Terry Greenberg is at it again. He wants to convince Lubbock readers that they did not see what they saw, did not read what they read, and did not hear what they heard. The Lubbock Avalanche- Journal, and by extension, the rest of the Lubbock media are trying to revise history. That is what Mister Greenberg’s latest editorial amounts to, revisionist history.
Essentially, Greenberg wants everyone to believe that the Avalanche-Journal did not have the whole story on Mike Leach and Texas Tech. He claims that the paper covers "both sides of the story". He seems to imply that it is Mike Leach’s fault that the paper did not have the whole story, since Leach did not sit down with the AJ and spoon feed it to them.
By the way, anyone who does not agree with him has a bias. Maybe he does not think that Lubbock readers are entitled to their own opinions. The fact is that a good number of people had what they believed to be the real story in January of 2010. That was two years ago and only a month after Mike Leach was fired from Texas Tech. So what story did these people believe they had?
They believed that Craig James had threatened to sue Texas Tech and use his influence at ESPN if Mike Leach was not fired. At that point, as the story goes, Chancellor Kent Hance panicked and fired Mike Leach over the objections of Athletic Director Gerald Myers and President Guy Bailey. Is that what happened in December of 2009? Maybe that is a question the AJ should have been asking all along.
That does, however, sound really close to what most people now believe happened. That is also what the available evidence, in the form of affidavits and other court documents, seems to suggest. Numerous people had heard this story or “rumor”, but had no way to confirm it. A large news organization like the Avalanche-Journal would have been needed to confirm it. If just normal people in Lubbock had heard this, it is ridiculous to think that the Avalanche-Journal along with other media outlets like television and radio stations had not heard the same thing.
To the surprise of no one, that story was never pursued in an effort to “cover both sides”. So now for the AJ to come back and talk about how they “cover both sides” amounts to revisionist history. All of the Lubbock media had to know what had really happened, but the story would not come out until much later and always the story came from someone outside of Lubbock. It seems it always came from Bruce Feldman, or Coach Leach’s book, or Colonel Lanning’s book, Double T Double Cross.
Sure the AJ can get away with asking the occasional tough question or run a story that does not reflect well on Texas Tech, up to a point. Mister Greenburg points out that the AJ asked tough questions and ran unflattering headlines about Texas Tech, following Tech’s 66-6 loss to Oklahoma State. That is like saying you are going to be critical of Craig James. It is easy and everyone is doing it.
Perhaps the AJ could ask tough questions at other times. Did they ask tough questions when Gerald Myers went on a local radio show and said that current Texas Tech Football Coach Tommy Tuberville contacted Texas Tech about the head coaching job weeks before there was any complaint against Mike Leach? Where was that story at? Did they ask tough questions about why the Leach legal team wanted to know what the relationship was between Texas Tech Chancellor Kent Hance and Doctor Kelley Overley? Did they “cover both sides” of those stories?
Mister Greenberg and the Avalanche-Journal have suddenly decided to talk the talk of covering both sides. Well, now it is time to walk the walk. So the public will be waiting for the AJ to ask some of these tough questions. Maybe the AJ could even fit in some tough questions about Raider Park while they are at it.
Comments