Behind the Headlines

When a hot story comes along – and no Kentucky story is hotter than the first UK basketball coaching change in a decade – the Herald-Leader becomes as much a
forum for debate as a source of news.

Cheryl Truman – Herald-Leader books editor, feature writer
and former local issues columnist – took a Louisville Slugger to the hornet’s
nest Saturday in a commentary column. She wrote that rabid UK fans should be ashamed. “We drove away UK basketball coach Tubby Smith, a decent guy and generally successful coach,
because he didn’t give us what we’re sure is our Kentucky birthright: Absolute dominance of American men’s college basketball. If we
brought as much passion to improving education as we brought to Tubby-bashing,
we’d be Silicon Valley.”

In response, Truman received about 400 e-mails and 50
voicemails from readers. About 40 percent supported her view, while the other
60 percent disagreed – many in quite disagreeable language.  The column also accounted for about 300
comments on kentucky.com’s UK sports discussion board – nearly all of them critical. Interestingly, of the 50 voicemails she
received, about 70 percent agreed with her.

The Opinion Page staff has received many letters to the
editor about her column, both pro and con, and will print a selection later
this week. 

Sports columnists John Clay and Mark Story – no strangers to criticism from readers – also got several hundred emails and voicemails, most
disagreeing with their columns. 

Mark said Monday afternoon that he had received 184 emails about
Smith since Thursday. “Much of that has
been from people castigating me because they believe me in particular and the
Herald-Leader in general have not been hard enough on Tubby’s alleged failings,”
Mark said. “Another sizable amount of e-mail has been speculating about who
should replace Tubby. And about 45 of the e-mails came in response to my Sunday
column in which I opined that to succeed as a men’s basketball coach at Kentucky,
one pretty much has to be a jerk. Most of the replies to that column suggested
I was a jerk for writing such a thing. Not coincidentally, the last time I had
this heavy an e-mail volume was in the days after the hiring of Rich Brooks,
which included the controversy over how Mitch Barnhart handled that coaching
search.”

John said: “The tone towards me has been negative,
especially the column taking up for Tubby when he left. And most of those are
from regular e-mailers who have been campaigning for Tubby’s ouster.” 

Opinion columns are meant to spark discussion and
debate – and, in cases like these they obviously succeed. Of course, some readers just don’t understand
how a newspaper could publish opinions with which they disagree. They cancel their subscription, call for a
boycott or make personal attacks. It’s
as if they want a newspaper so boring that everyone will agree with every
opinion published. 

Over all, though, I think readers appreciate the
opportunities we give them in print and online to voice their opinions and
agree or disagree with what our writers – and their fellow readers –  have to say. It’s one of the things that makes
life interesting, and it makes the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com important
parts of Kentucky life.

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor

I
hope you’ve noticed our new online video commentaries from editorial cartoonist Joel Pett and sports columnist Mark Story, which are proving to be popular
with viewers. They’re quite a change of pace for Mark, who is more accustomed
to writing at a computer than talking into a camera. I asked Mark to tell me how it’s going so
far, and here’s what he had to say:

Doing
video commentaries on Kentucky.com has brought far more organization – to my
wardrobe. I now keep a chart of what I wear on Wednesdays, when I tape my
commentary, so I won’t wear the same thing week after week.

We
film the commentaries in a small studio in the Lexington Herald-Leader
marketing department. There is no makeup person (which, in my case, is probably
a big absence).

There
is no teleprompter, either. So I write my remarks the night before (usually),
then stay up late memorizing them. 

The
first few times we filmed, it took me as many as five takes to get my
commentary completed at a level I found satisfactory for public consumption. But,
just as a distance runner gets fitter the more often they run, my memory is
becoming more disciplined with use. Lately I’ve been able to get my lines down
in one or two takes. 

As
for the topics, I’ve tried to take subjects  – Tubby Smith’s recruiting
history; the big shoes that new Louisville football coach Steve Kragthorpe has
to fill – that are topical but also have “legs.” Meaning if you call one of the
commentaries up a month after it’s been done, it will still have some relevance.
Most of my feedback has been that I need to smile more on camera. I’m
working on it.

But
smiling or not, I have enjoyed my foray into video commentary. I hope you’re
watching and enjoying them, too.

Tom Eblen
Managing Editor