WVU I was disappointed in what happened with the MBA "scandal" but it is over. The president has stepped down, the provost took one on the chin that he probably didn't deserve and there is a new president and new board members. Why is there a necessity to sue the university over phone records? You got your scandal, front page news for months and proved your point. Do you both feel a necessity to continually bash WVU? Is that what you live to do? I find it bad enough you didn't respond to my first email and now I feel compelled to tell you that you and the PG deserve to have a lawsuit brought against you. I am sick and tired of you tearing down a great University that offers great education at a low cost in what has been continually voted one of the best small cities in America to live. I would really love to know what the PG's reasons are to continually attack WVU. I bet if I turned over a few stones at the PG I could start a huge scandal and hand it right over to the TRIB, what do you think would happen then?
I would appreciate a response from the both of you on what your reasoning and intentions are. You have reported the story, it is over.. why can't you move on to something else? I do not see how those phone records make any difference now and why you need to waste money and time of both the University and the PG by filing a lawsuit. Maybe I will start putting in FOIA requests for your phone records and see how the PG responds. Do you think they would send me an exact copy of your cell phone records?
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Dear Mr. Bond: Patti Sabatini shared with me your email to her, and I think it appropriate that I, rather than she, respond. I appreciate your taking the time to write, and to express your frustrations and to ask the questions you ask. The Post-Gazette continues to cover the WVU story for the same reason it covers other stories of public importance: to inform the public, as best and as fully as we can, of the truth of what happened. We do not cover stories to “get” a scandal, to create front-page news, or to “prove a point.” The story involved, and continues to involve, questions of great public and general interest about the actions of high-ranking governmental officials. We continue to report on those questions. The Post-Gazette and I believe that our reporting on these questions have strengthened, not damaged, West Virginia University, and while you are free to disagree with that, I can tell you that many of your fellow alums agree. The Post-Gazette welcomes vigorous discussion of the questions you raise, and I send my response in that spirit. Sincerely yours, David Shribman Executive Editor
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now what I find interesting is that he responded from his aol address, not the pg one. Not to mention his claim about strengthing the view... um yea, I have been told my degrees are worthless because they give them out for free at WVU.
anyhow I wrote this response with no return from Shribman
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Mr Shribman,
I appreciate your timely and kind response. I am glad that this time someone from the PG did response since the last time I wrote about the same thing I received no response. Don't get me wrong, I do see why you reported the story initially, but my opinion is the continued stories about the same thing. To me if feels like you are just trying to keep it in the forefront. You are correct that I do not believe that the reporting has strengthened the University because I can tell you from personal experience what I have heard since this came out. I constantly get told that my degrees are worth nothing because they were just handed to me without any work. That is the image of WVU now. I am not saying that is the newspapers fault entirely, because there was bad judgement made and I was as embarassed as anyone to watch it go down. But, my point is why does this have to continue. The university has taken action, the community and alumni are trying to move past this yet there are still frivolous lawsuits against the U for phone records. I would hope that the PG would consider after this is all over spending time with the new President and the actual students and alumni of WVU so we can tell our story. Every alumnus has pride in their university, I just want to someday see the other side of the story told. I would also like to meet these alumni that agree that the reporting has helped because I can tell you the local alumni chapter does not feel the same.
Once again thank you for your response. I do appreciate your time and effort on explaining your views and also listening to mine.
Best Regards,
Bryan Bond
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Finally my friend blogged about something similar, which made me happy seeing that she and I have never spoke on the subject.
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Fair and Balanced Jul. 29th, 2008 at 12:09 PM
OK, I don't exactly follow college sports (I went to a a small school on purpose because I was kind of burned out from hearing about so damn much football in high school), but since I've been in WV, I'm still reading the Post-Gazette, and damn if it doesn't seem like the Post-Gazette really has it in for WVU. I mean, obviously the whole "investigate the governor's daughter's MBA" was a little over the top, but I'm thinking of the subtle digs, such as this:
WVU again picked to win Big East football title
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Despite a new coach, new tailback and rebuilt defense, West Virginia University's Mountaineers once again have been voted by Big East media as the favorite to win the conference's 2008 football title -- a seemingly safe bet after winning four of the past five.
In other words: "Despite the fact that you'd be a sucker to pick WVU to win the Big East, they've been picked to win the Big East."
I read somewhere that newspapers' attempts to be unbiased (which are often weak at best) just go completely to shit when it comes to local sports. I don't think I need to even touch on any Steelers coverage to prove that fact. I mean, I guess I don't have a problem with the coverage of world events being less unbiased than, say, professional football coverage. Or even high school sports coverage. I think it's kind of interesting that it goes so very far when it comes to sports. ----------------
So I pointed it out to the PG and we shall see what their response is.. Probably nothing as usual because Pitt can do no wrong and WVU is nothing but wrong.
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