Most of the sports world and Ohio have been captivated with coverage of Ohio State University head football coach Jim Tressel’s resignation earlier this week. Yesterday, two staff members of OSU’s student-run lab newspaper, The Lantern — editor in chief Zach Meisel and sports writer James Oldham — told ESPN they have received more than 100 negative emails, including at least one death threat.
Incoming Post editor Wesley Lowery spoke yesterday with Andy Alexander about the ethical and personal dilemmas facing journalists when readers threaten them.
Alexander, formerly the ombudsman for The Washington Post, is currently the Scripps Howard visiting professional at Ohio University. Prior to his work as ombudsman, Alexander spent almost 40 years working domestically and abroad for the Cox Newspaper chain. He served as editor of The Post from 1969-70.
The Post: So what was your initial reaction when you first read about this particular incident?
Andy Alexander: Well, I think my first reaction was, “This isn’t new.” It certainly isn’t uncommon for journalists and news organizations to be blamed for revealing unpleasant truths. And in this situation, it appears it is the classic case of blaming the messenger. My impression also was that it is important to put this in perspective. We’re talking about college football. It’s hard for me to believe that people can get worked up about college football to that extent. Now, that being said, I know that passions run deep around college sports, especially surrounding stories on programs like Ohio State — both of my parents grew up in Columbus and went to Ohio State, and as a kid, I accompanied my dad to Ohio State games. I’ve always been an Ohio State fan, so I’ve come to know how much Ohio State football is part of the culture of Ohio. Now let’s put it in perspective; we’re talking about a college sport.
Reading today’s front page of The Washington Post, there is a story about a prominent Pakistani investigative reporter who was murdered for what many people believe was a story he wrote alleging that al-Qaida had infiltrated Pakistan’s Navy. And then inside the paper, there is a long story about an Azerbaijani journalist who was released from prison this week after years in prison simply because he was critical of the government in his writing.
Both of them reported on issues of life and death. Football is not life and death; it’s a sport.
Post: You’ve served as a reporter and editor in newsrooms across the country. As a journalist, how to you handle this type of negative — and even threatening — feedback from readers?
Alexander: You have to judge each threat on its own. It’s not uncommon for journalists to get telephone messages or for people to call up and threaten to kill them or threaten to harm them. But you have to evaluate their severity.
In a situation like this, The Lantern would do well to, if they think it’s a serious threat, to consult with law enforcement.
People get pretty passionate about sporting events like this. It’s not uncommon. It comes with the territory when you’re a reporter.
Post: Throughout your time as a journalist, have you ever encountered a situation in which you were threatened by a reader?
Alexander: I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone threaten to kill me. Certainly I’ve worked in places where that has happened, but it hasn’t happened to me. I’ve had people call up so angry that you’re worried they might go off the deep end. People can get pretty worked up. Again, I think you have to judge each threat, or each perceived threat, on its own, and sometimes you can tell if it’s crossed the line just by the demeanor of the person talking.
Post: Do you think the fact that Meisel and Oldham are college journalists factors in at all?
Alexander: There may be an intimidation factor, but I suspect not. Again, people get very, very passionate about sports. When I was the ombudsman of The Washington Post, I got some very, very vitriolic mail from people upset about sports coverage over the silliest of things. Many people live for this.
I think from the reporter’s standpoint, you just have to do the obvious thing. It’s not a reporter’s job to be part of the Buckeye Booster’s job. Their job is to pursue what is, without question in this case, a major sports scandal. The reporters, whether they work for The Lantern or for ESPN, would not be doing their job if they were passive in that. They would certainly dishonor their profession and their readers if they protected the football program and concealed pertinent information that had turned up in their reporting.
Their job is to seek the truth and to present information in a fair and accurate manner.
Post: Do you think this type of backlash occurs more often toward sports journalism?
Alexander: I think that’s a very common fan reaction. They think that the news organization is somehow there to back the home team. That’s not what news organizations do; they are supposed to cover sports as they would cover anything else. I think the same rules of journalism apply — they have to be accurate, they have to be fair and they have to be aggressive.
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