News-Record.com

Many people who don't like UNC think that the newspaper has a Carolina Blue bias. That's not unusual; I know that readers of the News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer feel the same way about those papers. I can't explain the animosity toward the university in Chapel Hill but it's there. (Maybe because some think it is the state's bastion of liberalism? I dunno.)

I always point out a couple things when I hear the charge:
* In our coverage of the Big Four, we focus on winners and surprises. The team that is successful tends to get more ink. The team that isn't expected to do well, but does, also gets more ink. And when a team is winning and getting that ink, then supporters of the other teams look for scapegoats. That's where we come in.
* No one in the editing ranks with authority over sports attended UNC. I can safely say that light blue blood does not run through my heart or through the veins of the managing editor, the sports editor of the assistant sports editor. We have no alma mater loyalty to any ACC school.

That said the circulation folks swear that newspaper sales go up noticeably when Carolina wins. (We have more experience tracking that in basketball than in football.:)) Their theory: There are more Carolina fans in the Triad than fans of the other schools and they want to read about their team's success. When the Heels aren't having a good season, fans don't want to wallow in defeat and don't buy the paper. We don't see any similar blip when Duke, State or Wake wins.

That information really doesn't affect our coverage. (Circulation folks also say newspaper sales would go up if we featured a bloody crime at the top of A1 every day.)It does, however, correlate with some data we had several years ago: that UNC has more alumni in Guilford County than any other ACC school.