What's new
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Another discussion of Denver media's role in the "scandal"

ThndringHerd

Well-Known Member
We were'nt winning football games when GB was canned. It was time.

It was time - but it could have been avoided. Don't agree that it was all on GB. Great coach and bleeds BNG. What turned me off was watching him get thrown under the bus by the local press and CU admin. Seemed to me that CU decided having a real FB program was just too much work and not worth the trouble to stick up for. If they had lawyered up and done a little PR work, the whole thing would have blown over, IMO. They abetted our local asshat press in painting GB as a pariah, and tearing down everything Mac worked 15 yrs to build. Mac's legacy deserved better. Barnett deserved better. The program and the fans deserved better.

Felt pretty much the same way when Hawk was kept on last winter. Like anything in life. If you're not prepared to fight for it, you won't have it long. The admin needs to show they're willing to go to the mat for athletics if they want big boy football back at CU. If they don't, they really should quit ****ing everyone around, announce they're moving to DII and call it a day. It's painful to watch.
 
It was time - but it could have been avoided. Don't agree that it was all on GB. Great coach and bleeds BNG. What turned me off was watching him get thrown under the bus by the local press and CU admin. Seemed to me that CU decided having a real FB program was just too much work and not worth the trouble to stick up for. If they had lawyered up and done a little PR work, the whole thing would have blown over, IMO. They abetted our local asshat press in painting GB as a pariah, and tearing down everything Mac worked 15 yrs to build. Mac's legacy deserved better. Barnett deserved better. The program and the fans deserved better.

Felt pretty much the same way when Hawk was kept on last winter. Like anything in life. If you're not prepared to fight for it, you won't have it long. The admin needs to show they're willing to go to the mat for athletics if they want big boy football back at CU. If they don't, they really should quit ****ing everyone around, announce they're moving to DII and call it a day. It's painful to watch.

As a former member of the local media I resent that statement. We work very hard to get both sides of the story and to get the story right. When you call and get a no comment then we cant help you. When you do comment and it makes matters worse, while, we still can't help you.

As I recall it the story had three basic highlights to it.

1. It was juicy
2. It was leaked just enough to keep up every-time you thought it went away.
3. It was well managed from a PR perspective only on one side.

From a PR perspective letting Gary Barnett flap his trap outside Dal Ward about Katie Hnida wasn't smart. Then you have our President uttering the word **** in hostile deposition while trying to defend her employer which was leaked to the media. Lastly, the CU lawyers in Denver were not careful while deposing Mary Keenan. Then there is the CU Employee who hires escorts who also happened to manage recruiting activities. Thats a lot of coincidences. A great story.

The problem you had was CU not saying very much from a PR perspective while you have a Lawyer and a client who did have his crap together and controlled their half of the message very well through the whole event. Im pretty sure they were conducting a smear campaign to get CU to settle. Which is exactly why you settle those kinds of cases.

Don't kill the messenger. A settlement would have come with a gag order.
 
Last edited:
As a former member of the local media I resent that statement. We work very hard to get both sides of the story and to get the story right. When you call and get a no comment then we cant help you. When you do comment and it makes matters worse, while, we still can't help you.

As I recall it the story had three basic highlights to it.

1. It was juicy
2. It was leaked just enough to keep up every-time you thought it went away.
3. It was well managed from a PR perspective only on one side.

From a PR perspective letting Gary Barnett flap his trap outside Dal Ward about Katie Hnida wasn't smart. Then you have our President uttering the word **** in hostile deposition while trying to defend her employer which was leaked to the media. Lastly, the CU lawyers in Denver did not heed the warnings of the CU lawyers in Boulder about deposing Mary Keenan. Then there is the CU Employee who hires escorts.

The problem you had was CU not saying very much from a PR perspective while you have a Lawyer and a client who did have his crap together and controlled their half of the message very well through the whole event. Im pretty sure they were conducting a smear campaign to get CU to settle. Which is exactly why you settle those kinds of cases.

Don't kill the messenger. A settlement would have come with a gag order.

Sorry about the asshat jab. The whole thing pushes buttons for me, and sometimes I shoot before aiming. Some questions I have to ask.

Agree that the PR work on CU's part was horrible. From what I remember, there was pretty much a one-sided bashfest against GB - and yes it did seem to me that the press (in Denver especially) was only to happy to jump on the dogpile. The damage could have been limited to one minor employee and maybe a couple of players. The silence from CU while GB was being flayed was deafening. They went after Barnett with a bloodlust usually reserved for politics rather than sports figures. If this had happened in Tuscaloosa, Lincoln, Norman, Austin, LA, Baton Rouge or Ann Arbor would the press there have held their respective FB coaches to the same level of criticism? Would an offhand comment by the FB coach been the leadoff sports segment on the 5:00 news?

I'll stick by my assertion that it was the silence from the U and the media reaction rather than what actually took place that killed the program. Maybe I'm getting jaded, but it seems like other programs have gone through similar situations. They just don't mushroom out of control like this did.

Back to the OT, the total lack of public support for GB from CU during all this is what killed my passion for Buff football the first time around. And after last fall I have some doubts as to how serious the university is about having a real football program back in town. And I'm sick of getting old and gray waiting for them to get that way. Depends on who our next coach is what my interest level will be. Nostalgia only goes so far.

I may just stick to following local HS ball. At this point, it's more entertaining to me than watching overmatched players in '90 replica jerseys going through the motions. While a guy who should have been fired a year ago stands there with a clipboard in his hand and ****s his drawers.

The thrill is gone.
 
As a former member of the local media I resent that statement. We work very hard to get both sides of the story and to get the story right. When you call and get a no comment then we cant help you. When you do comment and it makes matters worse, while, we still can't help you.

As I recall it the story had three basic highlights to it.

1. It was juicy
2. It was leaked just enough to keep up every-time you thought it went away.
3. It was well managed from a PR perspective only on one side.

From a PR perspective letting Gary Barnett flap his trap outside Dal Ward about Katie Hnida wasn't smart. Then you have our President uttering the word **** in hostile deposition while trying to defend her employer which was leaked to the media. Lastly, the CU lawyers in Denver were not careful while deposing Mary Keenan. Then there is the CU Employee who hires escorts who also happened to manage recruiting activities. Thats a lot of coincidences. A great story.

The problem you had was CU not saying very much from a PR perspective while you have a Lawyer and a client who did have his crap together and controlled their half of the message very well through the whole event. Im pretty sure they were conducting a smear campaign to get CU to settle. Which is exactly why you settle those kinds of cases.

Don't kill the messenger. A settlement would have come with a gag order.

No personal offense MiamiBuffs, and all due respect but I call BS on that. Most of the local columnists are very unfairly critical, if not outright biased against Colorado football, especially with respect to how CSU is treated.

As for the "scandal" the local media didn't give a **** about "both sides" of the story. They just wanted ratings and sales just like any other business. They continually kept reporting every ****ing source that came out with baseless accusation after baseless accusation and kept them glued front and center on the local news and front page of the paper. Oh another woman has come out accusing a football player of assault? We can't verify it, but 12 accusations sounds even juicier than 11, never mind it being remotely credible.

Oh, and when multiple players were exonerated through DNA testing? Yeah those stories were found on page 17 in the newspaper, consisting of about a paragraph squeezed between huge whole page Foley's ads. Where was the front page story saying wow sure is amazing that of all the accusations, not one, NOT ONE ****ing player was ever charged, let alone every single one that was tested was found innocent? Hmm, sure seems like maybe a little more investigative reporting should be called for. But that would require getting off my lazy ass and doing some actual work.

Again no personal offense MiamiBuffs, as you can see this is still a hot button for me, but the way I see it the local media can eat a dick for all I care.
 
No personal offense MiamiBuffs, and all due respect but I call BS on that. Most of the local columnists are very unfairly critical, if not outright biased against Colorado football, especially with respect to how CSU is treated.

As for the "scandal" the local media didn't give a **** about "both sides" of the story. They just wanted ratings and sales just like any other business. They continually kept reporting every ****ing source that came out with baseless accusation after baseless accusation and kept them glued front and center on the local news and front page of the paper. Oh another woman has come out accusing a football player of assault? We can't verify it, but 12 accusations sounds even juicier than 11, never mind it being remotely credible.

Oh, and when multiple players were exonerated through DNA testing? Yeah those stories were found on page 17 in the newspaper, consisting of about a paragraph squeezed between huge whole page Foley's ads. Where was the front page story saying wow sure is amazing that of all the accusations, not one, NOT ONE ****ing player was ever charged, let alone every single one that was tested was found innocent? Hmm, sure seems like maybe a little more investigative reporting should be called for. But that would require getting off my lazy ass and doing some actual work.

Again no personal offense MiamiBuffs, as you can see this is still a hot button for me, but the way I see it the local media can eat a dick for all I care.

First of all, the sports page is not news. This is why the Miami Herald had a non sports desk writer look into every tip they got about malfeasance on the part of Univ of Miami players. The theory being sports desk writers were too chummy with their respective beats and less likely to write a crushing article.

Second, Columnists are paid for their opinion and flowery writing. They are not reporters. Try not to confuse them for one.

Third, Gary Barnett hung himself with his own rope with the Hnida comment. No one was going to come to his defense or his rescue after that. All he did was poor gas on to the fire at a bad time. In fact, a vast majority of the juiciest comments in that affair were said by someone who worked for CU.

Fourth, a civil lawsuit is different than a criminal action. Mary Keenan chose not to press charges because she knew she didn't have a case. The title 9 lawsuit was a different animal.

At the end of the day Bain Kerr let loose one leak after another to keep the fire burning. CU failed to respond adequately as each leak came out. They were a deer in the headlight with a no comment as their best response and they put themselves in that position. CU had a chance to settle the whole affair out of court before Hoffmans quotes came out and probably before Nancy Keenans came out. Instead our leaders allowed CU to be dragged through the mud settling late in the game.
 
Last edited:
The Denver media pounced on this because it was a national, ESPN-type story, with lots of juice.

We are not unique, either. Don't get me wrong, the Denver media is full of asshats, largely because many of them aren't CO natives, so they don't care about ripping CU. But this stuff happens at all major college programs. Trust me.


Sorry about the asshat jab. The whole thing pushes buttons for me, and sometimes I shoot before aiming. Some questions I have to ask.

Agree that the PR work on CU's part was horrible. From what I remember, there was pretty much a one-sided bashfest against GB - and yes it did seem to me that the press (in Denver especially) was only to happy to jump on the dogpile. The damage could have been limited to one minor employee and maybe a couple of players. The silence from CU while GB was being flayed was deafening. They went after Barnett with a bloodlust usually reserved for politics rather than sports figures. If this had happened in Tuscaloosa, Lincoln, Norman, Austin, LA, Baton Rouge or Ann Arbor would the press there have held their respective FB coaches to the same level of criticism? Would an offhand comment by the FB coach been the leadoff sports segment on the 5:00 news?

I'll stick by my assertion that it was the silence from the U and the media reaction rather than what actually took place that killed the program. Maybe I'm getting jaded, but it seems like other programs have gone through similar situations. They just don't mushroom out of control like this did.

Back to the OT, the total lack of public support for GB from CU during all this is what killed my passion for Buff football the first time around. And after last fall I have some doubts as to how serious the university is about having a real football program back in town. And I'm sick of getting old and gray waiting for them to get that way. Depends on who our next coach is what my interest level will be. Nostalgia only goes so far.

I may just stick to following local HS ball. At this point, it's more entertaining to me than watching overmatched players in '90 replica jerseys going through the motions. While a guy who should have been fired a year ago stands there with a clipboard in his hand and ****s his drawers.

The thrill is gone.
 
I split these posts out from BlackNGold's 'passion' thread, as they are a different discussion.
 
GB didn't get any help from the media climate and CU's desperate and ineffective PR damage control since "the scandal" happened right about the same time Ward Churchill was making "real news" around the nation (just a couple years after 9/11). from a national perspective, CU was carrying the "image" of a rape happy football team with Barnett as the XXX ringleader and CU as harboring crazy anti-american, terrorist loving professors. i went to the US Open golf tournament with my dad and all his golf cronies from around the country would ask me 1. about Barnett and the scandal and 2. Ward Churchill literally every time we ate breakfast with someone new. every morning for the full week.

not "oh yeah, you live in Boulder.....i hear that's a great town"...or "i love the mountains". Barney and Churchill.

there were FOX and CNN and local news vans parked outside the UMC for what seemed like the entire spring semester of that year.
 
First of all, the sports page is not news. This is why the Miami Herald had a non sports desk writer look into every tip they got about malfeasance on the part of Univ of Miami players. The theory being sports desk writers were too chummy with their respective beats and less likely to write a crushing article.

Second, Columnists are paid for their opinion and flowery writing. They are not reporters. Try not to confuse them for one.

Third, Gary Barnett hung himself with his own rope with the Hnida comment. No one was going to come to his defense or his rescue after that. All he did was poor gas on to the fire at a bad time. In fact, a vast majority of the juiciest comments in that affair were said by someone who worked for CU.

Fourth, a civil lawsuit is different than a criminal action. Mary Keenan chose not to press charges because she knew she didn't have a case. The title 9 lawsuit was a different animal.

At the end of the day Bain Kerr let loose one leak after another to keep the fire burning. CU failed to respond adequately as each leak came out. They were a deer in the headlight with a no comment as their best response and they put themselves in that position. CU had a chance to settle the whole affair out of court before Hoffmans quotes came out and probably before Nancy Keenans came out. Instead our leaders allowed CU to be dragged through the mud settling late in the game.

In reply to your points.

1. This wasn't sports news this was first page headlines even at USA Today at the time. Nor were the DNA exonerations sports, and they were reported far back in the normal news section. Rape and sexual assault is not sports news!

2. I didn't say columnists were reporters, I said they were local media which is exactly what we were discussing.

3. Gary Barnett hurt himself with his comments, but they were COMPLETELY blown out of context with the sound bytes used. The media totally manipulated his comments to paint him in the worst light. They also manipulated the reporting to make it seem that accusations = assaults. To say otherwise is an outright lie. They want ratings and sales, period.

4. Doesn't your point validate my argument? She didn't have a case, yet nobody who does investigative "non sports" journalism seemed to think this was odd. It was all about piling on to get the ratings. It sickens me that the media seems to have no journalistic integrity and just goes for juicy. I'm sure I am painting an unfair picture for many, but perception of what happened in Boulder is reality to 95% of the people who just read what they saw in newspapers.
 
Last edited:
What's funny/sad in this whole discussion is that I don't think the university learned anything from this "scandal" in terms of PR. The PR department still seems pretty bad to me and very behind the times (internet).
 
What happened to Barnett was 90% his fault. All he needed to do was not say anything. A simple boiler plate these are serious accusations, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment until a full investigation has been completed by CU/Boulder DA.

Barnett's experience dealing with the media on a regular basis should have prepared him for this. If he would have shut his mouth, he could have come out after everything was over with and blasted the media and his critics all he wanted.

Funny thing is I wanted Barnett fired the year before the scandal because I didn't think he was getting the job done recruiting and on the field. I wish we had a 7 win a season coach right now.
 
In reply to your points.

1. This wasn't sports news this was first page headlines even at USA Today at the time. Nor were the DNA exonerations sports, and they were reported far back in the normal news section. Rape and sexual assault is not sports news!

2. I didn't say columnists were reporters, I said they were local media which is exactly what we were discussing.

3. Gary Barnett hurt himself with his comments, but they were COMPLETELY blown out of context with the sound bytes used. The media totally manipulated his comments to paint him in the worst light. They also manipulated the reporting to make it seem that accusations = assaults. To say otherwise is an outright lie. They want ratings and sales, period.

4. Doesn't your point validate my argument? She didn't have a case, yet nobody who does investigative "non sports" journalism seemed to think this was odd. It was all about piling on to get the ratings. It sickens me that the media seems to have no journalistic integrity and just goes for juicy. I'm sure I am painting an unfair picture for many, but perception of what happened in Boulder is reality to 95% of the people who just read what they saw in newspapers.

Exactly. Nobody in the Denver media reported on the actual question to GB about the tramp or his complete reply. This was nothing more than the media creating news instead of reporting it. Absolute amateurism that would get reputable employees fired in real jobs.
 
As a former member of the local media I resent that statement. We work very hard to get both sides of the story and to get the story right.

Bull****. Not in that case. You telling me Sally Schrager was looking for both sides of the story? You telling me the media taking press releases directly from Lisa Simpson's PR firm and running with them is looking for both sides of the story? The media decided they wanted to gore CU and they did just about everything in their power to make it happen.

CU badly mismanaged the PR side of things, I will not argue that. But don't sit here and tell me the media wanted both sides of the story. They wanted a juicy story and they got it, and they didn't care who got hurt in the process.
 
I'm trying to remember... what were the charges? Who was charged? Who was convicted?

To the best of my recollection, there were none, no one, and no one.

Except that there was allegedly a young girl molested in Rick Reilly's basement.
 
I think we also forget the young men that had their lives forever altered by this garbage. The local news agencies were like sharks in bloody waters when allegations came down from a woman who said she had been drugged and rape by, and this was the actual quote, "..two big black men who might be football players."

It's funny how these allegations were plastered all over TV and newspaper so much so that it would be nearly impossible to miss it yet when those two football players that had been accused were actually cleared by DNA evidence, only one of the two newspapers actually reported it, but you had to look long and hard to find it and the other newspaper (the Denver Post) didn't even bother running anything about it. That's awesome journalism... :thumbsup:

It's all about public perception with this kind of stuff and the media plays a big part on how the facts are presented to alter that perception to their liking.
 
The press failed to inform the public about the background of Regina Cowles, the head of the Boulder chapter of the National Organization of Women, who was frequently quoted in the press expressing her outrage about CU. Cowles was the campaign manager for CU Regent Cindy Carlisle, who is married to Baine Kerr, Simpson's attorney.

There were 17 News and 13 Post articles about CU in which Cowles appeared. Only once did the Post mention Cowles' connection to Carlisle, and the News never did.

There were numerous stories in the News and Post reporting that four football players were under investigation and that DNA tests were being conducted. Not one of the four players were connected to the incident by DNA tests - a fact that has never been reported by the media. from (http://www.davekopel.com/Media/RMN/2005/Book-on-CU-scandals-imperfect.htm)

This is why I will never subscribe to, or advertise in, the Post...
 
Last edited:
What happened to Barnett was 90% his fault. All he needed to do was not say anything. A simple boiler plate these are serious accusations, and it would be inappropriate for me to comment until a full investigation has been completed by CU/Boulder DA.

Barnett's experience dealing with the media on a regular basis should have prepared him for this. If he would have shut his mouth, he could have come out after everything was over with and blasted the media and his critics all he wanted.

Funny thing is I wanted Barnett fired the year before the scandal because I didn't think he was getting the job done recruiting and on the field. I wish we had a 7 win a season coach right now.

Yes, but he was used to dealing with sports reporters. They required of him to be very verbose and descriptive because they were writing about a game. That experience probably lulled him into a sense of comfort that would not have prepared him for the reporters outside Dal Ward that day. They were not sports reporters they were crime beat reporters and when the questions got going he had already said too much. He should have walked into Dal Ward and closed the door.

He's a good coach. Notice that no one has taken a risk on hiring him. It's a sad chapter for everyone.

Over the next couple of months the Keenan deposition and Hoffman deposition would be leaked. Natahn Maxcey, the CU recruiting coordinator, would be tied to calls to escort services from a University cell phone (plead guilty). Then came the stripper service saying they were hired by CU and Hnida indicating she was raped in SI and we were in really hot water. A CU soccer player also indicated she was raped by a football player. Broomfield PD and the State Attorney General all opened cases. No one. Save Maxcey. Was arrested or convicted.

IMHO, the cat was out of the bag at this point and the damage was done. Letting this thing go to appeal after appeal had a decent chance of CU winning. But by the point the 10th Circuit reinstated the case Hank Brown was President and settled the case to close that rather ugly chapter.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top