Full disclosure. I’m an FSU graduate. But the Tallahassee Democrat has a story this morning that calls into question ESPN’s reporting. It doesn’t help ESPN’s credibility that the lead reporter in the story is a University of Florida grad whom attempted to get FSU to do something they could not legally do.

The reporter for this investigation is listed as Tom Farrey who, according to his bio on the ESPN Web site, is a 1986 graduate of the University of Florida.
Murphy wrote Doria and said that FSU administrators helped Farrey “as much as we could with his story without violating federal laws protecting students’ privacy rights.”
“We reminded Mr. Farrey of those constraints and how they strictly prohibit us from releasing information about students in such small groups that the identity of the individual student would be obvious,” Murphy added. “He asked us to do that and apparently would not accept that answer and tried to get numerous other administrators, who also had expertise in student admissions, to give him this information. They could not and did not do so.”

I saw the end of the piece on Outside the Lines. It focused on two former FSU football players, Fred Rouse and Paul Griffin. There appeared to be an attempt by ESPN to highlight learning disabilities in relation to the two players. Federal mandates require documentation of IEP’s (Independent Education Plans) and accomodations for students with disabilities. If documented, they can be taken along with them to college.

I have no knowledge of how these are implemented in college although we strictly adhere to them in public schools. A former academic advisor, Brenda Monk, was fired for admitting to typing papers for at least one student-athlete. Monk was portrayed sympathetically when the interview took them to her burned down home.

As a graduate of FSU, I have been concerened about the scandal that involved 61 student-athletes. But this Outside the Lines report demonstrates clear bias on ESPN’s part by not accuartely reporting on the reasons why university officials could not cooperate in the manner they requested.

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