Some items I didn’t post as individual notes this week, but probably should have. Here they are compiled for your convenience:

Do as I say, and not as I do!
Birmingham News sports editor Tom Arenberg called for Auburn University to hire a minority coach for its basketball program. He made the call earlier this week in the newspaper and in an interview on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network. (You can listen to it here.) If it sounds like “Do as I say, not as I do” then you are share the same perception that I have.

“In the sports department, specifically, we would like to have better representation of black editors and black reporters,” he said. “We’ve been under a hiring freeze for what, I don’t know, five years now. So, our efforts to do that have been slowed.”

I trust he is correct; however, if you were going to call on someone to embrace diversity, then it would be best to be sure that your department lives up to that standard too. Right? Otherwise you look like a hypocrite. His message is probably correct. It would be in Auburn’s interest to find a strong minority candidate. However, did anyone take the Birmingham News seriously after this revelation?

Poor Derek Dooley
Derek Dooley angered Tennessee fans and alums by running former players out of a workout session. It generated substantial buzz and conversation amongst Volunteer fans. This is pathetic. Unless Dooley gets to run his organization without interference, then it will become chaotic—I’m going to continue to predict Dooley will be UT’s Bill Curry until something up there changes. Too many chiefs are trying to run that program. This looks like the Alabama program before the arrival of Nick Saban. It is only going to get worse as UT looks to be a very poor team in 2010. Losses will only exacerbate what is obviously a power struggle within the UT family.

Speaking of Tennessee
Lane Kiffin is polling well in the Esquire Sexiest Woman Bracket. The former Tennessee coach has polled 58% of the vote or 44,295 votes as I write this. If you haven’t voted for the douchebag then please do so now.

George Will should be required reading
George Will had this to say about George W. Bush. “So, eschewing ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations,’ in 2001 President George W. Bush undertook the loopy idealism of preposterous expectations.” His column covers the problems in American education policy. Very good read.

11 thoughts on “A few Thursday notes”

  1. How about during down time, Capstone Report publishes information on players, spring practice, 2 and 3 deep progress reports, etc.?

  2. I wrote about the first practice and since break is upon us, there isn’t much new information. I think there are problems about going into depth charts and status updates right now. We just don’t know much of anything.

    I think the big news was what I wrote about after the first spring drill. Namely, that Saban was upbeat. He seemed at least somewhat pleased with the work of the team during the offseason program.

    However, anything else at this point is just speculation. To be honest, I’m not sure we’ll get much beyond speculation even by A-Day. I’m hopeful that won’t be the case and we’ll know a good deal more about the secondary by that point. We’ll just have to wait and see as spring unfolds.

  3. Cap, you’re right about Arenberg and the Bham News. In addition to their slanted stories toward Auburn(witness the Snews logo on the J-H scoreboard and the recent hire of Pam Siddell, an avowed Auburn fan), Arenberg and Scarbinsky are liberals, too. They’ve always played the race card trying to get Universities to hire blacks. They forget that MLK Jr. encouraged a color-blind society. Auburn, like Alabama and every other school, should hire the best coach, not a coach based on skin color.

    By the way, thanks for including George Will in your links. He’s brilliant and by far the best commentator on the American scene.

  4. Thanks for the note. I had intended to write something considerably longer about Arenberg’s appearance on the Finebaum show. However, there wasn’t much more that could be said other than the newspaper looked like a hypocrite by pointing out Auburn’s “problem” when it would seem to have its own “problem.”

    And Will’s columns over the last year have been his best.

  5. Tom is a fucking Liar.
    HE SAID THAT THE NEWS HAS HAD A HIRING FREEZE FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS.
    So how do you explain Ray Mellick ?

  6. I’m curious about your podcast? Can you see how many hits it has? Just wondering does anyone listen?

  7. Latest News.

    (Birmingham Al.)
    Today the Birmingham News broke the color barrier and set the trend for affirmitive action for decades to come.
    In a bold move that would have made the mighty Martin Luther King rejoice “WE HAVE OVERCOME” The news hired 7 minorities. 5 african americans and 2 hispanics to work in their environmental engineering department. Salaries are equally as impressive with compensation packages starting at $16,000 a year and skyrocketing to a massive $19,500 annually.
    Rumors had been circulating about a hiring freeze on the internet but Tom Arenberg stepped up and showed that the News is truley a diverse, informative and factually correct news source.

    Find out more in my next column.
    The Birmingham News poineers in Racial Hiring.

  8. Kevin you are truly a trailblazer worthy of recognition. It’s such a shame that with the dwindling readership of the Snews that fewer and fewer people are aware of your racial sensitivity. Maybe when the Snews finally goes out of business in 2-3 years you can travel the country with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

  9. I think that it shows Tom’s Knickers are down and we can see his panties.
    I don’t want the News and it’s suckass employees “posturing ” about Social Ills such as discrimination. The News needs to do what the Louisville Courier did – apologize for complicity in maintaining the Status Quo during the Civil Rights Era. I guess we could reference the News historical role in the State – as being the Mouthpiece of what was called by Professor Flynt as the “Big Mules” – but let’s not pile on here. The Hanson Family had to take care of it’s own – to the detriment of the rest of us ….
    Finally – The treatment of Solomon Crenshaw tells you all you need to know about the News. He’s been covering Youth sports for 25 years. Can’t even get a fucking Hot Corner.

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