Nancy Clark update IV

See entries here, here, and here to get up to speed on the mess.

After nearly a week of waiting, EDSBS.com finally had an interview with Ms. Clark.

Read it and interpret as you wish.

Resource's thoughts?

• Ms. Clark's animosity to the blogs stems from two hot issues within the state of Iowa dealing with coaches (Steve Alford) and athlete (Jennie Lillis) rumors.  She targets the blogs and message boards once again, and we still don't know exactly what specifics blogs were at fault, in her eyes.  EDSBS could not wrestle that one out of her.

• Us inflamed bloggers are unfair for not having contacted her, sans EDSBS.  A decent rebuttal, but EDSBS called, FanBlogs sent at least one email, and they're two of the bigger names in the CFB blogosphere.  The community of CFB blogs we're a part of and any other CFB blogs out there were all targets of her accusations, despite the real culprits being a handful or less of Iowa-centric blogs.

• Access may be an issue.  She notes bloggers or other non-MSM media can find ways to gain access to athletes and coaches outside of the mandated hour or so per day or week reporters normally get.  I have a couple disagreements here.  I've reported for various non mainstream media outlets and at least on the teams I covered, because we weren't credentialed, we didn't have access to the players and coaches.  Additionally, team beat reporters generally have the necessary phone numbers and relationships to have much greater access to gain news.  It appears Ms. Clark's complaint is one more specific to the columnist, who doesn't generally need the heavy-duty access required of say, someone like a beat reporter.

• I remain surprised this story slipped past the editors and was published.  Then again, veracity/voracity also slipped by the editors.  In the end we college football bloggers have a lot to offer and the great lot of us who stood accused are not guilty.  Yet we have a newspaper opinion writer taking on the at large community, whose editor apparently found the rationale for the broad accusation satisfactory.  So far I haven't noticed many of us swinging quite that wildly.

• Ms. Clark's appearance on EDSBS.com was a good moment, even though we're still at odds with what she did.  A prominent member of those who stood accused by her made a connection.  Even if they had to wait a week.  I've rarely known reporters to wait a week for comments from their subjects.  But apparently reporters can make others wait just the same.  Fair.

• And here's some other roundup from around the internet since our last update:

CheapSeats says Clark still doesn't get it.

FanBlogs also reacts to the interview and says, where's the beef?  A Technorati search reveals NO blog mention of the two incidents she named.  Did Ms. Clark make up facts here?  Has she thrown bloggers in with the message boards with malice or incompetence?  Or can she justify what she said?  In the interview she could not name or identify the blogs she was making such a big deal about.  This is a live wire and the story really isn't over.

Anyone have any thoughts?

DeathAndTaxes blog looks at the potential symbiotic relationship of bloggers and the MSM.

The BemusementPark says us bloggers got played.  Judging by the interview, I have to say I disagree.  There are lingering inconsistencies here, and strong evidence of BAD JOURNALISM from one of the pro's.

To be continued...maybe.

Update on Thursday, August 11, 2005 at 11:23PM by CFR

MGoBlog also has his thoughts.

Comments

[Orson Swindle]

In all fairness to Ms. Clark in terms of turnaround, we're quite busy, too. Sometimes it takes two to wait, especially if you're playing phone tag.