Brett Shipp Gets Folks Fired Up Again
Didn’t see Channel 8 News last night, but got an email from a high-school sport-watching FBvian who takes issue with Shipp’s story on how a South Oak Cliff player may or may not have been ineligible to play a tournament last year.
The SOC player in question might well have been ineligible but there are plenty of logical explanations to why he was not. And the report was full of holes.
- The grade card shown that had a 50 in the English III class showed the grade being for the first six weeks. That would have no impact on whether the kid would be eligibile for the basketball tournament in Feb.
- The UIL guy was talking about state policy being violated for the kid dropping the English III course because he had a D. What the UIL guy said was wrong. There is no statewide policy. Each school district sets its own drop policy.
- Shipp’s interview of the SOC coach in the gym was cut off but the coach when he asked Shipp if he had permission to be there. People — even crusading journalists — just can’t walk into schools when they please. They need to report to the office and obtain a visitor’s pass.
- The fact that the 50 was changed to a 73 _ again, in the first six-week grading period _ is not unusual. The student might have done extra credit work to raise his grade.
- Someone obviously gave Channel 8 the documents with the player’s grade info. Federal privacy laws are supposed to prevent grades from being released unless the student or his parents give permission. I guess if someone slipped Shipp an envelope with the information, then he’s one special investigative reporter.
I realize that it’s sweep’s month but that was a shabby example of gotcha journalism.
11 Comments to “Brett Shipp Gets Folks Fired Up Again”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
Who is “sweep” and why is this his month?
mauahahaha! Great catch mediawonk. By the way, as to the why of the gotcha journalism, well, SOMEbody has to keep Rebecca Aguilar’s tradition alive.
If Belo reporters were thorough and even-handed in their reporting of Dallas ISD, they wouldn’t have the headline stories to match their script.
Remember, they’ve reported on a $200,000 theft SIXTY-TWO times mostly on page one. When Dallas Achieves received $3 million in support from the business community, it was buried in Metro.
OK, here’s a thought. Let’s suppose he had failed…then he got kicked out of basketball and then he drops out and then he joins a gang or whatever stereotype you want to grab. Or let’s suppose the teacher did give him extra credit and pass him (his or her prerogative) and he goes on to play basketball at a junior college of which he would have never played for if he had failed. Hmmm…sometimes the no pass no play gets taken to the extreme. This boy obviously worked hard, or he’d never have been on a championship team. Oh, and about the documents, yeah, those are illegal to have if the student and parents didn’t give permission.
These mini-Mike Wallaces are really a scourge. Their stories fail to provide any context that allows a viewer to come to his own conclusion about whatever “outrage” is being reported. Is allowing a student to play in February if he had a “D” on his report card in October a problem? Maybe, maybe not. Brett Shipp won’t provide enough information to let me decide. In fact, his story depends on obscuring information, which is exactly the opposite of good journalism. Bad as Brett Shipp is, Bennett Cunningham at Channel 11 even worse.
How about some scrutiny directed at Frisco ISD, the ‘hot’ school district which produces fewer National Merit Semi-finalists than some individual DISD schools?
It is **** like this that creates more Michael Vicks.
It is called equality…..James Izzard
Brett Shipp a lowlife yellow journalist? Shipp needs to go back to his topless bar investigations (his forte) and leave DISD alone. He rode into WFAA on Bert Shipp’s coattails and has been an embarrasment ever since.
As far as Shipp’s source for the illegally obtained documents it would not be the first time that he has knowingly used a convicted felon as a source if that proves to be the case. His ethics are highly questionable.
Well, it appears that WFAA was right. SOC officially forfeited their state title today. Not so many holes now, eh?
A couple of the information points Eric Celeste made are either wrong or misleading. There is a state policy regarding dropping failing courses. The actual number of weeks depends on what type of schedule the school uses.
Also, grades are not routinely changed. Grades can be changed due to errors or because of make-up work due to absences, according to district policy. “Extra credit” doesn’t fit the bill (at least in terms of determing eligibility - the teacher can change the grade, but the student would still be ineligible).