Getting to the bottom of the Florida hat thing

Originally Published: Aug 18, 2010 8:42 PM CDT

This whole thing with the radio reporter in Arkansas losing her job for wearing a Florida Gators hat to a Razorback news conference has been pretty well discussed in most corners already, but one extension of it has been some media looking at the big picture of journalists and the internet and so forth.

Fellow Blitzers Dean, Toby and Chad all regularly work directly with either OU or OSU in addition to their jobs with Oklahoma Sports, as do I. We all try to maintain objectivity when covering a story, believe it or not.

Just to make it clear, when I’m working with the OSU radio crew during football games I wear an OSU shirt (orange, black, or white with an OSU logo) during the games. When it’s time to be on tv for Oklahoma Sports, I change out of that shirt and into a neutral one. I was once criticized by a viewer for wearing a blue shirt while reporting on the OSU-Missouri football game in Columbia. The viewer accused me of wearing the opposing team’s colors. Missouri’s colors, as many of you are aware, are black and gold. In other words, we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Never were on that trip.

In the end it matters what you’re wearing, but it matters even more how you treat those you’re covering. If it’s with fairness and objectivity, then it fits, whatever the color.