My latest Chicago Tribune column is on the debut of CBS’ new Thursday night package tonight.

You also can access the column via my Twitter feed at @Sherman_Report.

From the column:

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As fate would have it, during a week in which the NFL is dealing with the immense fallout from the Ray Rice videos, the league will kick off its new CBS primetime package at Baltimore Thursday.

That means the Rice saga and its overtones will dominate the coverage of the Ravens-Pittsburgh game on CBS. Whether it will impact the ratings seems to be an inappropriate question, given the circumstances. It is highly likely both the NFL and CBS would have preferred that Baltimore was playing in a regionally-televised Sunday game this week.

Instead, the Ravens and the controversy will be squarely in the national spotlight.

“We’re obviously going to address it,” said CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus. “I’m sure our guys will have strong thoughts as they always do on all these topics. Basically, we say to them, ‘We’re going to give you enough time to express your opinion.’”

Ironically, the new Thursday night package is one of the reasons why the owners are so loyal to Commissioner Roger Goodell. He continues to find new ways to make them money.

Last winter, CBS signed a one-year deal to air Thursday night games in weeks 2 through 8, plus a Saturday game on week 16; the telecasts also will be simulcast on NFL Network. In addition to making the huge investment estimated in the $300 million neighborhood, the network committed its No. 1 team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms not only for the CBS games, but they also will call the remainder of the package when it finishes exclusively on NFL Network.

And it goes beyond Nantz and Simms. McManus said only the network’s coverage of a Super Bowl will have more cameras and technical gizmos than for what will be used for the Thursday night games.

“We’re going to do a lot of things to make this look and feel different on Thursday nights,” McManus said.

In a previous post, I talked to Christine Brennan about her interview with Roger Goodell in USA Today.

Goodell’s other interview was with Norah O’Donnell of CBS News Tuesday.

That leads to the logical question of whether the NFL elected to grant these interviews to two women. The league obviously has a huge credibility problem with half of the population. Better to have Goodell answer questions from women, right?

I asked Brennan about it.

“Sometime late last night, I read Norah’s interview,” Brennan said. “It did dawn on me that these two interviews were conducted by women. I thought about that and then immediately moved on. I have no idea, to be honest.”

Brennan thought her relationship with Goodell and NFL PR chief Greg Aiello was a factor in her getting the interview.

As for CBS, it seems highly unlikely that the NFL would dictate who would do the interview. If Scott Pelley wasn’t in Iraq on assignment, perhaps he does the interview.

“Norah is a strong broadcast journalist,” Brennan said. “Her credentials are impeccable. The fact that she did the interview did not surprise me at all.”

My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana is on TMZ and its coverage of the Ray Rice story.

From the column:

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I never have been a fan of TMZ. In fact, I am repulsed by all celebrity journalism. Actually, let’s not even dare to call it journalism.

So I’m not buying into all the glorification of TMZ in the wake of the site busting the Ray Rice story wide open with the horrifying video of the running back delivering the knockout blow to his now current wife.

Among the plaudits:

Michael Bradley from this site:

“All hail TMZ! Say what you want about the website, which trolls every avenue possible to find celebrity grit and grime, but it has had a pretty strong couple of years when it comes to the world of sports.”

David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun:

“When the first video of Ray Rice dragging his then-fiancee off a casino elevator like a slab of meat appeared, I thought, ‘God bless TMZ.’

“With TMZ’s release of video today showing him punching Janay Palmer twice and knocking her to the floor, I say, God bless TMZ again and again.”

Media critic Joe Strupp, writing on his blog even dare to utter the P-word when it comes to TMZ:

“Does the fallout also qualify TMZ.com for journalism’s biggest prize. Could it win them a Pulitzer?

“Why not?

“While the Pulitzer Prize has long been the province of newspapers, it was expanded in recent years to give websites a chance. Since then, sites from Politico to the Center for Public Integrity, have been named finalists and winners.

“Why not TMZ.com?”

In the name of Woodward and Bernstein, I can think of a million reasons why.

There’s no denying that TMZ has become a major force in breaking the Donald Sterling story and now with Rice. But did the site get these stories by employing brilliant journalism techniques? Or did the site just open its wallet?

Unless someone says otherwise, it is hard to believe some cash wasn’t exchanged with the Rice videos. Somebody likely approached TMZ and asked, “How much are you willing to pay?”

TMZ probably paid quite a bit.

Now perhaps there was more reporting involved here. Maybe TMZ got wind that someone had the videos and went to that person. But I would bet on the first scenario I illustrated. Either way, I would be stunned if money didn’t change hands.

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And here’s the link to the rest of the column.

Peter King answers readers questions on Tuesdays at MMQB. That opened himself up to some pointed questions about his coverage issues of the Ray Rice story.

This reader came down hard:

LOSING A READER. I consider myself a devoted reader of The MMQB. I am a sports fanatic and I have used The MMQB to consume information related to the NFL. As of the writing of this email, I will do so no longer. Mr. Peter King has proven to be nothing but a corporate shill who prioritizes access and connections over accuracy and completeness. There is no excuse for Mr. King’s abject failure to do his job with respect to the Ray Rice arrest, investigation, suspension, and the controversy that followed.

Mr. King’s statement today concludes by saying the following: “I hope when this story is fully vetted, we all get the truth and nothing but the truth.” Do you know how Mr. King could ensure that the statement is fully vetted and that we get nothing but the truth? He could do his job. He could ask the tough questions. He could investigate the answers to ensure their accuracy. He could press for more direct answers rather than a recitation of talking points. He could be a journalist.

But nope, Mr. King has made no such promise to get to the bottom of it. He seems content merely other people will do it for him.

—Andrew S. 

I appreciate you writing and I appreciate you reading over the years. You should be upset with what happened today. I didn’t do my job the right way. I will attempt to earn back your trust and the trust of others and I hope that at some point in the future you will give us another shot. I could argue with you about some of your points, but I feel that your main point is a valid one: I let you down.

Lou Holtz, an avid golfer and member of Augusta National, talks about the game and his career with David Feherty on “Feherty” tonight at 10 p.m. ET on the Golf Channel. In this clip, Holtz discusses why he walked away from Notre Dame after 11 seasons.

Besides claiming he didn’t want to break Knute Rockne’s school record for most victories, Holtz said he left because he had done all he could do at Notre Dame.

“I wasn’t tired of coaching,” Holtz said. “I was tired of maintaining.”

Dave Zirin of The Nation raises some serious questions about the TMZ video:

The absence of concern for Janay Rice – in the press, on social media, amongst my own colleagues – is the most disheartening part of this entire ordeal.

No one cares that she is now going to have to relive this incident over and over again. No one cares that the world has now become privy to what may be the most humiliating moment of her entire life.

Zirin continues:

So if no one is going to talk about the well-being and welfare of the person who is actually subject of the violence on that tape let’s talk about it here. I spent the morning communicating with people who work on domestic violence and violence against women for a living. They all said the same thing, without dissent: releasing this tape to the world is incredibly damaging to Janay Rice. Just as we would protect the name of an alleged rape victim, just as we would not show a video of Ray Rice committing a sexual assault, we should not be showing this video like it’s another episode of Rich People Behaving Badly.

Zirin has a good point here. Wonder if the thought ever crossed the mind of the folks at TMZ?

I believe we all know the answer to that one.

Peter King posted this on the MMQB site today:

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From: Peter King, editor-in-chief, The MMQB

An addendum to the Ray Rice coverage:

Earlier this summer a source I trusted told me he assumed the NFL had seen the damaging video that was released by TMZ on Monday morning of Rice slugging his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, in an Atlantic City elevator. The source said league officials had to have seen it. This source has been impeccable, and I believed the information. So I wrote that the league had seen the tape. I should have called the NFL for a comment, a lapse in reporting on my part. The league says it has not seen the tape, and I cannot refute that with certainty. No one from the league has ever knocked down my report to me, and so I was surprised to see the claim today that league officials have not seen the tape.

I hope when this story is fully vetted, we all get the truth and nothing but the truth.

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Indeed, the key element here is that King didn’t contact the NFL for a reaction. King is an excellent journalist.

However, with the volume much higher and everything moving so much faster these days, some basic journalism fundamentals tend to get overlooked. Always call for a reaction.