FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2000
Knight hints incident with Indiana U. student a setup
by Andrew Bagnato
September 09, 2000
Chicago Tribune
When Indiana University imposed a "zero
tolerance" conduct policy on Bob Knight last
May, it seemed only a matter of time until the
controversial coach tested its limits. It took 116
days - and the policy hasn't even been final
ized.
Now Knight's future is back in the hands of
Indiana President Myles Brand, who must de
cide whether the basketball coach violated a
written understanding that "any verified, inap
propriate physical contact with players, mem
bers of the university community or others in
connection with the coach's employment at IU
will be cause for immediate termination."
There is no dispute Knight had physical con
tact with a 19-year-old student Thursday at As
sembly Hall on the Bloomington campus. But
there are sharply contrasting accounts of the
incident. The student, Kent Harvey, alleges
Knight cursed and intimidated him after Harvey
greeted him with, "Hey, what's up, Knight?"
Knight contends he merely was trying to teach
the student a lesson in manners.
The university said it had opened an investi
gation. "It's important to remember that this is
an allegation only, but one we're taking very
seriously," Indiana spokesman Christopher
Simpson said.
Knight, who turns 60 next month, responded
quickly, calling a news conference at Assem
bly Hall to give his version.
"I would have to be an absolute moron, an
absolute moron, with the things that have been
laid down on me, to grab a kid in public and
curse at a kid in public," Knight said. "That is
absolutely, totally untrue."
In the past, IU has been slow to react to many
incidents involving Knight, who has enjoyed
massive popularity in his 29 years as the Hoo
siers' coach. But the university promised Knight
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would be under greater scrutiny after an inves
tigation pushed him to the brink of dismissal
last spring.
That investigation was prompted by charges,
supported by a videotape, that Knight had
grabbed the throat of a former player during a
1997 practice. But the investigation also
brought to light myriad other charges of abuse,
including allegations Knight had hurled a vase
in the direction of an athletic department sec
retary and that he had had physical confronta
tions with a former assistant coach and the
team's publicist. Brand fined Knight $30,000
and suspended him for the first three games of
the 2000-01 season. The president also said he
was placing Knight under a "zero-tolerance
policy."
"It's his last chance," Brand said at the time.
Brand established a panel to draw up specific
conduct rules. Knight has yet to see the guide
lines, which were expected to be submitted to
the board of trustees at a meeting next week.
With Knight under scrutiny, this incident is
more charged than many of his past imbroglios,
which usually have landed him in the headlines
but not in trouble.
In Thursday's incident, freshman Kent
Harvey charged that Knight grabbed him,
whirled him around and cursed him as they
passed each other in a doorway to the arena.
Harvey, two brothers and two friends had gone
to Assembly Hall to pick up football tickets.
Harvey said he had greeted the coach with,
"Hey, what's up, Knight?"
Harvey is the stepson of Mark Shaw, a former
Bloomington-area radio talk-show host who has
ripped Knight on the air. Shaw said his stepson's
right arm bore marks Thursday night.
"[Knight] grabbed the elbow so deliberately
that I saw where the skin had been torn away
in two or three places," Shaw told CNN. "He
yanked him around and kind of confronted him
against a doorway where Kent felt confined.
[Knight] got right in his face and started in with
the usual expletives.... After a brief period of
time, he let Kent go."
Knight acknowledged grabbing the student's
arm but denied applying force. He also denied
that he swore
Knight said he told the student: "Son, my name
is not Knight to you. It's coach Knight or it's
Mr. Knight. I don't call people by their last
name, and neither should you."
Knight said he had not lost control of the tem
per that has led to countless run-ins with the
media, police, referees and even his own boss.
"Don't even think that you can enter anger
into this thing," Knight said.
"This was simply a matter of manners and
civility. I don't think that my voice ever rose
above a conversational tone or quality."
From the moment the university announced
that it was imposing civility rules on Knight,
the coach's supporters have worried that fans,
reporters, referees or rival coaches would try
to bait him into violating them. Knight hinted
that he might have been the victim of a setup.
"It seems to me to be a very interesting coin
cidence that this student involved is the step
son of the guy that, over the years, has prob
ably been the most vitriolic critic that I've ever
had," Knight said. "That's interesting."
Knight's account was supported by Hoosiers
assistant coach Mike Davis, who witnessed the
incident and said he was outraged when he
heard the allegation.
"When I came to work this morning and I
heard about this, I'm like, 'That's the biggest
lie I ever heard in my life,"' Davis said. "I
couldn't believe it. I don't know how hard Coach
had the kid's arm, but Coach never raised his
voice, he never said a cuss word to the kid and
[the students] all were laughing.
"It's a flat-out lie. If Coach would have
grabbed the kid and cursed him out, I'm quite
sure they wouldn't have been laughing."
[Tribune news services contributed to this re
port.]
• 1
It's a newspaper's duty to
print the news and raise hell
Freedom of the press is a fragile thing.
Ideally, reporters are supposed to he able
to do their jobs without hindrance from
the state. In real life, however, govern
ment and business work hard to deflect
or mislead reporters.
The past two years have seen freedom
of the press, guaranteed by the First
Amendment, take several hard hits. Not
legally speaking, of course. On paper the
First Amendment is still intact. But in
the streets, where it really counts,
freedom of the press has never been
more imperiled.
Locally, Brian Hansen, who until
recently worked for the Daily, was
arrested for holding his ground when
Forest Service law-enforcement officials
ordered him away from a protest he had
been covering above Vail. Specifically
on location to observe and report on the
way the protest was resolved, liansen
felt he had a duty to remain.
The federal government saw his arrest
as a way of gaining a federal precedent
that would give law enforcement more
power in dealing with reporters,
allowing federal officers to go about
their business in greater secrecy. After a
year of prosecuting him, the U.S.
attorney's office finally dropped the
charges Thursday, ending an Unneces
sary and expensive ordeal for Hansen.
While the immediate danger has
passed, the Forest Service tool; the
opportunity provided by Hansen's case
to draw up guidelines for their officers
to use when arresting reporters. A
spokeswoman for the Society for
Professional
Journalists, which, together vv ith the
Daily, has covered some of I lansen's
legal costs, has described these guide
lines as "very troubling" and "patently
offensive." If nothing else, the guide
lines indicate the government's determi
nation to treat newsgathering as a
suspect activity.
Nationally, demonstrations in Seattle
by Wilbur F. Storey
September 06, 2000
Colorado Daily - U. of Colorado
"Together, these events paint a picture of government,
specifically law enforcement, that is increasingly hos
tile to the progressive movement and increasingly re
luctant to allow reporters access to their handiwork.
They want to crack skulls, spray people's eyes and
gas crowds without being held accountable."
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Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Los
Angeles resulted in reporters being
arrested and beaten in what has evolved
into an overt effort on the part of police
to bar the independent media from doing
their john
In Seattle, where police initiated
violence against non-violent protesters
several reporters were arrested, threat
ened with pepper spray and gassed.
Those arrested were released the next
day with apologies.
In the nation's capital, police treated
ABC, CBS, and NBC affiliates with
respect, but everyone else as suspects,
clubbing reporters whose credentials
were in full view, forcing them away
from scenes they were covering, and
failing to acknowledge media accredita
tion when it suited their purposes.
In Philadelphia, police harassed staff
at the Independent Media Center,
threatening to shut down the office,
which was being used by reporters from
independent media organizations across
the nation.
In Los Angeles, a convenient bomb
scare closed the IN/IC temporarily,
following repeated and unjustifiable
police threats to shut it down. Witnesses
claim that police tried to drive reporters
away by deliberately targeting them with
rubber bullets during the LAPD's violent
crackdown on protesters, most of whom
were peacefully listening to a concert in
the permitted protest zone.
"together, these events paint a picture
of government, specifically law enforce
ment, that is increasingly hostile to the
progressive movement and increasingly
reluctant to allow reporters access to
their handiwork. They want to crack
skulls, spray people's eyes and gas
crowds without being held accountable
And, for the most part, they're
succeeding, as the corporate media for
the most part carry law enforcement's
message to their readers.
Yet, as society's hired henchmen, law
enforcement merits intense scrutiny,
perhaps more than most government
agencies. And scrutiny is what we at the
Daily will continue to provide.
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