No, Don't leave Gwen....

[tourist]

PHFFTT! This ones for you, Gwen!!! Next to fall, the Missoulian. Then Lee Newspapers. What goes around, comes around.

If its true, and I hope it is, she is unemployed and unemployable, in 'journalism.' Maybe she will go on to 'grad school,' but not at UM. She could become the subject of a case study in what not to do as a journalist. A novelist isn't much of a change from what she has been doing.

 

[PlayerRep]

I don't agree with this statement from a prior post.

"Gwen Florio as the reporter or not, all of these stories of late would have been in the front page of the paper and that's not her fault - it's that of those who have created the need to write the article."

Many of the stories would not have even been written, ie JJ stories, had she not been around to write them. Multiple stories would not have been on the front page.

It is not the fault of the person who gets charged with a minor offense or even something he didn't do, like a dui, that the story is on the front page. It is the fault and bias of the reporter for making it a bigger story than it is, for the paper putting a racy headline on it and putting it further to the front from where it should be, and for the police/prosecutors pursuing and charging something that is smaller than what it gets charged with.

With Florio gone, there will be less front page stories discussing that a non-starter in basketball has plead not-guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

I could see the editor getting encouraged to move on sooner than later too.

 

[GrizPony]

Simply put, Gwen is not intelligent. She lacks common sense and is, at best, a gadfly. It is fitting that she will be printing fiction and make-believe in the future. Sadly, she is not clever enough to invent interesting stories and she will fail, as she has with the Missoulian job. Good riddance failure! You are nothing and have never created anything of value in your life. That much will continue.

P.S. If you could make a sammich you might be someone.

 

[griz4life]

I don't agree with this statement from a prior post.

"Gwen Florio as the reporter or not, all of these stories of late would have been in the front page of the paper and that's not her fault - it's that of those who have created the need to write the article."


Many of the stories would not have even been written, ie JJ stories, had she not been around to write them. Multiple stories would not have been on the front page.

It is not the fault of the person who gets charged with a minor offense or even something he didn't do, like a dui, that the story is on the front page. It is the fault and bias of the reporter for making it a bigger story than it is, for the paper putting a racy headline on it and putting it further to the front from where it should be, and for the police/prosecutors pursuing and charging something that is smaller than what it gets charged with.

With Florio gone, there will be less front page stories discussing that a non-starter in basketball has plead not-guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

I could see the editor getting encouraged to move on sooner than later too.

Agreed. Articles making "news" from process minutiae like GF's story about investigators forwarding their report to FVV were uncalled for.

 

[ordigger]

Sad news for egriz which will lose 35% of its Internet traffic, and 17% of its total daily posts. No more pick on Gwen items. Truly one of the worse days in egriz history.

 

[fanofzoo]

She might be gone but her name ( and reputation ) will live on for eternity.

 

[wbtfg]

Sad news for egriz which will lose 35% of its Internet traffic, and 17% of its total daily posts. No more pick on Gwen items. Truly one of the worse days in egriz history.

Do scapegoats create egriz, or does egriz create scapegoats?

 

[Grisly Fan]

Had Gwen stuck to the facts and kept them straight, at least that much, there would be little to complain about. Is anyone all that surprised by her departure? Some time ago I found her bio online and better than half of the papers she worked at shut down. This doesn't prove anything but it might suggest that her presence did nothing to help them. Don't let the door hit you on the way out...

 

[PlayerRep]

She might be gone but her name ( and reputation ) will live on for eternity.

And her name/reputation will live on infamy.

 

[GrizBacker04]

So now whose fault will it be when the next Grizzly student-athlete gets a DUI or a player is arrested for disorderly conduct at 2 am following a late-night party?

A novel thought - had Grizzly student-athletes made better decisions, their poor decisions wouldn't have made the newspaper. If a player gets a DUI or is arrested for disorderly conduct, that is going to be in the paper, on the news, etc. Has been like that for oh, forever. This is not something that just started in the past 18-24 months.

Don't want the scary bias liberal media twisting facts in a story about you? Don't give them a reason to write the story in the first place. The bashing of Gwen, warranted at times or not, was a convenient sideshow to gloss over the fact that Griz athletes were making poor decisions at a time when every bad action is going to be magnified. If your school is going through three investigations and two rape trials, probably not a good idea to go to a Halloween rager and get an ecstasy pill, or drive home drunk, or go downtown to Stocks and get blitzed, etc.

 

[ranco]

At least now she doesn't have to pretend to be a journalist when she writes her fictional accounts.

 

[garizzalies]

There is a gap between what today's student athlete is and what some people in the public perceive them to be and reporting like we've seen of late has not helped.

Oh crap, did you just say there was a "gap in reporting"? PR's head is going to explode.

 

[BWahlberg]

There is a gap between what today's student athlete is and what some people in the public perceive them to be and reporting like we've seen of late has not helped.

Oh crap, did you just say there was a "gap in reporting"? PR's head is going to explode.

annnnnd I just probably committed an NCAA violation in typing that! NooooOOOOooOOoOoOOOooo

 

[grizindabox]

So now whose fault will it be when the next Grizzly student-athlete gets a DUI or a player is arrested for disorderly conduct at 2 am following a late-night party?

A novel thought - had Grizzly student-athletes made better decisions, their poor decisions wouldn't have made the newspaper. If a player gets a DUI or is arrested for disorderly conduct, that is going to be in the paper, on the news, etc. Has been like that for oh, forever. This is not something that just started in the past 18-24 months.

Don't want the scary bias liberal media twisting facts in a story about you? Don't give them a reason to write the story in the first place. The bashing of Gwen, warranted at times or not, was a convenient sideshow to gloss over the fact that Griz athletes were making poor decisions at a time when every bad action is going to be magnified. If your school is going through three investigations and two rape trials, probably not a good idea to go to a Halloween rager and get an ecstasy pill, or drive home drunk, or go downtown to Stocks and get blitzed, etc.

Yeah, because people have been blaming GF for the Griz athletes getting in trouble...I believe it has much more to do with how she selects part truth and paints all Griz athletics with a broad brush. I do not believe anyone thinks the athletic program was/is without issues that need/are being addressed but GF was not exactly partial in addressing the issues in her reporting.

 

[BWahlberg]

I don't agree with this statement from a prior post.

"Gwen Florio as the reporter or not, all of these stories of late would have been in the front page of the paper and that's not her fault - it's that of those who have created the need to write the article."

Many of the stories would not have even been written, ie JJ stories, had she not been around to write them. Multiple stories would not have been on the front page.

It is not the fault of the person who gets charged with a minor offense or even something he didn't do, like a dui, that the story is on the front page. It is the fault and bias of the reporter for making it a bigger story than it is, for the paper putting a racy headline on it and putting it further to the front from where it should be, and for the police/prosecutors pursuing and charging something that is smaller than what it gets charged with.

With Florio gone, there will be less front page stories discussing that a non-starter in basketball has plead not-guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

I could see the editor getting encouraged to move on sooner than later too.

I disagree, it's not just the methods of one reporter but it's the culture of reporting there. If it's "Grizzly" related and it's bad - it leads. Even if it's a kid that was on the roster for spring camp only it's front page news.

In many of the articles with the Johnson trial they would have been printed - however in the case where it turns out to be a wrongly accused man you can quickly go back and see the bias in many of the articles. Especially the first weeks worth.

Bobby Hauck talked about this after his first year at UNLV which I think was even before Florio was the main beat writer bringing up all things bad for athletes. I recall a comment about the press in UNLV not running a front page article every time a player runs a stop sign.

The biggest thing that is going to stop articles putting the program in a negative light from continually running will be by the actions of the student athletes to stop doing them. Secondarily the other thing that will hopefully help will be renewed reporting that is less biased and actually follows up and clarifies prior stories.

Take the Trumaine Johnson article for example. Yesterday his DUI charges were dropped in exchange for a reckless driving plea. The article lead-in "Trumaine Johnson Pleads Guilty to Reckless Driving" almost makes one think he did something else. The article does quickly point out it's in place of the DUI however they could have lead with that as well "Trumaine Johnson's DUI charge dropped, pleads guilty to reckless driving" Boom, better description and doesn't leave the reader wondering if he did something else. That kind of culture change is something I'm hoping for with the paper (but I'm not holding my breath for it).

However the ultimate thing that can stop these articles is no arrests/accusations. Easiest way to take care of it. DUIs, fights, getting busted with pills/narcotics are dumb things that a lot of college kids do - but these athletes need to realize they're under a microscope and even if they didn't do anything wrong and are unfairly wrapped up in something - it's going to come out looking bad for them initially. And right now with the way the paper works - the follow up and update clearing their name will not come.

 

[AllWeatherFan]

Well, you got to hand it to her (and the Missoulian). They managed to get one more “gang rape” reference in there. As the lead in today's front-page story, no less!

“One woman who reported a gang rape to the Missoula Police Department was told it was ‘probably just a drunken night and a mistake.’”

http://missoulian.com/news/local/doj-missoula-police-weaknesses-stem-from-stereotypes-about-sexual-assault/article_b27157ea-bd6b-11e2-a337-0019bb2963f4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[GrizBacker04]

So now whose fault will it be when the next Grizzly student-athlete gets a DUI or a player is arrested for disorderly conduct at 2 am following a late-night party?

A novel thought - had Grizzly student-athletes made better decisions, their poor decisions wouldn't have made the newspaper. If a player gets a DUI or is arrested for disorderly conduct, that is going to be in the paper, on the news, etc. Has been like that for oh, forever. This is not something that just started in the past 18-24 months.

Don't want the scary bias liberal media twisting facts in a story about you? Don't give them a reason to write the story in the first place. The bashing of Gwen, warranted at times or not, was a convenient sideshow to gloss over the fact that Griz athletes were making poor decisions at a time when every bad action is going to be magnified. If your school is going through three investigations and two rape trials, probably not a good idea to go to a Halloween rager and get an ecstasy pill, or drive home drunk, or go downtown to Stocks and get blitzed, etc.

Yeah, because people have been blaming GF for the Griz athletes getting in trouble...I believe it has much more to do with how she selects part truth and paints all Griz athletics with a broad brush. I do not believe anyone thinks the athletic program was/is without issues that need/are being addressed but GF was not exactly partial in addressing the issues in her reporting.

The first comment was more tongue-in-cheek than anything. A better way of saying it would have been "who will people be upset with regarding how a DUI is covered and what section of the newspaper it appears in" instead of "why are Griz student-athletes still making poor decisions?"

And Brint brought up another great point that needs to be taken into account. Nothing much happens in Missoula in way of hard-hitting news. One of the things I enjoyed when I moved back to Montana after living in Las Vegas for six years was the first 10 minutes of news was not the latest shootings, rapes, robberies, etc. Griz athletics is one of the biggest news makers in the city, state, region, etc. It is Montana's professional sports team. So when even a walkon football player or a non-starter on the men's basketball team appear in the police blotter, it is going to be a lead story. Just the way it is and has nothing to do with an anti-athletics agenda.

 

[grizbrokebacker1]

Many of the stories would not have even been written, ie JJ stories, had she not been around to write them. Multiple stories would not have been on the front page.

It is not the fault of the person who gets charged with a minor offense or even something he didn't do, like a dui, that the story is on the front page. It is the fault and bias of the reporter for making it a bigger story than it is, for the paper putting a racy headline on it and putting it further to the front from where it should be, and for the police/prosecutors pursuing and charging something that is smaller than what it gets charged with.

With Florio gone, there will be less front page stories discussing that a non-starter in basketball has plead not-guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

BS. Even though Gwen wrote and regurgitated her stories, it's not her writing or reporting that caused these stories to end up on the front page. Gwen does not choose where her stories end up, that's the choice of the editor, and it's primarily a business decision. Sensationalism sells and if future, former, or current Griz players can't stay out of trouble, there's always going to be a spot reserved on the front page.

p.s. I hear there's a character in Gwen's new novel known as Jacque Sniffeur. A self-absorbed French attorney by day, Jacque is ostracized by his colleagues and peers as he travels down a path of denial and disillusionment. In a futile effort to maintain his dignity, Jacque resorts to name calling and middle school antics. Jacque's life comes crumbling down around him as his secret tryst with a member of the local croquet club becomes the subject of a new nonfiction thriller for which the author wins a Pulitzer.

 

[CentralMontanan]

There's few things more apocraphyl than people who are bad writers attempting to write novels.

That said, though I'm sure the book will be a Trainwreck of Humboldt County proportions, if it relegates her to living in an isolated cabin somewhere outside of Nye, I'm all for it.

Good luck in your endeavours Gwen. Take as much time as you need.

 

[PlayerRep]

I don't agree with this statement from a prior post.

"Gwen Florio as the reporter or not, all of these stories of late would have been in the front page of the paper and that's not her fault - it's that of those who have created the need to write the article."

Many of the stories would not have even been written, ie JJ stories, had she not been around to write them. Multiple stories would not have been on the front page.

It is not the fault of the person who gets charged with a minor offense or even something he didn't do, like a dui, that the story is on the front page. It is the fault and bias of the reporter for making it a bigger story than it is, for the paper putting a racy headline on it and putting it further to the front from where it should be, and for the police/prosecutors pursuing and charging something that is smaller than what it gets charged with.

With Florio gone, there will be less front page stories discussing that a non-starter in basketball has plead not-guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct.

I could see the editor getting encouraged to move on sooner than later too.

I disagree, it's not just the methods of one reporter but it's the culture of reporting there. If it's "Grizzly" related and it's bad - it leads. Even if it's a kid that was on the roster for spring camp only it's front page news.

In many of the articles with the Johnson trial they would have been printed - however in the case where it turns out to be a wrongly accused man you can quickly go back and see the bias in many of the articles. Especially the first weeks worth.

Bobby Hauck talked about this after his first year at UNLV which I think was even before Florio was the main beat writer bringing up all things bad for athletes. I recall a comment about the press in UNLV not running a front page article every time a player runs a stop sign.

The biggest thing that is going to stop articles putting the program in a negative light from continually running will be by the actions of the student athletes to stop doing them. Secondarily the other thing that will hopefully help will be renewed reporting that is less biased and actually follows up and clarifies prior stories.

Take the Trumaine Johnson article for example. Yesterday his DUI charges were dropped in exchange for a reckless driving plea. The article lead-in "Trumaine Johnson Pleads Guilty to Reckless Driving" almost makes one think he did something else. The article does quickly point out it's in place of the DUI however they could have lead with that as well "Trumaine Johnson's DUI charge dropped, pleads guilty to reckless driving" Boom, better description and doesn't leave the reader wondering if he did something else. That kind of culture change is something I'm hoping for with the paper (but I'm not holding my breath for it).

However the ultimate thing that can stop these articles is no arrests/accusations. Easiest way to take care of it. DUIs, fights, getting busted with pills/narcotics are dumb things that a lot of college kids do - but these athletes need to realize they're under a microscope and even if they didn't do anything wrong and are unfairly wrapped up in something - it's going to come out looking bad for them initially. And right now with the way the paper works - the follow up and update clearing their name will not come.

Perhaps true on the culture, but Florio was the leader of the pack, and various other reporters didn't cover stories that way, including the sports reporters. I don't recall a single "attack" story by a sports reporter.

Of course, no arrests/accusations would stop the stories, because there would be nothing to have a story on. But, in my view, the next biggest factor is/was Florio. She almost single handledly pushed the sexual assault stuff. Without Florio, JJ would not have had front page stories dozens and dozens of times. Her stories are written with more old news and bias, than those of any other reporter. Go talk to some of the other former or current reporters and people at the Missoulian. Many don't like Florio. At least some will back up what I'm saying.

It's not necessarily a question of covering something; it's where the story is placed in the paper, the headline used, and what is put in and left out of the story. On the other hand, there are some little things, like minor procedural "developments" for minor things (like disorderly conduct), shouldn't be covered at all. Florio more than others used these minor developments to write the same stories over and over again.