And While We're on the West Coast

How about that press guide editing at Stanford? Swim coach gets cross with star athlete. Star athlete says some things. Coach has last word by expunging the athlete from the press guide records.

Holy Cow -- Soviet Revisionist History at its finest! Comrades, the infidel is no longer with us, speak his name no more. Disappear the violator.

Unfortunately, this is no surprise to anyone who has been around the business for long. Coaches always want to tweak the truth when it comes to their historical record. Some are just more brazen than others. Just like academic politics -- you know, the stakes are so high because there is so little involved -- the less visible the sport or team the more involved the coaches become in these matters.

And the SID involved in this, talk about falling on the sword -- he thought it was OK because the coach's budget paid for the guide thus it gave him full editorial control. This is kind of like when a coach has made an "error" on their resume or press guide bio that THEY READ AND SIGNED OFF ON, and the blame falls on the PR guy.

Well, it guarantees future employment for the publicist. The fact of life is we often exist to take the hit. At the end of the day, however, the coach seems to almost always have one more zero on his paycheck compared to the foot solder that just took one for the team.

One final sad thought -- absent the San Francisco Chronicle noticing this blatant editing event, would anyone have done a darn thing about it? No.