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Why It’s Not Unprofessional for MSU Writers to go after Ole Miss

By Josh Barnhill

Sep 5, 2015; Oxford, MS, USA; general view of the stadium before the game between the Mississippi Rebels and the Tennessee Martin Skyhawks at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 5, 2015; Oxford, MS, USA; general view of the stadium before the game between the Mississippi Rebels and the Tennessee Martin Skyhawks at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports /
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Plenty has been made of Steve Robertson’s pursuit of information into the NCAA investigation of Ole Miss athletics. 

I can pretty much guarantee when I write an article with Ole Miss as the central theme, or an article relating MSU to Ole Miss, within 10 minutes we’ll have multiple OM fans telling us “all you do is write about Ole Miss! I guess there isn’t anything to talk about in Starkville! You’re obsessed! When was the last time you wrote about Mississippi State?”

Even though 2% of our articles have Ole Miss as the central theme, this is the same tired defense mechanism they use. Over and over.

We write about Ole Miss from time to time because MSU fans are interested to read about things that reflect negatively on Ole Miss. That’s just a fact. So we do it, because honestly we don’t like Ole Miss either.

But we are just fans, so no one is going to call us “unprofessional”. I’m not a professional writer so I can’t un-be something I’m not (I’m sure that was horrible grammar but you see I don’t really care because I’m not a professional).

In the case of Steve Robertson, professional writer employed by Scout.com via Genespage.com, they attack him with the “unprofessional” label because instead of devoting all of his working time 100% to Mississippi State he has devoted a small portion of it to uncovering the truth behind the NCAA investigation at Ole Miss.

Basically he has been discussing it for some time based on information he’s gathered and he sent a freedom of information request to Ole Miss related to this investigation. (Creatively, Ole Miss got the NCAA to send all of this documentation to outside legal counsel rather than their own office, therefore, they are not bound by any freedom of information requests, so Steve didn’t really get any good details when they sent it back).

Steve has been talking about this story for a while. No one else was (in the “professional” media), and that’s why he was talking about it. He knew there was more than meets the eye, so he kept investigating because that’s what journalists do.

Ole Miss fans and media, while telling everyone there is nothing to see and the investigation is worthless, are go after Steve full force as if they are scared he will uncover something bad. Seems like they’d just let him spin his wheels if there’s nothing to see but what do I know.

Do you think Ole Miss media is going to investigate this? That’s like asking if the Democratic National Committee is going to lead the investigation on Hillary Clinton’s e-mails. No, it’s not going to happen. When there’s dirt on someone, it’s your enemy who will dig it up before anyone.

We’ll keep re-visiting this investigation into Ole Miss as things continue to unfold. Not only it is of interest to Mississippi State fans, but there’s not much other to discuss on this here MSU blog in mid-January when our basketball team is in last place.

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