gattis

[gabe_96 0]

We dropped the ball on tone and sensitivity

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Huntsville Times

We were wrong, and I'm sorry. So sorry that my column, which under typical circumstances would run in Sunday's Forum section, needs to be offered to you today.

I apologize to you readers for the column entitled "Suffering from my cold, not my vote" that ran on the front of Monday's Sports section. As several of you have pointed out in e-mails, voice mails and face-to-face conversations, the tone of the column was mean-spirited and callow, brushing off the opinions of hundreds of Times readers with its "I really don't care what you think" attitude.

We Times employees do care. A lot.

The column's tone stung me when I read the paper Monday morning. It stung as I considered the volume and the validity of criticisms of the writer, the sports department, the newspaper. It stings today because I can't take back what was probably written during one writer's bruised, end-of-season weariness. Sadly, the psyches of many local football fans and readers are bruised. And in some cases, readers' weariness has turned to anger.

Some history: Alabama beat writer Paul Gattis was asked to be one of 65 voters on this football season's Associated Press panel, an honor that plays a part in determining national rankings and thus which team goes to which bowl. The vote is made by the individual, not by a consensus of the sports or newsroom staff. As the three top teams, Southern California, Oklahoma and Auburn, all continued marching through the season undefeated, fans became more attuned to how individual AP panel members were voting.

Gattis, who voted Oklahoma No. 1 the whole season, explained his rationale to me a few days before Sunday's final vote. Even if I wouldn't necessarily have voted the way he did, his explanation of why he ranked Oklahoma first, Southern Cal second and Auburn third had merit. I told him I stood behind his obligation to vote his beliefs on the matter.

That's the way a newspaper should work: Writers and editors talking with each other about not only story subjects, but also about tone, fairness, balance and clarity. And writers and editors constantly reminding themselves and each other to put the readers' interests first.

That's why I asked Gattis to explain to readers, as he had explained to me, his voting for Oklahoma after the season ended. We agreed he'd write a straightforward column.

Instead, a writer's "Let me explain" attitude turned into a "Leave me alone" column.

Even though signed columns are meant to reflect a writer's sensibilities and style, there are certain attributes that should never be circumvented: civility, tolerance of counter-opinions, and a tone that coaxes a reader to ponder the concept more than the columnist.

We didn't do that in Monday's column. I deeply regret it.

Reach Melinda Gorham at P.O. Box 1487, Huntsville 35807 or melindag@htimes.com. Phone 532-4495. Fax 532-4420.

pretty funny...

[AURainman 6]

OUCH!!!!!

[BustemBigBlue 178]

anyone know where I can find the article in question here?

[AUJarhead 70]

anyone know where I can find the article in question here?

130579[/snapback]

Here ya go...

Link

[mcgufcm 4,107]

i wish she'd just fire him. that'd be a nice merry christmas.

[AUTaxMan 0]

I don't understand the vehement criticism of this man. He did what you people wanted. He showed you where he stood. Anyone who threatened to get this man fired needs to get a life. I am proud of him for standing by his opinion. If I were treated the way he has been, I would have said a lot worse things than "I don't care what you think."

[mcgufcm 4,107]

all he did was prove that he was an incapable sports writer. then he printed a story insulting about 50% of the readers of his newspaper. that's worth losing your job over.

[bammanmr 0]

all he did was prove that he was an incapable sports writer. then he printed a story insulting about 50% of the readers of his newspaper. that's worth losing your job over.

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here here

[AUTaxMan 0]

all he did was prove that he was an incapable sports writer.

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Please explain. What makes him "incapable?" He didn't have to vote us #1, you know. He didn't owe it to us either.

[Raven_tiger 5]

i wish she'd just fire him. that'd be a nice merry christmas.

130598[/snapback]

For whom? The guy is a husband and a dad. Tis the season, right??? I didn't agree with his opinion, but he's entitled to it. This is still America right?

[AUloggerhead 2,253]

If you agree with the premise that sportswriters should vote for the teams they think should play in the NC game, then you have no right to complain about this guy voting the way he did. He's doing exactly what YOU want him to do -- vote his convictions. Fortunately for me, I don't agree with the premise. Sportswriters are opinionated fools, and bammie sportswriters have to be the worst of the lot. Voting has to be the stupidest and most biased way to getting around to playing a football championship. There's nothing fair or objective about it.

Voting: bad. Playoff: good.

[TexasTiger 13,006]

i wish she'd just fire him. that'd be a nice merry christmas.

130598[/snapback]

For whom? The guy is a husband and a dad. Tis the season, right??? I didn't agree with his opinion, but he's entitled to it. This is still America right?

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Still America? I keep checking. Some of the same people who complain of "political correctness" have their own version of it they insist on in politics and elsewhere.

I get pissed at Corso and Herbstreit "logic." I think they're morons. I think most voters suffer from the notion that you don't move any team down that doesn't lose, so if they start 1 and 2, they end 1 and 2-- unless they lose. I think that renders the system meaningless. I think it renders the BCS meaningless. I think the Tigers just need to forget about it, go out and kick a very good Va Tech team's ass and declare themselves the best, most impressive team in the country. People will disagree, but so what? AU will have a great argument, and, ultimately, unless two competing teams play each other, argument is all you've got.

Gattis doesn't offend me. He called it like he saw it and everyone who disagreed told him he was stupid. He essentially told them to shove it. So what?

[Tigermike 3,053]

I have no problem with Gattis writing his opinion and voting his opinion. What I do have a problem with is a man who is a lifelong BAMA fan and is the BAMA beat writer, voting the way he did. Do any of you think that if BAMA had started out at #18 and then went undefeated and won the SECC that Mr. Gattis would not have come up with some "legitimate" rationale for voting BAMA #1 or #2?

For any voting writer to start out voting any two teams #1 & #2 and no other team can move ahead of them unless they loose is absurd. Why play the games if no one even has a chance to move ahead of the preseason pretties. Play in a tough conference? Tough tit, the voters have already decided who has the best teams and they will vote accordingly.

[BigSammyK 171]

The most interesting part of his article, in my opinion, was that he went into great detail about why he picked Oklahoma over us and then basically only wrote a sentence regarding USC.

[Argo 8]

If the guy would have changed his vote to OU at #1 when it started becoming clear how the season was going to end, they yeah, I would think he was just trying to screw AU. He picked OU #1 at the first of the year, and they didn't lose. Get over it.

[DKW 86 7,440]

He was writing (loosely using that term) for Decatur Fishwrap last year. He is a total

No doubt about it. He would not vote for if we beat OU and USC by 20 each.

He didnt tell us as much as he "Told us off."

BTW, Finebaum is totally wrong on the guy too. PF just wants material to burn in the PFS fireplace. He couldnt care less if it was or

Gattis IS different. Finebaum admits he doesnt even know Gattis, nor ever read Gattis.

Last word, Gattis' column had the sophomoric sound of someone still at a college paper.

[AURainman 6]

It wasn't what he said that got me riled up. It was how he said it.

Gattis has every right to speak his mind and vote his convictions. He didn't owe us a damn thing. OU#1, USC#2, AU#3. So what?! There were about 50 other writers that felt the same way.

What I take exception to, is that he defends his stance based on "My #1 and #2 didn't lose." THAT'S NOT HOW ITS SUPPOSED TO WORK. Not when theirs a two man tango at the end of the year. Not when team's don't get to prove it on the field. Not when a pen and a pad determine a title rather than a player with pads on. The "OU/USC didn't lose" argument is the crux of the problem.

The other thing I take exception to is the "s**k it" tone he took in his article. Anyone who emailed him with one of these dumb, "U dont lik Auburn you dum sumbich. Auburn maks me prowd an u can jus go to hell," emails, prompted this response from him, but he should be trained to roll with the punches like a professional. (That's why the give out his email address.) Instead he raised his middle finger to 40% of the state and said "screw it." Not professional.

[TexasTiger 13,006]

The most interesting part of his article, in my opinion, was that he went into great detail about why he picked Oklahoma over us and then basically only wrote a sentence regarding USC.

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USC has gotten a free ride for almost everyone all year. That is probably the biggest joke. When OK beats them the same people will say OK must be the greatest team of all time. I hope its ugly. Very ugly.

[Tigermike 3,053]

If the guy would have changed his vote to OU at #1 when it started becoming clear how the season was going to end, they yeah, I would think he was just trying to screw AU.  He picked OU #1 at the first of the year, and they didn't lose.  Get over it.

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And I guess you are saying that if BAMA had been in the same situation as AUBURN, Mr. Gattis the Bama would not have changed his vote. I say horse apples. Not only would he have changed his vote, but he would be writing articles about how great the SEC was. Writing that the SEC is the toughest conference in all of college football. Writing articles about the great tradition at BAMMER! In my opinion, Mr. Gattis has forfeit his right to ever say that the SEC is the best, the toughest football conference.

[TitanTiger 20,510]

I didn't write any emails to get him fired. I did write one to Gattis questioning his logic for the order in which he ranked the three unbeatens. And I wasn't nasty.

His response was immature. He's a professional. He should act like one. If he wants to give an actual rationale, fine. But all he did was blow off steam and insult us even more than he already did. The only logic he offered was that he had them ranked that way all year and they didn't lose. But that's what's wrong with the system. The rankings should fluctuate as the season progresses, based on how everyone's "body of work" up to that point looks. Starting high and managing not to lose shouldn't grant you a birthright to a certain ranking. When Auburn is putting the beatdown on people like Tennessee, Georgia, and virtually everyone else they play while USC is eeking out wins over lowly Stanford or Oregon State or Oklahoma is giving up 35 pts a pop to two 7-4 teams in back to back weeks, that should matter.

At least for the final ranking, every voter should step back and review the entire season. Look at the number of quality teams each one beat. Look at victory margins and factor in late TDs that ran up the score. Look at the games each struggled in and how good those opponents were. Then, rank them based on the entire season. Not on where they started and whether they lost. Not just on their most recent game. For the final rankings, start from scratch and rank them now that all has been said and done on the season.

I think if all the voters had done it this way, Auburn would be in the Orange Bowl without a doubt.

Maybe the BCS needs to issue some kind of directive to that effect. Obviously there's no way to make them do it, but give some general guidelines on it telling the voters that moving someone down from #1 or #2 does not require a loss and that reassessing the whole thing at the end is the best way to do it.

But I'm just a dreamer.

[WaReAgLe83 0]

What I didn't like was that he voted a team from his own state out of the OB - and then told us to get over it?? Sorry Mr. Gattis with an , I forgot that your school's never gone 47 YEARS without a national title, or even a real shot at one. Normally I would let the guy say what he wants, but this is different. I don't care if he loses brownie points for not being 'objective', I would want him to vote us into the Orange Bowl. If he had voted us #1, every one of us would want to shake his hand, right? In case he hasn't noticed, we take football seriously down here.

[gabe_96 0]

Does "taxman" mean that you take money from husbands and dad's every day, in order to support a bunch of corrupt politicians?

[Ranger12 46]

To disagree with man's logic, as I do, is one thing. To wish him to be fired because you disagree with him is completely idiotic and does not speak well of the AU nation when we sink that low. C'mon guys, disagree with him all you want, but don't go saying things that affects his family and job. That is ridiculous!

At least he has the guts to say what he thinks. I would rather be around a man like than somebody that will just pump you full of what you want to hear.

I read the article and it did not make me as mad as it seemed to have some of my other AU brothers. However, I also think it was low of his editor to print what she did. Gattis is not a columnist and was either asked by the sports editor or the editor herself to write the column. It then must got through one of them for proofreading. If they did not proofread it, then what kind of editors are they. Either way, the fault lies with the editors also for allowing it to run. It just makes that editor look silly by condemning the writer style. How would you guys like to work for somebody that would leave you hanging out to dry like that? Of course, there is probably quite a few of us that have been the scapegoat for our bosses before.

[gabe_96 0]

good points ranger...gattis is getting the scapegoat shaft from his editor...she probably doesn't like hime because he is such and idiot....granted we have only read a couple of his articles and we think he is an idiot ...imagine having to be this idiots boss and have him being and dumb idiot all the time...so she was probably already looking to humiliate him publicly...."gattis your a moron write an article, explaining how you could possibly have auburn #3"..."gattis your reasoning in the article was idiotic....the only thing you could have written to make your reasoning clearer would have been to write Roll Tide!!! auburn is overrated and sux....now Iam going to write an article admitting to the public that you are a moron"....gattis is probably the guy at the bama games with toilet paper and a detergent box on a pole...you know the one who couldn't find any tide so he just put some other detergent on the pole figuring it would make just as much sense.

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

I live in Huntsville so I'm a littler closer to this that most of you. I have had personal communications with Melinda Gorham (Editor and author of the apology article above), and John Pruitt, Sports Editor. A few comments:

1. IMHO, Gattis was operating with a huge ego and it never occured to him that anyone would question him. He was contacted last August by the AP and asked to be a voter. He agreed but didn't tell anyone at the paper. He told me he didn't think he his selection had anything to do with him being a sportswriter for the Times. After the crap hit the fan, I don't think his bosses agreed. Would you? I guess Gattis just assumed he was asked to votre because he is a ntionally recognized FB expert.

2. The fact he was a voter first came to light in the B'ham News. If you were a senior person with the Times how would you like to learn one of your writers was a voter by reading it in the B'ham News, or worse yet get blindsided by one of your readers in an e-mail (how about 300 e-mails). Gattis is a bama homer big time. I don't think his vote was neccessarily due to his bama ties but he obviously didn't consider the perception that might create with some. It did!!!

3. I for one never questioned his voting but just asked him to publicly give his rationale. He didn't do this until Ms. Gorham thankfully recognized the negative impact this was having as a result of e-mails from Auburn people and subscription cancellations and "suggested he do so. I am one of many who cancelled their subscription, in my case after over 40 years of subscribing. Some major advertisers were also contacted and the paper knows where their money comes from. Bottomline, Gattis was royally peeved at having to even give his rationale and hence wrote his Bad Attitude article for which Ms. Gorham felt the need to apologize for. Note that Gattis still hasn't apologized and isn't likely to since his ego has been severly bruised.

4. I am not aware that anyone suggested Gattis be fired. I only told them to let me know when Gattis was gone and I would renew my subscription

Trust me, neither Melinda Gorham or John Pruitt are the bad guys here. Gattis brought this on himself and desreves no symphaty.