J-School Professor Sunk by His Second G-Chat Sex Scandal This Year
Monty Cook, a former Baltimore Sun editor, has resigned from his position at the University of North Carolina's journalism school after a mini-scandal over his sexy instant messages with a female student. Remarkably, this wasn't his first sexy G-chat incident.
Cook was head of the Reese Felts Digital Newsroom, a "new media" project at the UNC j-school. He'd "returned to Carolina in 2010 after more than 20 years of journalism and news management experience." It didn't last long—According to Reesenews, he resigned Tuesday after a female student revealed that she'd had "explicit" G-chat conversations with Cook, a married father of two.
Why'd he get outed? The girl's "angry" boyfriend came looking for him, and he had to reveal the situation to school authorities:
A professor luring a student with sexxxy words? It happens! The more remarkable thing in Monty Cook's case: he'd already had almost the exact same thing happen to him just a few months ago, shortly after he was hired for this job.
Several members of UNC-CH faculty received an e-mail in May 2010, two months after Cook was hired, with the text of an alleged G-chat conversation between Cook and an unidentified woman. The conversation was explicit in nature.
The e-mail was sent by the woman's husband and received by 25 faculty members, including Dean Folkerts.
That has to be a world record for sexy G-chat work-related scandals in a single six-month period.
