Deadspin.com
hosted a chat with Sports Illustrated managing editor Chris Stone and executive editor Jon Wertheim on Tuesday regarding the investigative report on Oklahoma State football and the response.
Here were the highlights:
Question: Why OSU?
Answer: The point wasn't to take down OSU. The point was to really study and understand the business and the entire process, from recruitment to finish. I think most people work on the assumption that big-time college sports is a flawed enterprise. (To some it’s inconvenient; to others it’s indefensible.) There are plenty of opinions. Revenue sport athletes should be paid! No way, they’re lucky to have a full ride and a fancy tutoring center! The NCAA defenders will tell you that compensate is a non-starters… Everyone from the New York Times op-ed page to the South Park creators have weighed in on this. Our point: how do you have the informed discussion without really understanding the "factory" and the inefficiencies, how it also plays out and what some of the consequences are? (Wertheim)
Question: How do you respond to Jason Whitlock's accusation that Thayer Evans specifically went after OSU because he's an Oklahoma fan? And how do you respond to all of the players who said that they either never spoke to these reporters or that they were grossly misquoted?
Answer: I thin Jon answered this elsewhere about the so-called Evans bias. What I'll add to Jon's comment is that we had more than 60 sources on the record—not anonymous or confidential, but on the record and taped, many of them who were interviewed more than once and many of whom corroborated others’ stories. (Stone)
Question: Why was the decision made to go forward with this series when there was clearly no evidence other than hearsay from disgruntled players? What was the point?
Answer: It wasn't hearsay. But I've heard this a few times : “Why did you only talk to the losers and the malcontents?” a) A program recruited these guys and gave them scholarships. They weren’t losers when they wore the uniform. B) that the college athlete who—for whatever reason—is expelled from the Kingdom of Jock, stripped of the perks, often stripped of his scholarship (or in no position to pay tuition), who was often unfit for college in the first place is now bitter, unemployed, in trouble with the law, and fractured (perhaps beyond repair) was one of the central themes of the series... (Wertheim)
Question: ESPN did point out several errors in a few of the stories. Although the errors may not have been vital to the story, doesn't it show a lack of research done?
Answer: There were two errors - which were obviously two too many - that have since been acknowledged and corrected. The ESPN story, as Deadspin pointed out, was not free of error. (Wertheim)
Question: Can we hear the tape of the Aso Pogi interview? Can we hear taped of any/all recorded interviews?
Answer: We disagree with Aso’s recollection. The tape shows that he invited the writer into his office. The writer immediately identified himself as a writer for SI and established what he was there to talk about. (Stone)
Question: Was anyone concerned about the conflict of interest in having Thayer Evans spearhead this project when he was clearly looking at a rival of a program he roots for?
Answer: On Thayer Evans: Yes, he is from Oklahoma. He has a history with the school and the state. But should this disqualify him from covering OSU? Often, it’s the opposite. We all come from somewhere. Before moving to a national outlet, we come from Area X (in my case, it's Indiana) and that’s where you have sources and familiarity and institutional memory. Thayer had tips and leads. When he was given the green light to pursue, he came back with recorded, on-the-record interviews with former players and assistant coaches. Some agreed to speak on camera as well. In our judgment the wealth of sources overcame any potential perception of bias. (Wertheim)
Question: What was the team's response to the factual errors in the series(mostly related to people not being enrolled when SI said they were) uncovered by outlets like ESPN, Deadspin and KOTV? How did these errors get through the fact checking process at SI? Enrollment and graduation information is public record and not a violation of FERPA.
Answer: There were errors in the story that we've acknowledged (and regret) in the story with corrections. As for the fact-checking process, which has come up in other comments and one that asks why we only have 2 fact checkers as opposed to the 15 we used to have. We have 15 fact checkers on staff, nine of them full-time and they are very good. Five of them were assigned to the OSU series. One more word about the fact-checking today versus the so-called The Golden Age of SI Fact-checking, which I guess Jon and I belonged to. I promise you that the fact-checkers at SI are every bit as smart, rigorous and diligent as they were 20 years ago. There’s an irony to stories about fact-checking built around the premise of “this is the way we did it 20 years ago but this is way I’m guessing they do things now.” (Stone)
Follow OSU Sports Writers Jimmie Tramel and Kelly Hines on Twitter.
PUT ON YOUR GAME FACE: Visit the Tulsa World's OSU Sports Extra for complete coverage of the Cowboys.
