Update: Meiners confirms he’s out.
Our friend over at KSR is tweeting this morning that WHAS personality Terry Meiners has been replaced on all U of L broadcasts because of criticism of the school administration.
Matt Jones is also claiming that U of L is not giving access to Rick Pitino because of the station’s coverage of Karen Sypher.
Don’t know if this is true, but do know that Jones is friends with Meiners, and does the UK post-game call-in shows on WHAS. So it stands to reason he has his sources.
And thanks to @BigBlueBass, who led us to this Meiners-Pitino interview from years past.
Makes your comrade Jerry Tipton’s article bashing UK’s approach to the media seem rather silly now doesn’t it?
While the media is completely unable to take criticism about the profession and receives way too much protection in the courts (see Gary Parrish claiming that the reason Anthony Davis didn’t want to go to court was because he did not want to be under oath on the stand and not the ridiculous hurdle he would be required to overcome to win on charges of slander since he would likely be viewed as a ‘public person’), I would hope that the media calls Jurich out for being the douchebag that he is.
Also, kinda makes your previous stance on the pettiness of Keightley’s actions in not wanting to work with someone that is a UL fan seem rather benign given UL’s cowardly and gutless actions.
How exactly can UL or Pitino deny access to a TV station when they obviously have some form of contract to do a weekly coaches show? Will UL & Pitino independently produce and film their coaches show, and give the tape to WHAS 11 to put on TV?
Jurich is nothin short of pathetic.
Now BOTH of the Major schools in Kentucky officially SUCK. My Bubble has been burst!
Is this China?
There is a sinking ship in Louisville and Jurich and Pitino are captains. I bailed when they funded an abortion.
Paul: First of all, Jerry didn’t bash UK. That was syndicated columnist Bob Watkins who did the bashing. Jerry just blogged about it. Second, I do think it’s interesting that those who said that blog post was bush league are loving this story. Depends on your point of view.
The constant bickering and insults traded between the two major universities in the state is pathetic. Don’t Kentucky fans have enough brain cells to support both teams. It is fine to favor one or the other in head to head competition but the constant bashing is sophmoric and diminishes the good qualities of both schools and their teams.
John :
Respectfully disagree on both accounts. By giving Watkins a platform to Watkins’ viewpoint, in my opinion, Tipton is at least implicitly supporting Watkins. That said, I believe that the LHL initially made the correct call in pulling the post. It was a silly article about a journalist’s childish overreaction to UK’s necessary policy. I’m not really sure why Jones made a big deal about the article being pulled, because in my opinion, that’s what should have happened.
Also, there are several factual differences between this story and the Keightley story that are particularly relevant : (1) UL is punishing someone for doing their job, the Sypher trial was very newsworthy and actually didn’t receive the news coverage that it should have; (2) WHAS owes no duty of loyalty to UL since UL isn’t WHAS’ employer; (3) WHAS has a contract with UL to do the coaches show and it seems to me that UL is not fulfilling their end of the bargain in good faith, here I’m assuming that Andy was an at-will employee of the university.
Kyn,
There is only 1 team of the commonwealth. UL is an embarrassment. Plain and simple. It’s immoral to support such a place considering all that is going on in the basketball department.
If WHAS is still doing the show, just not with Meiners, then it doesn’t seem to make sense that this would be because of a rift between WHAS and UL. It sounds like a rift between Meiners and UL.
Meiners was publically very critical of his seats in the new arena. Maybe this is the root of the issue?
I’d also take anything Matt Jones has to say concerning UL with a large grain of salt. He tries to bring UL down constantly, spinning things to the extreme at every opportunity. To call him unbiased would be putting things way too lightly. He seems obsessed with his hatred for UL.
Matt Jones is the only reporter that is left who isn’t owned. Because you don’t like him doesn’t make it untrue.
Loserville is pathetic
You guys crack me up. Because UL is parting ways with Terry Meiners you have now come up with conspiracy theories about UL, Jurich and WHAS. As far as UL being immoral, there is the pot calling the kettle black. UL paying for abortions? God forbid you read the court file where Sypher’s own attorney admitted she chose to have an abortion at the first ultrasound, before Pitino even knew she was pregnant. God forbid the facts of a federal court case get in the way of the Matt Jones/Big Blue agenda. If UK fans want to talk about the transgressions of their coaches why don’t you do your due diligence on your new football coach and his mid-80′s indictment and appearance before a Fayette County Grand Jury. You want to talk about scumbags? This guy has the priors to prove it.