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Message: [QUOTE="Newhouse_83, post: 3022394, member: 7139"] When a guy works in/for the program, then leaves and attempts to cover it, it's problematic for all concerned, just as it would be for a lobbyist to be appointed to lead the agency that regulates his former employer. Ethically, even if a writer doesn't know not to take a gig like this and pretend to be objective (disclosure: I write for a living), an employer who hires someone who recently worked for a particular program should have him cover a different program ... probably one in a different conference. It's one thing for Stephen Bailey to cover SU football; he's a journalist and never drew a paycheck from the program. It was clear from a year-end piece at TNIAAM that lacrosse-writer guy was still WAY too close to certain players, and he basically admitted he was incapable of being objective about them. Part of the issue, I'm convinced, is there are problems with conveying ideas -- that seems to be what people are saying about the comment that redshirt seniors are bad ... but wait, they're good! A mid-April piece after the UNC collapse is a good example (to the extent that I saved it for use when I was going to speak to a journalism class about the need for good editing). It drew some erroneous conclusions, like UNC assigning its poles to SU's mids "didn't really make a difference" when, in fact, the first midfield was held to less than half its scoring average, and Trimboli was held without a point. There was also a misunderstanding about how UNC was able to win faceoffs in the fourth quarter, and an illogical conclusion that Buttermore was "a big contributor" not because he scored a bunch of points from the second midfield, but because he got a few runs with the first unit. For readers, it's caveat emptor, and there are some clear warning signs with the above arrangement. For serious fans like the folks who form the core of this board's community, you're probably not going to get significant insight from someone a couple years out of school if he wasn't setting the world on fire when he was at the DO or wherever he was as an undergrad. There are some recent exceptions in more major sports -- Tyler Dunne, Michael Cohen, Jesse Dougherty and Sam Fortier come to mind; Pete Thamel is an earlier example -- but these guys were already the cream of the crop when they were undergrads. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?