Minor Violations

Preface: I’m a big fan of Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News.  She just gave me a great interview that’ll appear soon in GoBlueWolverine magazine.  She’s a pro and certainly classes up the local media pool, et cetera.  Yet:

Violation #1:  Chengelis likely fractured the code established by the Intergalactic Federation of Nerds, (IFON) that requires you acknowledge or offer up a ‘hat tip’ to the source of certain information for a piece, post or story.  She ran a quick piece today on the Jamie Morris interview on Columbus radio that I posted yesterday.  Now, Angelique has Buckeye ties so perhaps someone mentioned this to her, but I’m pretty confident she first heard the audio here.  Keep in mind that no actual journalist has agreed to the IFON Accords (yet).

Violation #2:  Chengelis left out an important part of Jamie Morris’s response to a question when she transcribed part of the interview in her piece.  While her quote is technically accurate, it leaves off the beginning of Jamie’s answer and it’s an important omission IMO.  Here’s what she wrote:

On any chance Rodriguez doesn’t return as coach if Michigan loses to Ohio State: "I think what people want is Michigan football. They want hard-fought plays, they want a team that performs at the highest level and give everything they’ve got, win or lose, and let the chips fall where they may."

Judge for yourself.  Here’s word for word what was said (yes, I added the [long pause], because there was a damn loooooong pause before he gave an answer):

Hooley: “Do you think if Michigan loses the game Saturday, do you see any way Rich is not there next year?” 

Morris: “[long pause] You know that’s tough.  You know what?  I think what people want is Michigan football.  They want hard fought plays.  They want a team that goes out there and that performs at the highest level and give everything they got, win or lose.  And then you just let the chips fall where they may.

The “You know that’s tough,” answer matters.  It’s important in providing the tone and what appears to be a struggle by Morris, a U-M athletic department official, in answering the question straight up.  I think the long pause may matter even more.

So—Angelique Chengelis, on the authority vested in me by IFON, I sentence thee to…

…oh forget it, 30 Rock just started.

HT: BiggieMunn for send over the News story.