Last night I posted about that the joke that is The Los Angeles Trojan Times cowardly retracting comments attributed to Andy Hill (Coach Wooden's player), which they used to smear Coach. They buried their retraction in the "for the record" section. Looks like there is lot more to it.
Andy Hill also recently blasted Chris Dufresne (who wrote that smear laden, cowardly column to attack Coach within 3 days of his passing and then took an ignorant cheap shot at UCLA football) for his garbage (on MoneyPlayersBlog with a little emphasis):
Chris:
I am a former UCLA basketball player and a lifetime subscriber to the L.A. Times. Your column this morning made me sick to my stomach. While our city grieves the loss of the greatest coach of all time, you dust off this rumor-filled piece of innuendo-filled garbage and call it journalism. Do you call relying on 29-year-old articles reporting? Why didn't you reach out and do some original research?
It was bad enough that I was completely misquoted by your newspaper in Coach's obituary regarding Sam Gilbert and his influence on UCLA basketball (has there been a retraction and/or correction...maybe you or Mike James could follow up and let me know). Is it just about selling newspapers? Is there some point in time when your conscience will kick in and you will simply tell your editor, "No thanks, find someone else to write that one?"
So I guess I can look forward to your next column on Kobe's rape problems in Colorado when the Lakers win the title. How about a rumor-filled column on Pete Carroll's supposed young Malibu girlfriend for the next football preview? How about a piece on Mark Sanchez raping a girl when the Jets are in the playoffs? Really, is this what you think your readers want? And again, what about the timing...not even a week after Coach's passing, while so many people around the world are both grieving and paying their respects for a life well-lived? But of course, it's Journalism 101 and there must be "balanced" reporting...no matter the extraordinary circumstances, and that the information is old, tired and rehashed. Nice.
If you want to actually know what happened, why don't you try finding out for yourself? It is truly astounding to me that the man in charge of UCLA athletics, J.D. Morgan, who told Coach that he would "handle" Sam Gilbert, is never mentioned in any story anywhere...not once. If you had contacted me, or lots of others who could have led you to me, we would have had that discussion, maybe even leading to some original information and some ultimate truths, which, after all, is what journalism is really about. What a concept!
If I wanted a rehash of old columns from your own paper, I can just use Google. Which, by the way, might be a good tool for you to use in helping to locate information and key sources for an original story about Sam Gilbert.
Andy Hill
I am so glad Andy wrote this but I would love to see more Wooden players step up this way and speak up against the garbage that is LA Times.
It is pretty simple at this point. If you are a UCLA alum, student or a die hard Bruin fan, you should no longer be subscribing to the Trojan Times. We shouldn't be supporting Trojan trash that is used every day to amplify sleazy propaganda from the Heritage Hall at the expense of our Bruins.
Not a penny for the Trojan Times. Not any more.
GO BRUINS.