Miami Herald In Stand-Off With The Big Tuna
A reader pointed out to me that I should put something up here about the tangle between the Miami Herald and Miami Dolphins honcho Bill Parcells. It started with a report on Yahoo (by former Herald NFL beat writer Jason Cole) alleging that star DE Jason Taylor was on the way out the door via a trade. The Herald followed with its own innuendo-laden story on Taylor's departure - with the Yahoo report as its sole source for the information. In fact, the paper's own sources said they knew nothing of it: "Three individuals close to Taylor said Saturday they were not aware of such an agreement, but the notion certainly isn't far-fetched," wrote reporter Jeff Darlington. "It also isn't much of a surprise."
Well, Parcells countered by telling ESPN that the report was bunk and saying Yahoo was guilty of "journalistic irresponsibility." He said Taylor would play with the Dolphins next year if he doesn't retire.
Rather than run a correction, the newspaper has pretty much stuck to its guns. It published an article on Parcells' denial that failed to mention that the Herald repeated Yahoo's apparent mistake. Then came columnist Greg Cote's blog entry on the subject in which he wrote yesterday: "I must have been in the buffet line when God was handing out naivete, and so I interpret Bill Parcells' "strong denial" as smartly self-serving and little more. It may be the truth, too; maybe he really has no intention of trading Taylor. But you can bet that's subject to change."
Interesting. Without a bit of evidence and a "strong denial" from Parcells the newspaper is bulling forward. Not sure of the wisdom of the position, but it's going to be interesting to see who is right.
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