A lot of attacks on FSU since we arrived for the title matchup with Auburn. I been procrastinating on writing the letter, thought i would share it here.
To Whom It May Concern (and also including Mr. Dufresne and Mr. Plaschke);
I have been an LA Times subscriber now for many years.
However, after careful thought (over a period of over a year now), I have decided to cancel my subscription.
The reason is completely due to a number of personal slights that I have felt due to attacks on my alma mater, Florida State University, and in particular our football program.
Personal slight #1: Mr. Plaschke’s column from 12/31/2014 entitled “Unwanted Florida State and baggage arrive on Pasadena's doorstep”, where I took offense to being called "baggage", or that FSU Seminoles “make your skin crawl” (was that fans or players or coaches or all of us Bill?). Wonder if that had been Oregon or another Pac-12 school if you would have written the same byline?
The only “baggage” is the fish wrap you call the LA Times “Sports” section and since an apology never came (why would it, you were attacking a school 2000 miles away), which I knew it wouldnt, your newspaper isnt worth of my cash anymore.
You called Coach Fisher a “national symbol for everything wrong with college sports leadership” for protecting his players, yet you neglected to mention ANY of his charitable work most of it involving the Kidz1stFund and his very personal fight against Fanconi anemia (his son has that but you didn’t mention this at all in your “story”)
How is he a national symbol of everything wrong with college sports, when you just have to look down I-10 a mile or so from the LA Times building to USC (the “Sarkisian and Hayden” Mighty Crap show) for that instead?
Where was any retraction or mention of Fisher’s good deeds? Nah. Instead, you just left it as something you thought was funny or cute, and slighted Coach Fisher in the worst possible way. Totally classless and uncalled for. But Ha Ha Ha, you probably helped a lot of Angelenos to make up their minds about him.
None of this was really “journalism”. They were opinions, and although perhaps “funny” to the uninformed readers on the West coast, none were funny to me.
By the way, other than a $32 citation, what did Jameis Winston do that was all that bad? Oh yeah, he said a curse word. Which no one except a handful of students heard, chuckled and tweeted it out. And stole some root beer in a ketchup cup.
USC’s Steve Sarkisian cursed in public, much worse – it was all on tape in front of everyone and he WASN’T suspended, so where are your articles talking the talk about USC in the same way?
Personal slight #2: Mr. Dufresne’s column from 10/31/2014 entitled “Florida State is tough to root for, but Seminoles won’t be Stopped” where you made false insinuations regarding Karlos Williams and Jameis Winston. With regard to Karlos, you made the statement “The same player has also been named in a Tallahassee Police Department incident report as a possible witness to a robbery connected to a drug deal that went bad last summer.”, which, the way it was written, simply tries to connect him to a robbery he had nothing to do with.
When I read the statement to a co-worker, they said, well, if he’s involved in a robbery and a drug deal, he must have been doing something bad. WHAT?????
That’s because of the way you worded it, Mr. Dufresne, and I hope you are never a witness to a bad crime, and someone mentions you in the same way.
Your words here were very tricky weren’t they? This wasn’t journalism either. It was writing things in a way you thought was to go along with the national narrative at the time, and was simply one-sided and unfair.
My last straw: Personal slight #3: Mr. Dufresne’s column from 8/21/2015 entitled “No. 12 Seminoles Still Have Off field issues”, where the statement “Only a fool would write these off as two more isolated incidents” really got to me.
I guess I am a fool then. A fool for giving the LA Times my money when Mr. Dufresne thinks I am a fool.
Somehow trying to link the 2 incidents as a “program-wide issue” at FSU was yet another example of irresponsible journalism. Mr. Cook was eventually found “not guilty” in a court of law (no retraction for calling me a fool though), the other kid mentioned, a five star recruited QB, was booted from the team immediately for what he did.
Perhaps Mr. Dufresne and Mr. Plaschke should concentrate more on the very sad states of the 2 local teams big time college football teams.
Where is the name calling and person attacks on character of players, coaches, fans, and athletic directors?
To me, how are these any “better” than anything that EVER happened at FSU?
The media narrative has made FSU’s problems out seemingly to be limited to FSU, and only to FSU, rather than what they really are – simply microcosms of college football in general
Good luck guys, it was fun reading you for the most part, but a lot of this was simply uncalled for, mean spirited and very nasty.
Personal slights against my alma mater and me?
No thanks. I’ll pass.
To Whom It May Concern (and also including Mr. Dufresne and Mr. Plaschke);
I have been an LA Times subscriber now for many years.
However, after careful thought (over a period of over a year now), I have decided to cancel my subscription.
The reason is completely due to a number of personal slights that I have felt due to attacks on my alma mater, Florida State University, and in particular our football program.
Personal slight #1: Mr. Plaschke’s column from 12/31/2014 entitled “Unwanted Florida State and baggage arrive on Pasadena's doorstep”, where I took offense to being called "baggage", or that FSU Seminoles “make your skin crawl” (was that fans or players or coaches or all of us Bill?). Wonder if that had been Oregon or another Pac-12 school if you would have written the same byline?
The only “baggage” is the fish wrap you call the LA Times “Sports” section and since an apology never came (why would it, you were attacking a school 2000 miles away), which I knew it wouldnt, your newspaper isnt worth of my cash anymore.
You called Coach Fisher a “national symbol for everything wrong with college sports leadership” for protecting his players, yet you neglected to mention ANY of his charitable work most of it involving the Kidz1stFund and his very personal fight against Fanconi anemia (his son has that but you didn’t mention this at all in your “story”)
How is he a national symbol of everything wrong with college sports, when you just have to look down I-10 a mile or so from the LA Times building to USC (the “Sarkisian and Hayden” Mighty Crap show) for that instead?
Where was any retraction or mention of Fisher’s good deeds? Nah. Instead, you just left it as something you thought was funny or cute, and slighted Coach Fisher in the worst possible way. Totally classless and uncalled for. But Ha Ha Ha, you probably helped a lot of Angelenos to make up their minds about him.
None of this was really “journalism”. They were opinions, and although perhaps “funny” to the uninformed readers on the West coast, none were funny to me.
By the way, other than a $32 citation, what did Jameis Winston do that was all that bad? Oh yeah, he said a curse word. Which no one except a handful of students heard, chuckled and tweeted it out. And stole some root beer in a ketchup cup.
USC’s Steve Sarkisian cursed in public, much worse – it was all on tape in front of everyone and he WASN’T suspended, so where are your articles talking the talk about USC in the same way?
Personal slight #2: Mr. Dufresne’s column from 10/31/2014 entitled “Florida State is tough to root for, but Seminoles won’t be Stopped” where you made false insinuations regarding Karlos Williams and Jameis Winston. With regard to Karlos, you made the statement “The same player has also been named in a Tallahassee Police Department incident report as a possible witness to a robbery connected to a drug deal that went bad last summer.”, which, the way it was written, simply tries to connect him to a robbery he had nothing to do with.
When I read the statement to a co-worker, they said, well, if he’s involved in a robbery and a drug deal, he must have been doing something bad. WHAT?????
That’s because of the way you worded it, Mr. Dufresne, and I hope you are never a witness to a bad crime, and someone mentions you in the same way.
Your words here were very tricky weren’t they? This wasn’t journalism either. It was writing things in a way you thought was to go along with the national narrative at the time, and was simply one-sided and unfair.
My last straw: Personal slight #3: Mr. Dufresne’s column from 8/21/2015 entitled “No. 12 Seminoles Still Have Off field issues”, where the statement “Only a fool would write these off as two more isolated incidents” really got to me.
I guess I am a fool then. A fool for giving the LA Times my money when Mr. Dufresne thinks I am a fool.
Somehow trying to link the 2 incidents as a “program-wide issue” at FSU was yet another example of irresponsible journalism. Mr. Cook was eventually found “not guilty” in a court of law (no retraction for calling me a fool though), the other kid mentioned, a five star recruited QB, was booted from the team immediately for what he did.
Perhaps Mr. Dufresne and Mr. Plaschke should concentrate more on the very sad states of the 2 local teams big time college football teams.
Where is the name calling and person attacks on character of players, coaches, fans, and athletic directors?
To me, how are these any “better” than anything that EVER happened at FSU?
- UCLA’s punter Adam Searle arrested for rape
- UCLA’s players families (Diddy) making terrorist threats and felony assault threats against football staff
- UCLA’s Ishmael Adams arrested on felony robbery charges
- UCLA’s Torian White arrested on sexual assault charges
- UCLA’s water polo star Hakop Kaplanyan charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, false imprisonment by violence, possession of matter depicting a minor engaging in sexual conduct, and two felony counts each of foreign object and assault with intent to commit rape (in case you forgot, also faced a misdemeanor count of sexual battery by restraint).
- USC’s Steve Sarkisian’s aforementioned cursing in public, Hayden’s hiring of him with known substance abuse issues, and coaching games and attending meetings all while intoxicated
- USC’s Josh Shaw and his sad and pathetic “fake pool” rescue story
- USC’s Don Hill’s DUI (why are there no stories linking his drinking to his coach’s drinking problem? Sure seems fair to me right? If the coach is drinking, its OK for him to do it right? right?)
- USC’s Junior Pomee and his five felonies
The media narrative has made FSU’s problems out seemingly to be limited to FSU, and only to FSU, rather than what they really are – simply microcosms of college football in general
Good luck guys, it was fun reading you for the most part, but a lot of this was simply uncalled for, mean spirited and very nasty.
Personal slights against my alma mater and me?
No thanks. I’ll pass.
