If you remember a few days ago I wrote about a story in which an audio clip of Nick Saban using the term “coonass” became public. To recap, Miami Herald writer Jeff Darlington emailed an off the record comment from Nick Saban to a sports show host in Miami who wound up playing it on his show. I was originally incensed that comments made off the record wound up being released to the public.
In fact, I contacted Jeff Darlington to see if he would speak about the incident in an interview. Jeff politely declined saying he was unable to do an interview at the time. It is important to note that he had a sincere tone and indicated a regret that the audio became public. I hope to follow up with Jeff in the future when he’s able to freely speak about the incident.
The aforementioned incident does raise an interesting debate. We know that Jeff intended to keep Saban’s comments off the record. The question I want to answer is this – is it ever the moral duty of a journalist to report on “off the record” comments? If a public figure makes blatantly racist or incriminating remarks, are those worthy of being reported?
