I've known Doug since grade school. He grew up about 3-4 miles from Marshall and is a lifelong fan, graduated from Marshall and bleeds green. I'm sure he tries to be as unbiased as possible in the way he reports Marshall, and no 2 people would do it exactly the same way... but he doesn't hold grudges like Landon and he doesn't see through green glasses like Woody. I appreciate that. (and yes, I'm sure it is challenging working for a struggling newspaper that won't even send you to a drivable basketball tournament that Marshall makes the finals in.)
Agree with your assessment on Smock. More objective than any of his fellow Gazette Columnists/beat writers ever thought of being. Reminds me of another Herd alum who wrote for the Gazette who was also very professional: the late Mike Cherry.
Hard to agree with the "struggling" newspaper bit especially when the Gazette keeps 2 columnists, and then some, spewing out WVU related articles virtually full time. Mitchie Dingleberry is suppose to be a "generalist" columnist but about 95 per cent of the time he writes about the Neers: current Neers, past Neers, future Neers, irrelevant Neers, etc. His columns definitely reflect his very serious "man crush" on Huggy Bear, and he seems to be rapidly warming up to Hungoveragain also!!
Then there is columnist Cassssa who is permanently stationed in Morganhole; no doubt in one of the school's locker rooms, where he can on a FULL TIME basis keep his ears, eyes, nose, mouth, etc,, pressed firmly to the ground. Thus, he can not miss any talk, utterance, speech, burp, fart, etc., ever coming from the EER coaches and Athletic Director!
Finally, there is sports editor Redd who by far seems to be the most objective soul of the bunch. However, when he does infrequently pen a column in the Gazette sports section it, too, about 20 to 30 per cent of the time no doubt is Mountaineer related!
No, with such resources allocated/squandered in covering the FlagSh#t U, its hard to believe that the Chilton family rag is "struggling"!!
