Even though I work for a ClearChannel owned station, I don't have a ClearChannel radio show with which to use as a bully pulpit to rail against my competitors. Even if I did, I would keep those thoughts to myself.
But not everyone has done that with regard to the Will Brown-UAlbany-St. Bonaventure coaching situation. As you may or may not know by now, that story came to a close late Thursday night when Brown decided to stay at UAlbany, earning himself a contract extension, more money for himself and his staff.
Throughout the search, there were many rumors spread on message boards and much conjecture by fans as to what Will Brown would do. It's our job to sort through all of the information and weed out only what we can confirm as fact.
Here's how it works at FOX23. Any and every story we report that doesn't come directly from the person the story is about is independently double sourced. There is no tossing stuff out there with the hope of being right. We have to know we're right.
For example, we heard last night at about 7:30 from several sources in Atlanta(site of the Final Four, currently coach haven) that Brown would not take the Bonnies offer and would stay at Albany. Not good enough. Too many of those sources were talking to each other and perhaps passing an incorrect rumor. So we got a second source from the western NY area. However, since that source was a bit too close to the Atlanta gang, we decided to take extra care. Why? Integrity is job one. Always has been, always will be. My colleague, Brent Martineau, who has worked tirelessly on this story, finally confirmed the story and called it in so we could bring it to you at the end of our 10pm newscast.
When we reported on Monday that Brown had discussed an offer with Bona, it's because we knew, through trusted sources, that he did. It may not have been a written contract style offer, but even discussing parameters of an offer is the same as making an offer. We reported such.
We also, after confirming it with two sources, said that Brown was going to interview with Quinnipiac. This was also true at the time, but because of the timing of the job situation, Brown decided not to take the interview. A change of mind after our report. Brown alluded to this in his comments last night.(www.fox23news.com, see sports in video on demand for the entire interview)
There is nothing we take more seriously that being accurate. School classes that I speak to hear it on every visit. I would rather be second and right than first and wrong. It's a fundamental of journalism.
Are we wrong sometimes?
Yes.
Does that make us work harder to make sure we get the truth?
No.
We are working with maximum effort every single day to make sure every fact is correct. That never changes or wavers. If you don't or can't trust what we tell you, then we've failed.
If ever you have a question about something we've reported, please call me at the station or e-mail me and we can talk about it...in a two-way conversation.
