Royals manhandle the media unfairly

[KingPriest2]

Royals manhandle the media unfairly
JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star

Previous columns
Decorum? According to an unsigned blog on the Royals’ Web site, the Glass family and Royals management stripped radio reporters Rhonda Moss and Bob Fescoe of their media credentials because of their alleged lack of decorum during a news conference.

“Appropriateness of behavior or conduct” is what decorum means.

Given the inappropriateness of David Glass’ behavior in announcing his intention to scapegoat Allard Baird six weeks before firing him, what exactly should’ve been Moss’ and Fescoe’s decorum when Glass emerged from Arkansas to introduce the next man he’ll eventually scapegoat?

The Royals are preaching about professionalism while treating their fans to a steady diet of amateur play and unveiling a cowardly blog to defend a week-old act of cowardice.

I hope this is not the work of Dayton Moore, the new GM, the guy who is supposed to raise the professional standard of the organization.

But it is Moore’s face that is/was pictured with the link trumpeting “Around the Horn” as the new place to get inside information on the Royals.

“With all of the media outlets in today’s world, stories often take on a life of their own,” the blog item closes. “With that in mind, fans should feel they can come to this site to separate fact from fiction and hear the truth directly from the Royals.”

Aaron Babcock, the Royals’ media liaison, said that Moore’s face being plastered on the new blog was a function of MLB.com and not the Royals.

“I was not happy with that,” Babcock said. “That will be coming down. (Dayton) has had nothing to do with this (credentials flap).”

Too late. Damage done.

The Royals have turned two nondescript radio reporters into a national cause célèbre among journalists and broadcasters while smearing the early reputation of their new GM.

Rather than lift the franchise, Moore looks as if he’s going to get swallowed up in the club’s pettiness. He could’ve shown some leadership and ended the front office’s feud with Fescoe and Moss.

Instead, he has done nothing. He might mistakenly believe the Mickey Mouse actions of the Royals’ business and marketing outfits don’t reflect on the baseball side. He’s wrong. The Royals’ anonymous attempt to explain away this public-relations nightmare is a stain on the entire organization, and Glass hired Moore to be the face of the organization.

The blog item reads:

“It is being widely reported that the Kansas City Royals revoked the 2006 season credentials of two radio reporters last week for asking tough questions. The Royals have never stated this as fact. The credentials were not revoked because someone asked tough questions — we get those every day — but for reasons of decorum. The tone, the abruptness, and the forcefulness of which their questions and added commentary were presented, offended many at the news conference.

“The Royals found that behavior to be particularly disruptive of the introduction of the club’s new general manager, the intended purpose of the meeting. … Given several comments by media personnel and others who attended the press conference, the Royals believe the overall situation is now improved.”

The insinuation is that members of the Kansas City media agree with the Royals’ decision to ban Fescoe and Moss. I wish I could say unequivocally that that’s not true. But I can’t. We know that Fescoe’s boss, Kevin Kietzman, blasted Fescoe and Moss on air for their alleged poor decorum. We can only imagine what Kietzman might’ve said to the Royals’ front office privately.

And I know that Moss is not popular with members of the media. She’s a woman competing in a male-dominated profession. Her style is confrontational and abrasive. She makes athletes, coaches and executives uncomfortable and in the process makes members of the media who enter the press box and locker room each day hoping to make friends uncomfortable.

I can relate to Rhonda’s plight. I’ve been viewed as the trouble-making, newcomer minority in the locker room. It’s easy to get left on an island surrounded by people hoping you fail when you’re the unconventional outsider.

This is not a case of a friend coming to the defense of friends. I’m not close with Moss or Fescoe. Rhonda and I used to work together on radio. Other than polite conversation at games or practices, this is the first time I’ve spoken to Rhonda in more than a year.

This is about journalistic freedom. If the Royals get away with banning Moss and Fescoe, why would I not assume that some sports franchise might make an outspoken sportswriter the next target?

Sports franchises and college teams have been peeling back access and attempting to control media coverage during the past decade. They don’t have an interest in disseminating the truth. They want to control how and when they’re questioned about their decisions and by whom.

I’m not comfortable with that. And you shouldn’t be either. The more people asking difficult questions the better.

Moss and Fescoe are not fans who built a Web site and are tickled pink that a pro sports franchise gave them access to a locker room and athletes they idolize. I don’t agree with all of their methods, but I respect the fact that Moss and Fescoe go to games and practices year-round and behave in a consistent manner. They earned the right to ask abrasive questions.

They’ve earned the support of all journalists, including print journalists. I hope that members of the local and national media support Fescoe and Moss in any reasonable way they see fit until the Royals return the credentials. I’m eagerly anticipating the Royals’ next home stand and the end of the NBA

[nychief]

I agree that Glass is douche, but the KC media is a joke...headed by Whitlock.

[KingPriest2]

THis is beyond funny now

He is right about MOore. If I was Moore I would resign right now then go down with this sinking ship.


IF he does agree with this then we are in bad shape.

Glass needs to go. He neededd to go yesterday

[nychief]

"The Royals have turned two nondescript radio reporters into a national cause célèbre among journalists and broadcasters while smearing the early reputation of their new GM."

this is not true. whitlock is just looking for hedlines tilll training camp or Gates opens.

[nychief]

"I can relate to Rhonda’s plight. I’ve been viewed as the trouble-making, newcomer minority in the locker room. It’s easy to get left on an island surrounded by people hoping you fail when you’re the unconventional outsider."

Wow, Shitlock is always able to make a column about him. He is the disgrace.

[KingPriest2]

Originally Posted by nychief

"The Royals have turned two nondescript radio reporters into a national cause célèbre among journalists and broadcasters while smearing the early reputation of their new GM."

this is not true. whitlock is just looking for hedlines tilll training camp or Gates opens.

THis is true. This has made national sports headlines. It was picked up by the USA Today, ESPN, Yahoo, any I think there were more.

[KingPriest2]

We still get to ask, even if people don't want to answer

By Todd Hefferman, The Southern

The day after Herrin's victory over Du Quoin's football team in 2004, I got my first threat of actual bodily harm from a reader.

Anonymously (of course), someone left me a less-than-flattering message that Saturday morning that included a threat of violence, to say the least. Human Resources had to get involved. The Du Quoin Police Department had to get involved. Du Quoin football coach Al Martin was made aware. John Homan, a brave soul, was moved from a different football game the following weekend to fill in for me and give me some distance from the situation.

It wasn't pretty. It wasn't funny. It happens in this business.

Sometimes even worse things happen, like reporters getting punched in the face in the middle of their office in the middle of the day, as a co-worker of mine was.

People don't always enjoy what we write, or blog, or say in an interview or a press conference. Reporters, at least the good ones, question coaches who send the runner from third base in a tie game with less than two outs and the No. 3 hitter coming to the plate. Reporters have to ask coaches with $100,000 contracts how their basketball teams blow 20-point leads, and they have to ask million-dollar players why they strike out so much.

The job is not all smiles, sunbathing in the stands and hobnobbing with local or national celebrities.

Last week, under the national radar, a professional baseball team forgot the rules and the first amendment in the same day.

After asking Kansas City Royals owner David Glass how he handled the final days of general manager Allard Baird last week, two competing sports radio personalities had their media credentials revoked by a team starving for attention.

WHB's Bob Fescoe and KCSP's Rhonda Moss grilled Glass about the old GM at a news conference introducing the Royals' new GM, Dayton Moore, according to The Associated Press.

As of Thursday afternoon, their credentials had not been reinstated. Not after an editorial in the Kansas City Star and not after the Kansas City Press Club asked the team to reconsider its actions.

"The questions asked at the press conference were tough, but fair," the press club said through a press release Tuesday. "The game played at Kauffman Stadium is hardball, not softball, after all. Decisions made in the heat of the moment often lead to mistakes. But now that time has elapsed, the Kansas City Press Club trusts that cooler heads will prevail, credentials will be reinstated quickly, and the focus will return to where it belongs: getting the Royals back to winning form."

Of all the teams in Major League Baseball, the Royals want to be the first franchise to turn a blind eye to its darker side.

Kansas City was 17-47 heading into Thursday night's games, worst in the major leagues, and 24.5 games out of first place in the AL Central. The Royals are on pace to lose at least 100 games for the third straight year and fourth in the last five seasons.

Understand that the Royals are in such bad need of publicity, they don't charge radio stations to broadcast their games, as the St. Louis Cardinals do. They offer media outlets that cover them complimentary tickets if reporters, editors and such want to come to Kauffman Stadium, one of the most beautiful stadiums in the league, and see the team on their days off, as I've done before.

Not that the Cardinals have the right to revoke reporters' credentials if they're unhappy with what they ask either, but I was especially incensed when I found out it was the Royals that cut their hands. How upset do you have to be to cut off one of the few outlets that actually want to cover a team with a losing record?

When reporters are ousted because their subjects don't enjoy what they ask, or don't want to answer questions in the public interest, where will our society go? Newspapers and "SportsCenter" will turn into public relations firms. Forums like Web blogs and Internet chat rooms will look like they reside in communist countries. The media's ability to question the comfortable will evaporate.

That's worse than any threat the Royals or out-of-control fans can ever provide

[nychief]

Originally Posted by KingPriest2

THis is true. This has made national sports headlines. It was picked up by the USA Today, ESPN, Yahoo, any I think there were more.

cause célèbre? Give me a break. This is not ****ing Patty Hearst.

[KingPriest2]

Originally Posted by nychief

"The Royals have turned two nondescript radio reporters into a national cause célèbre among journalists and broadcasters while smearing the early reputation of their new GM."

this is not true. whitlock is just looking for hedlines tilll training camp or Gates opens.

SPJ News Release

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Contact:

David Carlson, President, (352) 846-0171, Carlson@spj.org

Beth King, Communications Manager, (317) 927-8000, ext. 211, bking@spj.org

SPJ Letter to Kansas City Royals and Commissioner Bud Selig
Urges Reinstatement of Radio Personalities’ Credentials

INDIANAPOLIS – The Society of Professional Journalists, the nation’s most broad-based journalism advocacy organization, today sent a letter to Kansas City Royals owner David Glass and Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, urging a reinstatement of media credentials to two reporters who asked hard-hitting questions at a recent news conference.

On June 9, Bob Fescoe of WHB and Rhonda Moss of KCSP, who work at competing sports-talk radio stations, had their credentials revoked one day after attending a press conference in which the Royals introduced its new general manager. Team officials offered no specifics for pulling the credentials. However, a team representative confirmed that the credentials have been revoked for the “foreseeable future.”

The Society is calling upon Kansas City Royals’ management to promote and support the free flow of information by reinstating the reporters’ credentials. Additionally, SPJ is encouraging other local media to send back their credentials in protest.

“The Royals’ decision to revoke the credentials of two journalists calls into question the organization’s commitment to transparency, open access and general fairness,” said David Carlson, president of SPJ. “It smacks of an attempt to control the message and to slap the hands of those who do not play along to your specifications.

“A baseball club depends on public support for its survival, and the public depends on the news media to keep it informed. Reporters are the public’s surrogate; they attend games and press conferences to serve the public interest. Part of that interest is to ask the tough questions.”

Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.

-END-



USA Today (6/13/06)

Statement below

Press club trying to help restore reporters' credentials

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Press Club is asking Kansas City Royals management to reconsider its decision to revoke the credentials of two reporters who asked contentious questions at a news conference.

Bob Fescoe of WHB and Rhonda Moss of KCSP, who work at competing sports-talk radio stations, had their credentials taken away Friday, a day after Dayton Moore was introduced as the Royals' general manager.

David Witty, the team's vice president for communications and marketing, has said the credentials were withdrawn for the remainder of the season.

At the news conference Thursday, the two reporters questioned Royals owner David Glass about his handling of the firing of general manager Allard Baird.

"The questions asked at the press conference were tough, but fair. The game played at Kauffman Stadium is hardball, not softball, after all," a statement from the Kansas City Press Club said.





PRESS CLUB ASKS ROYALS MANAGEMENT
TO RESTORE PRESS CREDENTIALS TO REPORTERS
For Immediate Release!!


KANSAS CITY, MO. (June 13, 2006) --- The Kansas City Press Club, with members from electronic and print media across western Missouri and eastern Kansas, is asking the Kansas City Royals’ management to reconsider the recent decision to revoke press credentials to two reporters following the Royals press conference Thursday.

The press credentials of Bob Fescoe of Union Broadcasting (WHB-810) and Rhonda Moss of Entercom Communications (KCSP-610) were revoked for the remainder of the season on Friday.

Reporters in Kansas City, as in any big league city, have a duty to the public to ask questions that are on the minds of thousands of fans. The questions asked at the press conference were tough, but fair. The game played at Kauffman Stadium is hardball, not softball, after all.

Decisions made in the heat of the moment often lead to mistakes. But now that time has elapsed, the Kansas City Press Club trusts that cooler heads will prevail, credentials will be reinstated quickly, and the focus will return to where it belongs: getting the Royals back to winning form.

###

(Contacts: Jack Miles. Vice president, Kansas City Press Club, (913) 381-1010; John Landsberg, Bottom Line Communications, (913) 338-5760)

[KingPriest2]

Originally Posted by nychief

cause célèbre? Give me a break. This is not ****ing Patty Hearst.

So you think it is no big deal what happened?


It makes the Royals look like a joke.


It has made even the LA Times.

[nychief]

Originally Posted by KingPriest2

So you think it is no big deal what happened?


It makes the Royals look like a joke.


It has made even the LA Times.

no, it is a big deal, but whitlock is the king of hyperbole. You'd thing they just barred Mumia from the press corp.

[KingPriest2]

Originally Posted by nychief

no, it is a big deal, but whitlock is the king of hyperbole. You'd thing they just barred Mumia from the press corp.

Royals' owner sorely lacks class


A commentary by Tim Davis, Democrat sports reporter


Dear David Glass,

Your actions in the past week have convinced me you're an arrogant jerk.

I know this whole "running a Major League Baseball team into the ground" thing isn't easy, but why can't you accept the blame for your actions?

Last week, you introduced the Royals' new General Manager, Dayton Moore. At the press conference, apparently some reporters did their job and asked questions.

Because these questions were asked in your direction and challenged your previous indecision, you had the credentials of these reporters revoked. Can they still shop at Wal-Mart, where you were CEO?

Now the Kansas City Press Club is standing up for radio reporters Bob Fescoe and Rhonda Moss, asking you to reconsider.

You ought to think about it before you make the team more of a laughingstock than it already is.

I've got a news flash for you -- a baseball team can't be run like Wal-Mart. "Always low prices" shouldn't be the motto for the upper-level management.

As a business model, I'm sure it's nice to have a team that's almost entirely subsidized by the New York Yankees. According to a January edition of the Kansas City Star, the Royals received around $55 million from baseball's revenue-sharing program.

The 2006 payroll, according to ESPN.com, is $47.2 million. My guess is that total will go down as higher-salary players get traded once your team is mathematically eliminated. (Slogan: Now on clearance, the right side of the infield.)

As for your treatment of the reporters, how much more gutless can you get? Sorry if your pride was hurt during this past Thursday's press conference, but think for a moment how it feels to be a Royals fan -- their pride is hurt on a daily basis.

Kansas City fans are too good to deserve the treatment they've suffered since Wal-Mart's yellow smiley face starting bouncing around Kauffman Stadium rolling back payroll. Royals fans have become suckers for relentless torment about how they are cheering losers, a double-A baseball team (the best comeback a Royals fan has: "Hey, we're at least triple-A.")

All Fescoe and Moss were doing was their jobs, and they were doing it well. As a fellow reporter, I know how it feels to ask the tough questions. It's not as easy as you might think. The questions the radio-station representatives asked were fair.

You're a major-league owner; learn how to handle a fastball. We're all sorry that the reporters didn't just lob slow-pitch softballs in your direction.

Your reactions last week were icing on the cake. Mr. Glass, your name has no business being associated with Ewing Kauffman. That man cared about looking and acting professional, and he put pros on the field.

The cut-rate team you've paid for, no ... let other teams pay for, is headed for the embarrassing mark of dead last -- in history. Your name should be put right along with it.

I don't have any credentials, so what will you do to me? Maybe I'll be banned from Wal-Mart.

I'd gladly drive to Target if that's what it would take to get an owner in K.C. that would try to put a winner on the field.

You are classless.

Sincerely,

Tim Davis

[KingPriest2]

Originally Posted by nychief

no, it is a big deal, but whitlock is the king of hyperbole. You'd thing they just barred Mumia from the press corp.

Tom Keegan, Lawrence Journal-World columnist (6/12)

Keegan: Royals have lousy credentials
Monday, June 12, 2006

Holy cow, it’s a darn good thing I just read what I typed in time to erase it or I might have lost my credential to Kansas City Royals games. I was going to write that the Royals are dead-last in the American League in runs, home runs, total bases and slugging percentage, but given the pathetic bully tactics employed by the Royals in regards to the media these days, I had better not write that. Good thing I caught myself.

Instead of looking at it that way, let’s just point out that the Royals have incredibly bad luck at the plate. They surely lead the world in at-’em balls. Everything they hit goes right at a fielder. They just can’t seem to follow Wee Willie Keeler’s time-honored advice and hit them where they ain’t. What an unlucky bunch.

I value that credential so much that I’m also going to refrain from pointing out that the Royals have a historically bad pitching staff with a 6.21 staff earned-run average, despite playing in a pitcher-friendly park, compared to where the Baltimore Orioles’, whose 5.40 ERA is second-worst in the AL, play. All it means is the Royals’ pitching staff is due. A hot streak is right around the corner. Make sure to get out to the ballpark, you know the one that will be renovated mostly at the expense of taxpayers. Oops, I meant to say to the great benefit of taxpayers.

I must choose my words carefully for fear I might lose that credential. Bob Fescoe and Rhonda Moss, a pair of Kansas City radio reporters, lost their press passes for doing their jobs thoroughly and well during the news conference held to introduce new Royals general manager Dayton Moore.

If not for fear of losing my credential, I would write that if the absurd credential removal isn’t enough to make Moore already regret the worst decision of his life, then you have to wonder about Moore’s decision-making ability.

Again.

I would, if not protective of my credential, write that Moore accepting the job in the first place put his judgment in question. Here he was, by all accounts, a rising star in the potential GM ranks, the logical choice to replace John Schuerholz when the most respected GM in the game decides to retire. And he comes to the Royals, the laughingstock organization of professional sports? But I won’t write that and won’t call it a bizarre career-suicide. No way would I take that chance, given that the Royals effectively have squelched free speech, as much a staple of American society as a free economic market that has allowed David Glass, owner of the Royals, to do so well by his family with his hugely successful box-store business.

Enough on a bush-league franchise, let’s move up the baseball ladder, all the way up to Triple A, all the way to the Web site of the Toledo Mudhens. If you would like to see former Lawrence High and Detroit Tigers baseball player Kevin Hooper play in the Triple A All-Star Game, you can help to make it happen. Visit mudhens.com and follow directions on how to vote. The fan vote counts 33 percent toward selection for the game, which will be played 30 days from today in Toledo. At last check, Hooper was running second in the voting at second base. A strong online voter turnout from his hometown fans, who can vote up to 25 times from each e-mail address, could swing the election in Hooper’s favor.


From Los Angeles Times interview with David Glass (6/12):

"A lot of this stuff," David Glass said, "is just the media twisting facts to make a point. Or just telling a lie about something. It's really disappointing. Kansas City deserves better than what they're getting in some of the media."

En route to what appears to be his third 100-loss season in four years, Glass declined to separate the twisted facts from the lies, but a day later had his media relations director separate two particularly aggressive radio reporters from their credentials.


Entire story: http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseba...rts-majorbaseb

[nychief]

Sorry, you're right.. this is right up there with Judy Miller.

[KingPriest2]

Originally Posted by nychief

no, it is a big deal, but whitlock is the king of hyperbole. You'd thing they just barred Mumia from the press corp.

KC SPORTS & FITNESS MAGAZINE



By John Landsberg
June 2006

Okay, fans, what exactly did you expect six years ago when you cheered wildly when David Glass took over the ownership of the Kansas City Royals? At the time he said he hoped the team would be in the playoffs “soon.”

Guess we should have asked him how he defined the word “soon.”

Did fans expect a guy whose entire career has involved selling cheap crap… cheap, would all of a sudden start spending money like a drunken sailor on a baseball team?

Go into a Wal-Mart. Our team is the Wal-Mart of baseball. It’s profitable, but you don’t go there for quality. You pretty much get what you pay for…

Unfortunately, we aren’t even the newer Wal-Mart Super Store of baseball. We are the smaller one where two carts can’t pass in the aisle, and it looks like a cleaning crew hasn’t visited since its opening.

Our store manager is Allard Baird. He’s an aggressive, young suck-up who is the ultimate company guy. He will gladly work 23 hours a day doing things he thinks will keep his bosses happy. He has a wife and a home---somewhere in Florida.

Baird is the perfect company guy. Despite a limited budget and staff, he takes all the heat for every screw-up in the organization. When arrows are shot at the top execs, he jumps in front and takes them.

Oh, and most importantly, Baird works cheap. A quick computation of his pay since joining the Royals figures out to about $1.22 per hour. That’s the positive part.

The downside is Baird’s record as of mid-May was a sterling 375-561 in slightly more than five years as GM. As Sports Illustrated noted, “His trades have bombed, prospects in his pipeline are few, and owner David Glass says he’s on the verge of a shake-up.”

Baird kind of reminds you of the definition of a consultant: “He can tell you 40 different ways to have sex, but he can’t get a date.” Baird can tell you everything about baseball, but he can’t seem to win.

On the other end of the spectrum, George Steinbrenner owns the New York Yankees. If he owned a store it would be Nordstrom’s. You might feel like you paid too much for some items, but you still felt you received good value for your money.

When the baseball gods said it would be important for the Nordstrom’s of Major League Baseball to help subsidize the league’s Wal-Marts, Steinbrenner complained. He said the Wal-Marts would not take that money and invest it in cleaning up their stores. He said they would put the money directly in their pocket.

George was correct. He reluctantly decided to share his wealth with the Wal-Marts, and then they refused to upgrade their stores. They said they would give out a few t-shirts, bubblehead dolls and other cheap crap. That would be enough. Forget the “product” on the field, but let the fans focus on fireworks, running the bases and Sluggerr’s cute antics.

That strategy would keep the fans coming. Oh, and the fact good teams like the Yankees would be coming to town. That would ensure enough KC fans would come out to see them. Forget the home team.

It’s very possible that store manager Allard Baird may get whacked for not being able to turn this franchise around. No problem. To this organization people are replaceable when profits are to be made. Just promote a stock clerk. As Royals fans we are used to it…



KC SPORTS