Add “muzzling” to the Texas rap sheet
The Longhorns have had 10 players arrested for all sorts of criminal conduct this year, but that fact did not stop an assistant athletic director from trying to suppress the student newspaper’s reporting that backup QB John Chiles was a suspect in an Austin police investigation into an assault.
Assistant AD John Bianco wrote threatening emails to the Daily Texan, claiming its reports of public statments made by the Austin Police Department were “untruthful”, and further stating the Texan’s relationship with the football program would be hurt. Bianco said that when potential employers of the student newsmen would learn of the reporting it would “hurt you in the long run,” the newspaper editor reported.
Of course many Texas fans probably think the student paper is wrong for reporting any wrongdoing by its elite athletes. And one can question whether reporting that someone who has not been arrested is a “suspect” is a good idea or not; but, the big bad athletic department trying to coerce student journalists from reporting a fact about something which is of great public interest is far worse.
I imagine the folks in Austin are bit testy about their public image right now. They have probably seen too many of those t-shirts floating around the rest of the conference showing the broken longhorns in handcuffs. — Mike