Like it does every week during the football season, Texas Tech distributed a written transcript of Monday’s news conference to members of the media.

Absent from Monday’s transcript, which included comments from head coach Mike Leach and players Shawn Byrnes and Jamar Wall, were their thoughts on the subject that dominated the actual news conference: All-American offensive lineman Brandon Carter had been suspended indefinitely a day earlier for violating unspecified team rules, and after Carter and linebacker Marlon Williams posted not-so-flattering comments on their Twitter accounts on Sunday, Leach banned his players from using the social networking site to discuss football-related topics.

Except for one comment from Byrnes about how Carter’s loss will impact the Red Raiders, and Wall saying he’s “not too sure” about the “suspension thing,” neither topic was addressed on the transcript. Instead, it mostly included comments about Tech’s improved running game against Houston, the offensive line’s play and how the Red Raiders plan to bounce back from consecutive losses as they prepare to host New Mexico on Saturday.

Chris Cook, Tech’s associate athletic director for media relations, insisted his department is “not trying to hide anything,” and that the distributed transcripts “never” are complete. He also pointed out that Monday’s news conference – along with every other throughout the season – can be viewed in its entirety on Tech’s athletic Web site on a subscription-only basis.

“The content is available, but what we send out – not to censor it or anything like that – is just to hit the high points,” said Cook, adding timeliness is another reason the transcripts are condensed. “That’s what a lot of people do.”

Cook is absolutely correct about that last part. Tech certainly is not the only college football program that picks and chooses the information it disperses to the public, or limits media access to its players and coaches.

Last season, a couple days before Tech faced Nevada, I wrote a column about how the Wolf Pack didn’t allow any of their players to do phone interviews with out-of-town media. And just two weeks ago, I had a similar experience with the University of Texas.

After submitting a list of players I wished to speak with to Texas’ media relations staff, I was told only head coach Mack Brown and two predetermined players would be available on a conference call. I also was directed to transcripts of the Longhorns’ local news conferences, which were posted on UT’s athletic Web site.

But when reading stories about the Longhorns published by the daily newspapers in Austin and Houston, I noticed almost none of the quotes they used appeared on the transcripts. What UT had furnished on its Web site appeared to be a watered-down version.

Last year, Oklahoma didn’t even provide that much. The only access we had to Sooners coach Bob Stoops and his players were videos of their news conferences posted to – you guessed it – OU’s athletic Web site.

More and more, college athletic programs and other prominent sports teams, players and organizations – from the NFL to the NBA to professional golfer Tiger Woods – are trying to control the message received by the general public. Just about everyone these days has his own Web site, Facebook page, or Twitter account, and thus a way to produce his own “news” stories.

“When there’s something negative out there, we want to find a way to turn it around. That’s your job,” Cook said. “And by turn it around I don’t mean lie or fabricate anything, but find a silver lining and use it – or put an end to it as quickly as possible.”

That’s not a new concept by any means, and it’s certainly not exclusive to the sporting world. But it does seem to be more and more prevalent among college athletic programs – many of which are part of publicly funded universities – and the trend is no less disturbing in an age when the line between objective reporting and marketing is becoming increasingly blurred.

Cook said he believes fans will always look to newspapers and other historically credible media outlets for information, but he also expects to “see more and more college Web sites start competing with the media.”

In many ways, they’re already doing that, but it’s under the umbrella of marketing and public relations.

Our job, like it always has been, is to tell you the whole story.

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