A lot of people were effected by the drama surrounding Jameis Winston and his accuser, Erica Kinsman, but this Tampa Bay Times writers account of the treatment he received while reporting on the case is astounding.
Matt Baker gives a detailed account of the treatment he received from FSU in light of his coverage of Jameis Winston’s rape case.
or my role in reopening a dormant investigation, Florida State fans wanted me to die of brain-eating cancer and in a car crash on my way home. They told me to jump off a bridge and get hit by a truck. They suggested I get intimate with a monkey infected with AIDS.
Read the hundreds of pages of documents about the case and you’ll find enough evidence to back up whatever conclusion you want. Winston was never charged after three separate investigations. But two of them didn’t fully vindicate him, either, at least not in the eyes of some.
A potential outcry will be in the minds of the Tampa Bay Bucs’ front office in the coming weeks as the team weighs whether the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner is worthy of its No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, a $20 million contract and the responsibility that comes with being the face of the franchise.
Maybe after a federal investigation and a lawsuit run their course, we’ll find out what really happened at that off-campus apartment on Dec. 7, 2012. Maybe we never will.
Baker says he ended up being hated by FSU fans after he landed an exclusive interview with Kinsman’s family.
A target landed on me when the accuser’s family gave me an exclusive statement questioning the police’s tactics and the football program’s role in the case.
“Why do you have to go around digging for s— (you) have no business in?” one student wrote. “The FSU nation is coming for u.”
And it did.
Fans bombarded my phone with more than 100 calls over a couple of weeks. I answered almost every one, never knowing if it was a legitimate tip or a prank some troll would illegally record to laugh at online.
You don’t understand how persistent car dealers are until someone tells them to contact you about a new Corvette.
The University of Phoenix — or at least someone claiming to work there — heard I wanted a degree in criminal justice.
My phone number showed up in a gay personal ad on Craigslist next to a picture of a chiseled man wearing only boxer shorts and a Santa hat. One late-night response included a photo of a stranger’s penis.
And it got worse.
I was covering a high school football game one night when a Twitter post popped up on my phone:
You’re a marked man … Say goodbye.
My wife started worrying about me at home, so she reported it to the police and the FBI.
She spent that night combing through message boards, looking for other threats. Buried in the hundreds of vicious comments, she found a photo someone posted of the two of us. One of the trolls said our future children would be ugly.
We all have our theories about Winston’s guilt, but even the biggest supporter has no right bullying and threatening a reporter simply doing his job — covering the news.
Winston was the news at FSU, so the idea that the Baker was stirring up trouble is ludicrous. Stay class FSU.