"How Yahoo! Sports broke the Univ. of Miami college football story" is fascinating. Earlier this week I wrote that The Miami Herald simply missed the tackle. (Who could expect local TV sports news to do critical journalism of the University football program?) That is not what happened, at first.
Yahoo notes that on August 29 2010 The Herald published, "New book to allege violations made by University of Miami football." Almost exactly a year ago Writer Barry Jackson and Herald editors provided the general outline of allegations made by Nevin Shapiro. But a careful reading shows editors hedging Shapiro's accusations against illegal business dealings that landed him in prison. Did the newspaper feel it had to give the benefit of the doubt to the city's august educational institution against the words of a dirty scoundrel? It wouldn't be the first time The Miami Herald editors filed the hard edges of a major news story to a dull nub. But why didn't the Herald follow up? Here is a wild guess: Nevin Shapiro and his attorney decided, based on that article, he would never get a fair shake with the Herald.
The Herald report in August 2010 ends with the implication that the allegations will fizzle out, too, melting with other common NCAA compliance traffic: "The NCAA continues to investigate UM for recruiting-related text messages in football, women's track and baseball. But one UM official said those violations are considered a 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, and major sanctions aren't expected."
Facing 20 years in federal prison, Shapiro has time to stew. "The Herald wrote about my thousands of allegations in the context of women's track. Women's track!" In the Yahoo! report, Shapiro acknowledges his crimes and says that he just wanted a fair shake. So Shapiro paces in his jail cell and decides not to reveal to The Herald. "Screw them!" Miami's daily newspaper misses the biggest sports scandal in college football history. Yahoo! gets more than 100 hours of jailhouse interviews. It still doesn't explain why Herald sports reporters didn't sniff out what would build to a "five alarm fire". The Miami Herald fumbles a Pulitzer prize in its own backyard. In the immortal words of that cwaaazy wabbit: "That's all, folks!"
7 comments:
Local sports reporters are a soft touch. They prefer to be light weight writers who are insiders and warmly welcomed into the benefits of the sports world.
Greg Cote of the Herald is one annoying reporter. He tends to be whinny and definitely not the thinker.
From what I know about reporting, I can't believe that the local media establishments (not just the papers) sports reporters did not know what was going on. They followed the lives and traveled and hung-out with the coaches and kids.
These reporters could not have avoided the gossip and the rumors from the kids themselves. We are speaking of 9 or 10 years of abuses???
Unless these reporters were totally incapable of reading people, (which most reporters are excellent at doing), they were naive, blind or choosing not to acknowledge the story.
Greg Cote is awful and his column is impossible to read. Thinks he is witty and he's not even close.
What's interesting to me is that when the story broke last year the Newtimes mentioned that longtime Shalala crony and Wisconsin AD, Barry Alvarez invested $600,000 with Nevin. Why was there zero follow up on this since that time? still being ignored by media. Connection a coincidence? doubt it.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/content/printVersion/2592914/
Maybe Matt Haggman should of been reporting...He digs and digs...
It's not like there weren't any clues.
From the April 27, 2010 Miami Herald:
"UM removed accused Ponzi donor's name from lounge in '08 - The Nevin K. Shapiro lounge at UM dropped the name in 2008 after its benefactor stopped making payments. It was the last full year of his alleged scam, before a bankruptcy filing in the fall of 2009.
Was he running out of money, or just running out of patience with his favorite football team? Whatever the reason, accused Ponzi swindler Nevin Shapiro stopped making pledged checks to the University of Miami and got his name yanked from a student lounge in 2008, a school spokeswoman said Tuesday.
''He just didn't live up to the payment plan,'' said UM spokeswoman Margot Winick.
Prosecutors cited a 10-year pledge Shapiro made to get his name on a university lounge -- a donation made with money he fraudulently obtained from investors while operating a bogus food wholesale business, prosecutors said. Though they did not name the school, prosecutors said Shapiro donated $150,000.
Winick said the lounge was named after Shapiro in 2005, and now does not have a donor's name attached to it. The university's website still listed Shapiro as the lounge 's benefactor when he was arrested last week. His biography appears to have been removed since.
The University of Miami has mostly declined to comment on the Shapiro case, except to say the school has been contacted by federal investigators on the matter."
Interesting observation. Maybe the people who run UM aren't so bright after all. Could be the tropical climate. It tends to wash intelligence out of Miami in general.
How about the thief Thomas Kramer? Lawyers have been going after him for over 10 years to collect $120 MILLION they allege he stole. In the meantime, he lives like a pasha on Star Island behind big gates and dozens of security cameras.
ThomasKramer.com
As long as we're just guessing why the MH didn't follow thru on the Nevin Shapiro story, I'll guess a decision was made to wait for the book, which might not find a publisher, rather than press Shapiro for details right away. Another reasonable guess: Herald reporters have always had to work with editors whose vision reached only as far as the next edition. They want a story they can print tomorrow, not weeks or months or (gasp!)maybe in a year. Not that it coudn't have been done in daily bites, but once Yahoo Sports' guy got to Shapiro that probably wasn't going to happen.
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