I don't think people understand what a total journalistic failure this is for local media. Keep in mind...we're talking large-scale racism accusations at a public university. This isn't just sports, it's legitimately news, doubly so in the national environment we're in at this moment.
As best I can tell, there's been almost no original reporting - just rehashing all these tweets. No FOIA requests, no assigning news reporters with much more experience chasing down complex stories like these (because this crosses over from sports into news when a public institution has major accusations of racism), no seeking comment from the university president or administration who oversees diversity/equity issues, no following up with accusers to elaborate on their allegations, no quotes from politicians, no inquiries with state government (civil rights commissions, etc.), no quotes from experts on racism at the local or national level. None of that. Reporters should have their hair on fire to get hold of this stuff. Instead, the tone *immediately* turned to "listening" and reconciliation while the accusations were still coming forth.
It's been just as bad for journalists failing to use their platforms to demand answers. No opinion pages have written on this, that I'm aware of. No sports figures have publicly demanded comment from Barta, or talked about how inadequate Ferentz's answers have been. While it's been widely speculated that Doyle will go, has anyone locally demanded it? Has anyone locally seriously suggested Kirk or Brian's jobs should be in jeopardy? All we get are half-hearted retweets of former players with no additional commentary.
And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head. The failure is total.
