ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611140002
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTER
Dear Neighbors:
While it is not uncommon for me to question your department's choice of what is newsworthy material, rarely do I encounter an item that is as insulting and unenlightening - not to mention laughable - as Bob Teitlebaum's column in the Oct. 18 Neighbors (Woops! VHSL drops the ball on accuracy).
To begin with, Teitlebaum's lambasting of the Virginia High School League for its negligence in producing printed material fraught with errors is equally fraught with irony. Misspellings, misidentifications and other forms of misinformation, for which the VHSL is blameless, are rather commonplace in Teitlebaum's stories on Roanoke-area prep sports.
Frequently - quite frequently, I dare say - his reporting is not entirely accurate, but the harm is rarely more than a player's fractured ego because a teammate has been credited with his interception or her clutch free throw. Still, many of my fellow coaches and I were amused at Teitlebaum's baseless arrogance.
Worse than being laughable, however, is the fact that Teitlebaum's column is also insulting. It not only insults high school coaches and athletic directors, but it also levies an unfair censure of public schools. Teitlebaum implies that a significant reason why information is occasionally incorrect is because coaches and ADs are delinquent in providing information to the newspaper.
The fact is, the majority of Teitlebaum's mistakes are due to his own oversights or flawed gathering of information, and to insist that coaches and ADs are profoundly culpable for his blunders is nothing less than a weak attempt at creating a scapegoat. My experience tells me that most coaches tend to accommodate Teitlebaum the best they can, but quite often their schedules preclude them from fulfilling all his requests for information.
And how is one to interpret Teitlebaum commenting how he is ``appalled to see the VHSL, which is an organization run by public schools, make so many miscues?'' Is he seriously insinuating that the quality of printed material provided by the the VHSL is in any way a reflection of the quality of education that is provided by Virginia public schools?
If the circulation manager at The Roanoke Times distributes a memo with faulty grammar, may it be assumed that the people who work for your newspaper cannot write? The VHSL is not a division of the state's public school system, but it is not in the business of educating. ``Appalled,'' Mr. Teitlebaum? If anyone has a right to be appalled, it is the educators whom you have indirectly implicated by this ridiculous statement.
As far as my claim that Teitlebaum's column was unenlightening, I ask your department to consider this: Does a column criticizing the VHSL for producing error-laden publications really interest the average reader? The materials in question rarely find their way to anyone but agents of the media and school personnel. So, big deal. ... Face it. It was a self-serving diatribe that accomplished very little, if anything at all.
Vic Brancati
Roanoke
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB