6/2/00- Does Fred Girard have an axe to grind against UM?

I hear it over and over.  What does Detroit News Writer Fred Girard have against the University of Michigan?  The latest cries of outrage are over his article about the Jim Harbaugh/Charles Woodson Celebrity Golf Outing and specifically how the proceeds from the event are spent.  Article

Does Fred Girard have an axe to grind against UM?  Does it really matter?  The larger question should be whether or not his reporting  is accurate.  Read the article and form your own opinion. That's what intelligent people are supposed to do.  Shooting the messenger doesn't help.  

After reading Jim Harbaugh's response in the Ann Arbor News, I'm satisfied with his explanations.  Maybe he should have agreed to be interviewed for Girard's original article.  In the long run, the results of the article should only be good.  Jim Harbaugh's foundation will get their books in order, get the proper licensing it needs, and look a little closer at how it spends money.  What disappointed me the most was the revelation that foundation has to pay all the travel expenses of the celebrities.  That has to raise expenses of the event quite a bit.  You'd think that some of the current professional players could a afford a plane ticket considering how much money they make...

Should the story have made the front page of the Detroit News?  Well, frankly Fred Girard probably has little control over that.  That's an editorial decision made by the Detroit News.  Today the Detroit News published a Girard article on how the Detroit Tigers may not be doing everything necessary to protect fans from batted baseballs in the new Tiger Stadium.  Does he have an axe grind against the Detroit Tigers, too?  Fred seems to have taken shots at MSU as well.  Does it seem like he's been reporting a lot on the University of Michigan lately?  Well look around people.  There's been a lot of bad things happening in the sphere of University of Michigan sports.

Here's a brief list:

  1. Tom Goss running the Athletic Department budget into the ground.

  2. The resignation of Tom Goss (oops- that was good news)

  3. Jamal Crawford's suspensions by the NCAA

  4. Basketball players being involved in the theft of a palm pilot and money from a UM student

  5. Charles Woodson's drunk driving arrest

  6. Ed Martin

Fred Girard didn't cause any of these things to happen and  you can't expect him not to write about them.  It's his job.

Go Blue!

Phil Callihan
UMGoBlue.COM- By Fans...For Fans
phil@umgoblue.com