Conference: Race Matters in Collegiate Sports: Expert panelists at the “Losing to Win: Discussion of Race and Intercollegiate Sports” conference turned their attention partly to the media coverage of minority student-athletes and did not shy away from addressing accusations that media outlets do not always fairly scrutinize Black and other minority athletes. Panelists also decried the lack of minorities working as sports reporters, producers, and editors and admitted the numbers are getting worse, not better.
“We don’t always get it right,” said Tom O’Toole, the prep sports editor at USA Today, in reference to frequently uneven treatment of African-American athletes in the press. “When (reporters) would write stories, and I’m sure that I have been one of them, we would write ‘in code,’” O’Toole said.
