Meeting Fox News Reporter Jason Whitlock 11/08/12

Photo courtesy of www.pitch.com

This morning; after finishing off some work for the BSU website, I was told that we had been invited to a dinner with Jason Whitlock, a very successful journalist who was part of the Ball State University Alumni. 

CT and Alex told me of their experience at the dinner with the other half of the group and filled me in on what Whitlock had done to make him so successful as a journalist. I was particularly intrigued by one particular story about a former BSU basketball coach who had been fired as a direct result of an article published by Whitlock which made national news and ESPN.

It must have taken real guts and self assurance to publish an article of this nature. I was told how many people on Campus, including CT were not really sure how to react to the coach. Stories emerged about how members of the BSU staff were all anxious to say something about it but were afraid of the consequences if they had.

I was impressed that progressing his career as a journalist he had also played American Football at the University. 

I was informed he was he was known for his conversational statements, which I will come on to later.



The meal wasn't until 7pm so Taylor Bussick invited Aaron and I to come along with him and PR student Jordan Dimit to Buckingham Palace. The Olympic walking was taking place that day and we joked about how hilarious a rocky montage of speed walkers training would look. 
There was a larger than I'd expected crowd once we arrived and Taylor's plan was to shoot some photos of the Men's 50km walk whilst Aaron recommended we get some stories from the fans.


Making our way through the crowds, we eventually got to a good spot for Taylor to get some photos. Aaron and I interviewed some of the crowd on how long they'd had to cue to get a glimpse of the Olympians, where they were from and who they were supporting. Our stand out interview was with a huge group of Chinese fans who were all dressed up, singing and waving their huge flag proudly by the barriers. 

We decided to hire out bikes to get back to the Olympic park. It was good fun, but as you can imagine we got lost quite a few times and ended up giving in and going on the train. We'd underestimated (heavily) the distance that we had to travel and didn't want to be late to our meeting with Fox News reporter Jason Whitlock.


 We eventually found the Mexican food place right next to Olympic park. Ryan and Suzzie met us outside along with a couple of others who hadn't managed to get a seat yet and were consequently waiting outside for us. It didn't take long for us to get a table, much to the disgust of those who were waiting in the line in-front of us, Aaron caught sight of an man giving him the finger as we walked past him.

Having pulled up a newly vacated table alongside those already seated with Whitlock, Pat warned me he was extremely opinionated. This, I thought, comes with the territory as a writer. Whitlock had been nominated for several awards and reported mostly on basketball and American football. He was also paying for the whole meal! As you can see by the picture, there were around 25-30 of us so he was casually dropping around £1000. Later that day I found out his salary was over 1.5 million a year!


So why would he bother doing this for a bunch of trainee journalists? Whitlock is a former Ball State University student and is part of their Alumni. As we were introduced he shook my hand, looked me in the eyes and as soon as he heard me say “nice to meet you” in my British accent, he said:  “You’re British? You’re paying for your own meal” in a joking tone. He then proceeded to move around the table and meet each one of the new arrivals.

Photo courtesy of www.Guardian.co.uk

Another perk of the meal was that Mo Farah, my favourite athlete was competing in the 5000m race whilst we were in the bar. Behind our table there was a large projector screen as well as several regular size televisions around the bar. By the time you’ve read this, I’m sure you’ll all know how fantastic that race was. Mo became the first British man to win the 5000m and the 1000m in the same Olympics. And to do that in your home country must have felt incredible. 

Just metres away from where it was happening, the atmosphere was intense, every single person in that bar was glued to the television screen, every single person was cheering and every single person was happy and proud when Mo Farah came across the finishing line doing his classic Mobot celebration. I was ecstatic, shouting and cheering, the American's got behind the British athlete too. 

And it seems we weren't the only ones:

It was amazing to experience something like that, but I did wish my family were there with me. We always watched Mo’s races at home together, my little brother is a runner and Farrah is one of his role models. I wish I managed to get us tickets to get into that stadium. Anyway, back to Whitlock.

 I finally got a chance to get in on a conversation he was having after the race. I was only sat two seats left from him, but Taylor, who was on my left was speaking mostly to the side of the table on my right – so I had to lean over a bit to hear what was going on. I joined the conversation when he was giving advice to Brandon Pope.

I asked him about Skip Bayliss, a basketball and American football journalist for ESPN. Bayliss often comes under public scrutiny for his stories, reports and opinions. “Stick to what you know” was Whitlock’s advice, he criticised  Bayliss' style, believing him to be a sensationalist.

Photo courtesy of Getty images

Whitlock has had a vastly successful career at Foxsports.com, Kansas City Star, AOL Sports, ESPN and radio stations WHB and KCSP. Meeting him was a very valuable experience, especially as sports journalism is a field of work that I am very interested in working in. I liked the way that he was a no Bull**** guy that told you what he thought and if he disagreed with a statement you were saying, he'd make sure you knew about it. 

When I asked him about what he thought about British basketball, he didn't hold back at all on slating us, in effect saying we "sucked". 

He's also been under fire recently for an apparent racist tweet about New York Knicks Chinese star Jeremy Lin (which he has recently apologised for saying "I didn't mean it my wife is Asian")

Despite this he appeared to have a genuine interest in our personal plans and careers, giving us advice, his contact information and finished by asking each of us where we want to be in 5 years time.