Phillip Marshall Ownes Thayer Evans

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

Free article from the site, so it should be okay to put here... or click here...

http://auburn.247sports.com/Article/Phillips-blog-Making-it-up-as-you-go-5098

Phillip's blog: Making it up as you go
Phillip Marshall, Senior Editor
2 hours ago
Comments:5Add a comment3
ShareYou wonder what it is Thayer Evans, FoxSports.com’s senior college football writer, has against Auburn quarterback Cam Newton. Then you discover who some of pals are and things start to come into focus a little better.

Evans covered Auburn’s win over LSU and made it clear he didn’t like Newton’s victory celebration. That’s OK. But since last Thursday, he has declared himself a jury of one and tried and convicted Newton of trying to get money to play. He immediately proclaimed no one should vote for Newton for the Heisman Trophy. And he doesn’t seem to like those of us who cover Auburn on a regular basis.

Here’s what he said in a Sunday column:

“Newton dodged a question about whether he felt differently now in light of the allegations, but the local, pro-Auburn media was more than accommodating with questions that allowed Chizik to defend him.”

Well, for the record, the question that led Auburn coach Gene Chizik to forcefully defend his quarterback’s character was asked by Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who is an infrequent visitor to Auburn and certainly is neither “local” nor “pro-Auburn.” Hummer, by the way, is a respected pro who was doing good work long before Thayer Evans wrote his first attack piece.

Why does Evans need facts? It’s easier just to make it up as you go. After all, he’s a tough guy. He can, with no evidence at all, assault the character of a 22-year-old in no position to defend himself.

Evans questions why Newton was unable to answer the questions he wanted him to answer. Maybe if he’d been around a little longer, he’d know that schools, coaches and athletes are told not to answer questions in situations such as this.

Maybe he should consider that not all of us think it’s cool to sit in an open press conference and see what kinds of questions we can come up with that will impress our buddies and make us feel tough. I couldn’t tell you if he asked a question or not. I didn’t even know he was there.

Comically, Evans decided that the fact that the crowd wasn’t particularly lively, that the students left at halftime, that there was no raucous victory celebration was because of the controversy started last Thursday. Are you kidding me? It was Chattanooga. I can’t remember an Auburn homecoming game in recent years when the students didn’t leave when the blowout was on. And in this case, it was really cold.

I grew up with newspapers. My father was the best in the business, a Hall of Fame sports writer. His mantra was simple: “Get it right.” We all fall short of that at times, but most of us try very hard.Truth was most important to my father. He had no room for innuendo and assumptions, even as a columnist.

If the facts are wrong, it doesn’t matter how well-written a story is. It’s a bad story. Facts are facts. They can’t be changed. They can’t be shaped to fit an agenda. They can’t be created out of thin air.

But you have to give Thayer Evans credit for trying.

[JR4AU]

I still want to know how and why this fucker came in to Auburn...in to Jordan Hare Stadium, and it still breathing, and spewing this bullshit.  Why are his body parts not being consumed by buzzards and coyotes in and around Loachapoka?

[djsimp]

This Thayer guy is a joke. From what was told by Bramblett and White on the radio, the crowd was lively for a while, especially when Newton came out on the field in show of support. This crap Thayer is writing will come back to bite him.

For those of you that were there, did the crowd sing "Stand By Me" at the end of the first quarter?

[Tiger Wench]

Texas people hate him too -

http://www.burntorangenation.com/2008/12/29/703788/a-final-word-on-thayer-eva

Mack Brown even called him out...

Mack Brown Calls Out Thayer Evans

"One-sided stories normally usually don't make it when sources aren't checked on the other side," Brown said. "The story has absolutely no credibility with me because the writer did the same thing exactly last year and it's obvious he has an agenda, in my mind, against Texas."

Something about *shocker* an alleged recruiting scandal at UT. 

Brown questions NY Times story
  Posted at 6:23 PM on Mon., Dec. 29, 2008 |Chuck Carlton
 

In accordance with NCAA rules, Texas coach Mack Brown declined Monday to comment about Lufkin defensive tackle Jamarkus McFarland, who committed to Oklahoma at 12:01 a.m. on Christmas day.

But the New York Times story that detailed the recruiting struggle between the Sooner and Texas was fair game.

The piece, by writer Thayer Evans, detailed a wild party hosted by Texas fans in Dallas, which McFarland attended. It also reported the offer of an interest-free low to McFarland's mother, Kashemeyia Adams, if McFarland were to attend Texas, although the offer did not come from a representative of Texas, according to Adams. McFarland later told Rivals.com that the party account had been "spiced up" for a class paper.

After the Texas traveling party arrived Monday in Phoenix to begin preparation for the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, Brown answered questions about the article, but not the recruit.

Asked about if he had any knowledge of possible recruiting improprieties, Brown answered: "Absolutely not. We encourage the NCAA to check out every player we're recruiting ever year. We call them and ask them to. We welcome them there."

Brown was also concerned by a behind-the-scenes piece authored by Evans last season about California running back Darrell Scott, who eventually chose Colorado over Texas at the 11th hour.

"One-sided stories usually don't make it when sources aren't checked on the other side," Brown said. "The story has absolutely no credibility with me because the writer did the same thing exactly last year and it's obvious he has an agenda, in my mind, against Texas."

Neither Brown nor Texas athletic spokesman John Bianco said they were contacted by the Times for comment before publication.

At the same time, Brown seemed ready to move ahead with bowl preparation.

"If I worried about everything bad written about me in my life, I'd never sleep," Brown said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, with Thayer Evans, his editors would have discovered that the factual statements were completely false and came as complete hearsay from McFarland's mother. The article repeatedly attributes several questionable acts to "Texas" leaving the reader to infer that these were acts taken by the athletic program and university or with their knowledge. However, within only a few hours of digging by Rivals and others it is clear that these acts, if they were true at all, were not official acts but were acts committed by Texas fans. As pointed out above, McFarland even states that he embellished his account retold as fact in the article.

Deloss Dodds and Mack need to pursue this and also ask the NCAA to look into OU's conduct recruiting McFarland (see Barking Carnival article for general background, but not specifics).


Posted by The Ice Man @ 9:16 PM on Mon., Dec 29, 2008
Thayer Evans, though he did not attend Oklahoma University, is a passionate OU fan. In fact, his relationship with the New York Times is almost 100% based on his coverage of OU. A quick glance at his NYT blog leaves little doubt where his heart & passions lie. Every single article he has written is about Oklahoma, and all of them are effusive in their praise of the players, coaches and program. And, while many a journalist has tried to deflect claims of bias by saying that Evans didn’t even attend OU, an intelligent person realizes that the overwhelming majority of a college teams’ fans did not attend said university. If you’re a diehard Sooner without the talent to garner a basketball scholarship from them, you simply go wherever you can get a free ride, but continue to bleed Sooner red.

Also, as anyone who covers college football knows, Texas & OU are bitter rivals. Are we to believe that a journalist whose passion is covering and writing about Oklahoma football is going to somehow summon up even an ounce of impartiality in covering the recruiting saga of a kid who’s deciding between his favorite school and the school he hates with a passion? This is not the first time Evans has wielded his keyboard to inflict embarrassment on Texas. Just last year, he wrote a nearly identical article that covered the Darrell Scott recruitment. Though neither Scott nor his mother were as malicious with their quotes as McFarland and Adams, Thayer littered the piece with pot shot after pot shot at Texas.

Evans’ undisclosed allegiance to OU is certainly distressing, given the importance of being impartial in writing such a damning piece. But, vastly more distressing is the fact that Evans did little if any fact finding or checking. His article is littered with blatant misrepresentations of facts and enormous holes in the purported stories from McFarland and Adams.

Also troubling is the fact that Evans made no attempt to contact McFarland’s HS coach or any of the coaches at Texas, LSU or USC for comments or to verify McFarland and Adams’ accounts. I wasn’t a journalism major, but I’ve long been under the assumption that a “good” journalist attempts to verify and expand upon claims made by sources…..especially if the claims are potentially damaging to other parties. If Evans had attempted to contact any of the aforementioned, he'd have learned that the reason Texas began recruiting through Coach Outlaw, the Lufkin HC, is b/c Adams refused to allow Texas to come to her house under any circumstances (the same goes for LSU). She also stopped answering and returning calls from Texas in November, after they notified her via letter that they had been advised to document the improprieties that were on going in McFarland's recruitment. At the same time, the NCAA was alerted by Texas via letter that Adams had inquired about what benefits or perks were available to her and her son should he choose Texas. Unless the NCAA is investigating the claims, they can verify the receipt of the letter in mid-November. How damaging would that be to Adams’ claims of inducements made by a rogue Texas fan?

Unfortunately, Evans doesn’t attempt to verify any of the claims in his article. Instead, he chooses to cast Texas in a bad light by ignoring the context of Texas’ actions and refusing to verify or corroborate Adams & McFarland’s claims. I repeat, HE CHOSE TO CAST TEXAS IN A BAD LIGHT BY REFUSING TO VERIFY OR CORROBORATE ADAMS & MCFARLAND’S CLAIMS! You don’t write for the New York Times and Houston Chronicle without knowing the importance of fact finding and checking. He intentionally ignored that journalistic obligation. Any claim to the contrary is foolhardy.

But, I digress. Everyone seems to want to make excuses for Evans. No one in the media wants to state the obvious, that this was an article that was intentionally written to embarrass certain schools. Sure, OU comes off with some egg on their face. But, it’s obvious the effect was unintentional. Find me one sentence where the intended effect was to cast OU in a negative light? Now, find me one sentence that has a single kind word with regards to any school other than OU. It can’t be done b/c the article’s intent was to pump up OU and embarrass Texas, LSU and USC.

Doesn't matter - the guy is a hack. As recently as 2006, the guy was a freelancer covering City Council meetings for tiny suburbs of Houston for the Houston Chronicle.  And now he is a senior sportwriter for FoxSports?  How fucking desperate are they?

I doubt he has credentials at Texas anymore.  Maybe Auburn should do the same thing.

[Tiger Wench]

I know that was long, but I posted some of the comments because it seems like there is a re-occurring pattern here of wildly exaggerating rumor and inuendo, dressing it up like truth and "journalism" and then publishing away merrily without consideration of the consequences or any consequences for his actions.

Sorry little fucker.

[djsimp]

Wzup with these sumbitches. I take it they ain't never had a country boy ass whipin'. If somebody can arrange it, I am a giving person.

[Buzz Killington]

I'm surprised he had time to watch the game.  My sources told me that he was too busy hitting on all of the male cheerleaders to see anything happening on the field.

[Snaggletiger]

No Lean on Me. 

[Godfather]

[Godfather]

BTW Jenny ...Thayer lives in Houston.

Want his address and phone number?

[Tiger Wench]

BTW Jenny ...Thayer lives in Houston.

Want his address and phone number?

 

I love you.