Jeff Otterbein, sports editor at The Courant, has provided readers with his very reasonable rationale for putting Geno Auriemma’s daughter on the payroll as a celebrity blogger. It is indictative of his caliber of professionalism that he immediately and publicly addressed the issue when AP wrote about it. Full disclosure is the best policy. It inspires trust rather than suspicion.
Otto fully understands where the line is between reporter and celebrity, and certainly understood the limitations of having Alysa Auriemma write about her father. In the current ethical climate, however, he appears to concede that maybe the deal has some problems he should think about more:
The question remains if paying the daughter of the coach to contribute to the website is a sound decision. I thought we were giving the UConn fans a slice of something they could not get elsewhere – a unique view, an entertaining view. We will re-evaluate the relationship going forward and are interested in our readers’ opinions.
Here, in full, is what he has to say . There are interesting reader comments there, too.
Loading ...
Beyond the fact that the “celebrity blog” will fill space once dedicated to news and commentary written by professional sports writers, the real shame is that Alysa Auriemma is stuck writing about her “life as the daughter of the coach.” Maybe one day she’ll set out on her own, not as “the daughter of the coach,” but as herself, with her own identity and interests (such as singing and acting, after graduating from UConn with a degree in dramatic arts). Growing up as the child of a celebrity is difficult enough. Imagine being stuck following a parent’s career in a blog. The fact that the coach would allow it says something about the overpowering egos of coaches. Many parents might be inclined to say to their kids, “Go write about something else; write about yourself, or about something important, not about me.”
And speaking of parents, our society’s fixation on celebrities might have something to do with our relationships with our parents, pyschologists claim. So for anyone with an insecure or troubled relationship with their parents, Alyssa can provide them with a celebrity stand-in for “Dad” (which is how she’s referred to the coach in the Courant).
The “greatest coach in women’s basketball,” as Alyssa decribes him, is also just “Dad” — fun, loving, and, of course, misunderstood. She writes that he’s in sync with his team members, and skilled in coaching (and “scolding”) them. Everything is handled perfectly and always fun: “If I had to sum up this year in one word, it would be fun. “This group was fun, the games were fun, the coaching staff was fun.”
I’d prefer to skip the blog and read good old-fashioned sports stories about egomaniacal coaches and games that aren’t always just “fun.”