One of the reasons i chose to be a journalist is the freedom to give my opinion in another light. I have always felt as if i can tell a story, but no one in the world could ever come close to how I saw it or how i would tell it. It beyond saddens me that a recent journalist was ordered to take down a tweet because it made someone uncomfortable. This might sound familiar to some news stories but like me this story has a background in sports.
Lynn Marshall who is the wife of Wichita State men’s basketball coach, Greg Marshall got a little out of control as she dropped the f bomb and was caught continuously cursing at refs, players and John Calapari as the Kentucky versus Wichita game came down to the last second. I get that the game was intense but cursing out college kids whereas some are even teenagers was a bit much. Anywho, Drew Franklin managed to catch some of the off court action on film (as most people naturally would) and posted the video to Twitter. The NCAA had a problem with this. They sought out Franklin and told him to take the video down. Despite the way she acted out at the game, the video showed not even half of the shenanigans Marshall displayed during the game but the video was to be taken down because “it made her upset”.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say if we had to delete any of our tweets because it made someone upset, you would give the biggest eye roll known to man and keep right on tweeting. Well, Franklin tried to upload the video once again and they asked him to take it down again. But the video ended up being reposted under another account. Now, the video is being discussed on a national level all because the NCAA was tripping.
My question why was this video so upsetting to the woman who was on it and why did Franklin have to take the video down? I wonder is Franklin under a contract to not be able to post factual content. Me, heading towards a career in sports broadcasting, completely disagree with the action called to take the video down. Mind you, this March Madness game was on TV with a packed audience. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t the only person in the world to post Lynn Marshall saying “shut the f-up” to John Calapari. I wonder why this video couldn’t be posted by him and at what level do we have to compromise our writes to report content. She was clearly associated with the game and couldn’t take responsibility for her actions. So, how is Franklin in the wrong? Deleting a video in which most people wouldn’t even be able to understand what was going on. I know when i watched it, I saw nothing too alarming. This lady was escorted from her seat by security and told to calm down several times and the video showed none of this.
Not only was Drew Franklin tweeting from his personal account, but the NCAA denies even telling Franklin to take it down, twice! A mysterious case still unsolved leaves me baffled. I guess the world may never know. I know no one asked for it, but my opinion that Lynn Marshall represents her husband as a coach. If she chose to act out in public; then, she should take full responsibility for her actions. I hope that doesn’t upset anyone.