Why USC fans have trouble with Yahoo's reporting

The trick in dealing with all that we have read over bothe the Bush and Mayo investigations is being able to separate fact from fiction and emotion from calm. Most rational USC Fans, if there is such a thing as a rational fan, will wholeheartedly support whatever punishment against USC is handed down if the charges are found to be true and if the Punishment fits the crime.

We live in a society of checks and balances, we all understand that when you do something wrong or break the rules that you may have face the consequences of your actions. If you read any of the USC message boards you will find multiple people who will accept punishment if it's legitimate but what most people are upset about is how the story is getting out and being portrayed.

I'm sure Charles Robinson and Jason Cole are fine reporters but their reporting just seems incomplete to me. I really couldn't put my finger on it until I read this comment from Kleph over on RollBamaRoll.

i fully agree...

… but my point being this is still a story hinging on pretty much a single news source. yahoo can have all the evidence in the world but it’s still doesn’t know what decisions the NCAA will make about the case. so making prognostications about the program’s fate at this point is vastly premature.

take this passage from today’s story in the reputable bastion of Southern California journalism, the Los Angeles Times (my emphasis):

If the NCAA finds truth in this and other allegations previously made by Johnson, USC could be hit with major sanctions, including forfeitures of victories, probation, a ban on postseason play, the loss of television appearances or scholarship and recruiting restrictions.

thats a pretty massive set of qualifiers attributed to a guy who plainly admits he has zero information on the actual information the NCAA is examining.

and, on a related note, why hasn’t anyone contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office, FBI and IRS who have allegedly been informed of this transaction? the info is just thrown out there without nothing to back it up – not even the seemingly obligatory ‘no comment.’

In those few short paragraph's Kleph pretty much nails it.

Again, if the story is true SC should and will face punishment. Heads should roll and I am not talking about a few token firings...Floyd is obvious but Garrett would have to go as well as this happened on his watch. Those who run the compliance office should also get the axe.

Kleph eloquently states what many hot-headed SC fans have been trying to say.

That no other major LA news source or any major Sports outlet (outside of ESPN's original OTL report) has done any investigation of their own, gives the impression that there is an Axe to grind. I have read all the recent reports where Johnson's attorney has stated that the NCAA believes Johnson's account...

Really?

Does anyone actually believe that Salerno would say anything different? I mean he is representing him so I would expect him to spin it in the most positive way possible. How does Salerno know that? He has to do his best to rehabilitate his clients image. If the NCAA told him that then did they also tell him what plans they have for USC in regards to punishment? Did they share any of the "other" evidence that they supposedly have? I just can't believe the word of an attorney whose job it is to look out for the best interests of his/her client.

Kleph's emphasis on the "IF's" and "COULD BE's" is where chasm widens. For example other than Johnson's attorney, via Yahoo!, is it being reported anywhere that Johnson really did talk to the feds? There simply isn't any independent source that backs that claim up. It's just recycled in all the major news papers without any corroboration.

I mean anyone can jump to conclusions based on a few snippets of reporting. As Kleph also notes that NO ONE has even been given a no comment form the federal agencies involved should raise a red flag. Are we supposed to believe Louis Johnson just because he says so? He has credibility issues and he has a motive to "sell" his story. So, Yahoo is spoon feeding us the version of one person who has an axe to grind without any other evidence to back it up.

And we are supposed to believe it?

Yet, Robinson claims they have talked to dozens of sources with pristine records...

We’ve got dozens of sources who have contributed to our reports and who have pristine records. So to say that everyone behind these reports is a felon is simply not true. That said, absolutely, some of the sources of these allegations do have records. But these are also people who spent years of their lives – years – in friendships or financial relationships with Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo.

OK, so who are they. Yahoo's reporting hinges on the story of an unsavory character yet hey claim to have spoken to many sources who are "pristine". We would like to know who they are to see if they stand up to scrutiny. At this point Robinson's comments just seem incomplete.

SC fans would like to see a sense of balance in the reporting of this story, I mean there isn't a single person or a piece of evidence that put some doubt in this whole sorrid tale? That's why many USC fans Can't and Won't take Yahoo! seriously. They have had three years to nail the Bush thing down but we are still no closer to seeing that end. They are such a stellar reporting outfit that it took them almost a year to "break" the story about Floyd being his own bagman when the feds allegedly had it for a year? Why did Johnson wait so long to let everyone else know about Floyd when he openly told the Feds about it a year ago?

If they had this info a year ago this story would have closed a long time ago because it would have put pressure on the NCAA to act. Instead they drag it out like some Chinese water torture test.

That's why USC fans are pissed...