The Arrest of a Division I Basketball Star is Not News

Written By: Robert Cox

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Last week Talk of the Sound reported the arrest of Iona College Basketball star David Laury on an assault charge in New Rochelle, NY but no mention was made of the arrest in the coverage of the team’s game against Rider the next night.

Laury, a senior forward one one of the best teams in its conference, was named the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year by the league’s coaches last month. You might think Laury’s arrest would be newsworthy — especially with all the coverage of Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson — but in the days after the arrest there was no reporting on the arrest at all except for Talk of the Sound.

One has to question the lack of reporting given that every media outlet in the area follows Talk of the Sound as a sort of “tip sheet” for New Rochelle stories.

I have spoken on the topic of “Access Bias” many times at Graduate Journalism Schools, Journalism Conferences, Political/Media events and new media conferences.

Access Bias is the journalistic version of Stockholm Syndrome — where reporters place the needs of their “captors” about the needs of the readers they are presumed to serve. Reporters work hard to develop insider sources and get close to decision-makers and those in power and then do not want to jeopardize those relationships by reporting something those people do not want made public.

This creates a dilemma for reporters — do you tell readers what you know now when you may not be able to tell them something else later because you are later shut out from your sources. In choosing to remain quite, reporters end up cooperating with their sources in misleading their audience.

For mainstream media outlets, it has become the path towards obsolescence — it is why people to turn to Drudge Report, VICE or TMZ instead of traditional media outlets when they want to know about exit poll data, what ISIS fighters think or what Ray Rice did to his girlfriend. If the New York Times or Sports Illustrated won’t run it, someone else will.

It is the prime value of an independent media outlet, outsiders who are not afraid to lose access because they do not have access. This tension is one of the primary reason that poll after poll show journalism to be among the least trusted professions, hovering around Congressman and car salespeople.

In the Laury case, there were three media reports about the game which made various references to Laury’s absence none of which explained the cause.

The Journal News: Minus David Laury, Iona speeds up to beat Rider

  • Few teams in the country play basketball as fast as Iona, but the Gaels shifted their tempo up another gear Wednesday against Rider. They had no choice, playing without star forward David Laury, the team’s leading rebounder.
  • “We laughed about that in the locker room,” coach Tim Cluess said. “We said, ‘Guys, this is an opportunity to play even faster and go even smaller than normal. Let’s have some fun with it.’ I think our guys did.”
  • “David was out and I felt like I had to do what the team needed,” English said.
  • Cluess declined comment on the absence of Laury, who missed the game due to a violation of team rules. Laury is the team’s second-leading scorer (16.6 points per game) and leading rebounder (7.4 per game).

AP/Myrtle Beach Online: English scores 30 as Iona tops Rider 77-64

  • Iona senior starter David Laury did not play because of an apparent rules violation.

The Trentonian: Rider can’t hang with shorthanded Iona

  • On a night when Iona didn’t have the preseason league Player of the Year, Rider head coach Kevin Baggett could only lament the opportunity his team missed.
  • With David Laury suspended for a violation of team rules, the high-octane Gaels simply turned to their other all-league star.
  • “On a night when David Laury isn’t playing, one of their best players, we have to take advantage of it and we didn’t do it,” Baggett said. “That’s discouraging.”
  • Cluess didn’t comment on when Laury might return, so English has to be the guy to step up.
  • Cluess joked that without Laury, the Gaels’ only legitimate big man, they could go even smaller and play faster.

The AP story is likely a condensed version of the Journal News article so there are really two reports — each from a beat reporter assigned to cover one of the two teams, Iona College Men’s Basketball (Josh Thomson/Journal News) and Rider Men’s Basketball (Kyle Franko/The Trentonian).

On Saturday December 13th, I sent an email to Thomson at the Journal News.

From: Robert Cox
Date: , 2014 at 10:49:37 AM EST
Subject: David Laury
To: jthomson@lohud.com

Josh,

I read your article about the Iona-Rider game. I am a bit mystified.

Are you NOT aware that David Laury was arrested the night before?

The article repeatedly references the absence of David Laury including Cluess saying the team joked about it in the locker room — laughing…let’s have some fun with it…etc.

Ultimately we get “Cluess declined comment on the absence of Laury, who missed the game due to a violation of team rules.”

Apparently, the rule he violated is “don’t get arrested for assault while wearing your Iona College warm up gear”.

I see a twitter handle of “lohudinsider” under your story. What good is being an INSIDER if you don’t know that one of the team’s top players is out indefinitely due to being charged with Assault-3rd? And if you do know but do not say then whose interests are being served? Certainly not the readers.

Robert Cox
Publisher and Managing Editor

Thomson did not reply directly but did respond through Twitter within two hours, credited Talk of the Sound and followed up with the team, noting that Laury would play that night.

To his further credit, Thomson did then question Iona College, David Laury and Head Coach Tim Cluess about the arrest — none would comment. Thomson also added some additional reporting — that the assault involved Laury’s roommate.

Iona’s David Laury scores career-high days after arrest

  • Just days after serving a one-game suspension stemming from an arrest Tuesday night, Iona College star David Laury scored a career-high 30 points in a 91-84 victory over Indiana State.
  • Laury, a 6-foot-9 senior and the MAAC preseason player of the year, was arrested for misdemeanor assault Tuesday in New Rochelle after an altercation with his roommate at 52 Colgini Ave., a non-campus house located less than a mile south of campus. The victim was not identified, but is believed to be a fellow student.
  • Laury turned himself in around 11:30 Tuesday night.
  • The big man, who is second on the team in scoring and first in rebounding, served a one-game suspension for what was deemed a violation of team rules in Wednesday’s home win over Rider. It was the first disciplinary action taken against Laury since he enrolled at Iona in Jan. 2012.
  • The school, head coach Tim Cluess and Laury declined comment following Saturday’s game.
  • “I don’t have any comment,” Laury said following Saturday’s victory. “I’m just here to talk about the game.”

    • “I just wanted to come out and have my teammates’ back like they had my back Wednesday night,” Laury said.

The Associated Press version did not mention Laury’s arrest.

AP/Macon Telegraph: Laury leads Iona over Indiana State 91-84