Flickr photo by Keith Allison
As the controversy surrounding the Ray Rice scandal continues to unfold, numerous members of the National Football League are coming under fire. The main questions are what did they know and when did they know it? Now members of the sports media are also coming under fire for not uncovering the facts of the story that a gossip news organization like TMZ was able to. Journalists are supposed to ask tough questions. It's becoming clear that many of them didn't. Or those that did ask tough questions accepted non-answers too easily.
Click on these three links to familiarize yourself with the story and share some of your thoughts. First watch this video clip that provides an overview of the Ray Rice story itself.
And the third is a video of a press conference held by Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh earlier this week.
Listen carefully to the news conference. The focus was on the new video that emerged showing Ray Rice beating his then-fiancé inside an elevator. Harbaugh dismissed important questions about the new view of the assault with “I don’t want to get into that” replies. What do you think of the reporters' handling of the coach's non-responses? Should they have been tougher or more persistent in their questioning? Did they play "softball" with this football coach?
I definetly think that the NFL had some knowlege before this Monday of what happened, and have likely seen the video and have been covering it up all along. As the coach decided to not answer some of the questions, I feel it is a reporter's duty to push and try to get more answers out of him. It seems to me the coach knows more than he said he did. I feel that the reporters should have worked harder and asked more questions to get important information out of the coach, but he is not solely to blame. I think it is important for reporters to speak with NFL executives and find more information about how long the NFL has truly known what happened.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said completely! I think the NFL had prior knowledge about the incident before Monday. I believe that it is the journalists' job to get the information and do whatever it takes to get it. I believe journalists should not take 'no' for an answer. If I were a journalist covering this story, I would have persistently tried to talk to coaches and NFL officials. I agree when you stated that you believe the coach knew more that what he said he did. The Ray Rice incident is a suspicious one and I believe there is more to the story. I think the journalists need to investigate more with NFL executives and find more information about the backstory.
DeleteI agree with what Brooklyn said about the coach knowing more than he let on. He acts very secretive about many of the questions, saying he doesn't want to get involved in anything. Dude, you are already in involved in this. The coach refused to elaborate on anything he said, like how he said seeing the video "changed things." Okay, so what did it change? He didn't tell us! He was rushing through every question and being as brief as possible. His face stayed the same throughout the interview and I think he is withholding information. The reporters did not have good questions for the situation, either. The reporters were not forceful enough and they should have been asking things about how could the NFL not have seen the video if they gave Ray Rice a suspension before the full video was leaked now. Everything about this Ray Rice story seems like we are not getting the full story. The reporters definitely played "softball" with this football coach. They were even joking around with him at the end of the interview asking him about who he had playing quarterback for an upcoming game.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that has been stated above! I definitly think that the NFL did have evidence of Rice's actions but just chose to turn the other shoulder simply because he was a good player to the team. I also think that many excuses were made as to why Rice's video did not surface as soon as it possibly could. I think that that is at fault of the NFL who received but did not share the info and the journalists who were covering the story but did not find all of the information needed. Th whole point to being a journalist is to find ever single piece of evidence and to learn every single fact about the story to make it news. If you just stop after someone tells you "no" then why are you a journalist? I don't think that the journalists should have stopped searching for info as soon as someone denied them access to what they need, they should've pushed for more
DeleteI agree with everyone about the NFL knowing what had happened, but I disagree that the coach knew. I think that the NFL knew because of the voicemail of someone saying "you're right, we got the tape, it's terrible". I think that the NFL covered it up because they didn't want the bad press and they liked having this player in the league because he was a good player. As for my opinion on the coach, I think that he was only trying to not say anything controversial to avoid getting the team any more bad press then it already has, and I think he was also trying to protect himself from getting into trouble with his bosses. I understand why the coach didn't want to answer questions, but what I don't understand is why the "journalists" didn't push more to get facts from the coach. I think that they just made a huge blunder in their career because they might have gotten interesting information out of the coach that they could have turned into a story. I'm also a little frustrated with the journalists because they didn't do everything in their power to get information, and doing whatever they can (within reason) to get information is their JOB!
DeleteLike the other girls, I agree that the NFL had prior knowledge to what happened that night in the elevator before the TMZ video was released. I suspect that it was a cover-up to keep the star player on the Ravens. In the CNN video, I find it interesting that Roger Goodell talks about seeing the first tape but not what occurred inside the elevator. Shouldn't seeing the video of Ray Rice drag his fiancé out of the elevator raise questions along the lines of what happened before she was dragged out? I think this shows a lot about the NFL's credibility because this situation was just swept under the rug. It makes me wonder how many times has the NFL avoided giving players the proper punishment just to keep its good players. I agree with the other girls when they said that it's a journalist job to ask the tough questions despite the outcome. The journalists definitely played "soft ball" with the Ravens’ coach when they received nothing but answers that avoided the questions. The reporters should have been much harder on the coach and seen the severity of the situation which was evident to even TMZ. If TMZ could see how important this situation was, why couldn't other reporters? How could TMZ obtain the full video that the NFL was "never granted the opportunity" in receiving so easily?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the NFL commissioner is most likely being dishonest about the incident. They seem to be trying to cover up the facts and avoid questioning. They appear to have something to hide. I believe that at least some members of the NFL knew about the video in the elevator, and they just didn't want to suspend Rice. Harbaugh certainly isn't acting very innocent by avoiding the questions. I also hold the journalists responsible because they failed to research the incident enough. They also just accepted the NFL's dodgy responses. We are definitely not receiving the entire story, which makes me distrust the NFL.
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