@conjsports[/author_info] [/author]
LOS ANGELES – For those who listen daily to Colin Cowherd and respect his often times glib yet entertaining radio – ahem TV/Radio – show, it was surprising that The Herd allowed his new muse, Kristine Leahy, to get away with what she brought to the airwaves this week.
Amidst the controversy surrounding the firing of head football coach Steve Sarkisian at Southern California, Leahy seemed to either pick and choose which particular details she chose to report, or (and maybe worse) she didn’t watch the entirety of USC Athletic Director Pat Haden’s press conference where he publicly announced the coach’s dismissal.
On Tuesday, October 13th, in the final hour of the show, Cowherd admitted that he had not seen or heard any of Haden’s remarks, since they were being delivered at the same time he was on air.
He relied, instead, on Leahy.
Her words: “Essentially it seems like he’s trying to tell everyone why he doesn’t deserve any of the blame for hiring Sarkisian in the first place….then he said that he blames the search firm for letting him hire Sarkisian and doing the background check and not vetting him.”
Haden’s words: “At the time of Steve’s hire I firmly believed he was the right choice and fit for USC. As we sit here today October 13th the decision I made didn’t work out and I own that. I own it.”
A logical thought in Leahy’s defense might be that she didn’t have enough time to watch the entirety of the press conference to hear Haden’s remarks. A logical defense would continue that she just watched the press conference for the first four minutes, where at the 4:05 mark he finished speaking about the search process and vetting of Sarkisian.
But, that defense holds no water, because Haden’s “I own it” comment concluded at the 4:37 mark of the press conference.
There’s no way for Cowherd to have known in the moment that Leahy was omitting some key details, but certainly could have addressed it the following day.
Maybe it’s because the show is so new that Cowherd didn’t want to “discipline” his cohort on air in a way that he never had to with Charissa Thompson?
More than likely it’s something else that went on behind the scenes.
The first month of shows in the Cowherd Relocation Project has been – no matter your viewing allegiances to ESPN or Fox Sports – a moderately fresh breath of Pacific Ocean air (of which Cowherd constantly reminds his audience).
Because living in the South Bay is waaaaaay cool.
Cowherd has espoused, correctly, that being able to interview folks like Dana White or Jason Whitlock for 23 minutes is preferable to both him and his audience than say, the seven or eight minutes he had at, as he puts it often, “his former employer.”
The Herd has earmarked himself an entertainer for a very long time, rather than play the “I’m a journalist with a radio show” card as others (cough, cough – Stephen A. Smith) do routinely.
Despite Cowherd’s non-reliance on being perceived as a hard-news journalist per se, he has always given factually correct information. Because of that, it’s surprising that he didn’t take a more active role in defending Haden from Leahy on Wednesday, especially with all his close ties to USC.
If Leahy wants to be to Cowherd what Robin Quivers is to Howard Stern, we need a bit more accountability. And that accountability should trump entertainment and ratings, every time.