Minnesota basketball coach Dan Monson threatened to withhold press credentials from the university newspaper because of a negative sports column, then issued them after a follow-up piece appeared in the paper.
In a column Oct. 13, Minnesota Daily sports editor Josh Linehan advocated suspending the program for its involvement in the academic fraud scandal.
Linehan said that during a meeting last Friday, Monson told him that if he didn’t write a “more supportive” piece, the paper would be denied credentials that allow reporters entry to games and access to locker rooms and news conferences.
Monson acknowledged making the threat: “I was trying to stick up for my players with the student newspaper. … The players felt that their student body wasn’t supporting them.
“It’s one thing for the [St. Paul] Pioneer Press or the Star Tribune to take shots at them. But for their own peers?”
“They demanded another column, written by me, emphasizing more positive aspects [of the program],” Linehan said. “Obviously I’ve got reporters to think about and readers to think about. … I don’t want to be the guy that killed basketball coverage at the Daily.”
In his second column, Linehan wrote: “The current players [should not] have to suffer for things they had no control over.”
