JerryTipton must be Fired!

BUMP for that crotchety old man

Sorry Tyranny22.  I didn't intend for the statement to discourage signatures, I figured that Tipton's antics were well-known to most UK fans by now. 

In a nutshell, Tipton recently contacted the parents of two of UK's most recent verbal commitments, Vinny Zollo & Michael Avery;  he openly questioned their kid's decisions, while attempting to shed a negative light on coach Billy Gillispie.  His questions included the parent's knowledge of grueling practices, and citing a direct correlation to players being injured as a result of his methods--supposedly dating back to his days coaching at UTEP.  He also asked if they knew about Gillispie's previous run-ins with the law, and his supposed alcohol abuse.  The parents themselves even told another reporter that they were uncomfortable with several of Tipton's questioning, because they perceived them as negative reflections on the program, and even the state-- Zollo's mother has reportedly said that Tipton even inferred that Lexington is a bad place to live.

I will be the first to say that I am all for objective journalism; but when your work does more to hinder the program that you cover (and the program that essentially keeps you employed), a line has been crossed.  If this was a sportswriter from Durham, NC or Knoxville, TN (or pretty much anywhere besides KY) I would understand; but to act in a negative way as a direct representative of the state is uncalled for and just plain wrong.     

Jerry Tipton is such a jerk.  He is part of the reason for the problems at UK years ago.  I have never seen a local paper trash the hometown university like Tipton and some of the other writers do.  Not only does Tipton need to go but Story and Clay also.

Petition signed

I appreciate the spirit.  However, the petition won't work.  All that will do is create exposure to the paper and show that people at least read their product.  If you wan't to hit them where it hurts, then ask people to stop taking the paper for 1 month all at the same time.  See if you can get 40K subscibers to not read the LHL for 1 month, two weeks would probably work.  Then you would get some level of action.

This guy does this with all UK sports, I mean what he is saying is no different than what all the rest of the media outlet says but I would agree that the hometown paper should be looking for the positive story and not the negative.

How about posting a link to his column bashing UK? Honestly, who in their right minds would waste their entire adult life writing about something they hate? And as for Clay and Story, Bourbon, give us a break. These guys write great columns about UK and if you bothered to read them daily, which I doubt you do, you would know that.