Fair Game

Should everybody get a ribbon? Should no one?

In case you were reading last night, I can't give you the full news of upcoming broadcasts. Nothing is confirmed. Could be a nice run, albeit short. I should have some confirmation tomorrow.

In other news, I hope you saw Ichiro depart baseball today. The all-time great decided to walk away in his native Japan today. It made for wonderful theater and served as a reminder of the greatness of the game of baseball.

March Madness is off and rolling. A mix of good and bad games, as always. My bracket is the usual: so-so.

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As a broadcaster who has covered so many youth sports events, I've long believed, and have preached, that criticism of the athletes we cover has to walk a delicate line. It certainly can't be personal, and even the language used is important.

Still, if they make a bad play, we try to report it fairly. Off the field stuff is even dicier, and we address it on a case-by-case basis. There have been very few complaints in nearly 20 years, so I figure we've done something right.

By playing sports, these athletes have put themselves into the spotlight. The same goes for young broadcasters, yet there is this belief that they're above any criticism.

Of course, I call baloney. Literally, every young broadcaster that has worked with me -- from Matt Hamilton to Jake Zimmer to Dan Gardella -- has dealt with criticism and critiques from me.

Last summer, I had both Matt Bonaparte and Chris Bello working with me on Doubleheader. Both were recent graduates of Greenwich High School and brought their opinions to the show. Things would get fierce at times, and I could almost sense a look in their eyes that I was beating them up.

Then we'd go to break.

"Good work, boys," I'd say. Quickly, they'd get it. This was (hopefully) teaching them to be tougher broadcasters.

They stepped into the fire, and they came out better for it. Not because of me, but because it was honest. It's a credit to them.

Not everyone gets that.

So it was that I read this letter to the New Canaan Advertiser today. The writer objects to the publication of the honor roll in the newspaper.

Now, in theory, I agree to an extent. I've never believed in judging people by degrees or grades or GPA's. I'm not a fan of tests, knowing all too well that I use to blank out on stuff I knew off the top of my head. I still believe experience is the best form of knowledge (aka "practice makes perfect").

Indeed some papers don't run the honor roll, and in Wilton, the Board of Education stopped sending the honor roll to the Wilton Bulletin.

The letter writer says "...by publishing the Honor Roll in the paper, students are being conditioned to believe that their value is determined by our grades."

Moving ahead, she adds: "It is as if every student is expected to be the valedictorian of his or her class. And yet we wonder why teens all over, and especially teens in New Canaan, have been facing declining mental health."

So we're blaming students' mental health partially on the New Canaan Advertiser?

From there, it's apparently also a FERPA violation.

So is this the everybody gets a trophy, or nobody gets a trophy at all phenomenon?

Incidentally, I couldn't help but notice that nobody has commented on the letter as of this writing.

As the letter writer is a student, she thus becomes "Just A Kid" (capitalization intentional).

Let me be clear: my bigger point here isn't to criticize her, because heaven forbid one actually does. I admire her for speaking up, but doesn't she also run the risk of the criticism? Isn't that fair?

David Hogg became the outspoken survivor of the 2018 shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. The minute he put himself in the spotlight -- one that he craved -- he was open to criticism.

That should go for everyone, regardless of age.

Do students really stress over not being on the honor roll? I'm sure there are those who do but is it an overall thing? I'll leave the decision to print it to others above my pay grade (read: EVERYONE), but I respectfully have a hard time believing the mere publication of the honor roll, provided by New Canaan Board of Education, can be this stress-inducing.

Still, it appears that the writer should take her case to the Board of Ed, doesn't it?

Her problem shouldn't be with the newspaper.