Sports Journalists Who Challenge the Party Line Are a Good Thing

**CharmCityCrab** · 01-29-2014, 12:30 AM

(Bare with me here, this does relate to the Ravens)

A long time ago in a land very close to M&T Bank Stadium, there was a team that plays a different professional sport in a stadium with an adjacent warehouse. There was a fellow who wrote about the team, his name was Ken Rosenthal. His columns consistently challenged the owner, Peter Angelos, and the storylines the organization tried to put out about how things were done behind the scenes. Rosenthal did some actual investigative reporting, got news from inside sources, and wasn't afraid to express an opinion.

There were some in Baltimore and the rest of Orioles fandom who didn't like Rosenthal and practically ran him out of town on a rail. They didn't like that he showed them the truth- that Angelos was an incompetent cheap meddlesome owner who lied about things and ran the organization in a dsyfunctional way. They wanted stories about how "awesome" the Orioles were going to be year in and year out and that supported firing good GMs and managers and replacing them with bad ones, and supported not spending the money it took to win. Essentially, they wanted fairy tales that made them feel good.

The truth is, had Rosenthal stuck around or been replaced with several similar journalists, I don't the Orioles would have had 14 straight losing seasons. The people who covered the Orioles in this town after he left so closely resembled an Orioles propaganda machine that I found the Sun's Orioles "journalism" indistinguishable from the journalism on the MASN website, a venture who's majority owner is also the owner of the Orioles. I certainly wasn't going to pay for that when they put the pay wall up, not that I am inclined to pay for news to begin with when decent free alternatives exist.

In New York or Philadelphia or something, the press would have either run Angelos out of town on a rail by now or forced him to change his ways. The scathing front page stories and barrage of editorials day in and day out would have turned the fan base and you would have seen things get uncomfortable for him- crowds at games chanting "Angelos sucks" every time the team was losing, the type of displays in parking lots that we saw of Jim Irsay right before he moved the Colts out of town, etc..

Instead, we get propaganda, and when anyone challenges things like "Why in the world is our payroll 25% of the Yankees' payroll despite massive profits from MASN?" or "Why haven't we signed a major free agent since the turn of the century?", people act like they've donned a Yankees hat and switched sides or something.

That's why I'm glad we have journalists like Mike Preston who cover the Ravens and have the guts to hold people's feet to the fire, express unpopular opinions, do some investigative journalism, and so on and so forth when it comes to the Ravens. That's why I was happy to see Tony do his story the other day here about Kubiak getting the offensive coordinator spot.

The fact is, if it went down the way Mike and Tony say it did, I actually support Bischotti making that call. Hostler using the same old playbook (Which dates back at least to Cam Cameron) would have been a disaster. We needed a regime change on offense coaching and system wise. Flacco is going to be on this team for a long time due to his contract. Rice would cost us more in cap money to cut than to keep for the 2014 season. Torrie Smith and others are coming back. We are I would think definitely going to upgrade the offensive line (Gradkowski sucks and Shipley is too small to be playing guard in the NFL- when Osemele went down, there was no excuse to have only Shipley available to go in there, he's not an NFL sized guard. If Reid is so bad that he couldn't be put in in that situation, he shouldn't have been on the team and we should have had someone else we could have put in) and add a WR and so on and so forth, but basically the personnel we have are who we are going to go to war with at a lot of the skill positions. So, the change you make is the playbook and the play calling- offensive coaching. I agree with that. If Harbaugh made the decision to do that, good for him. If it was Bischotti forcing his hand, then good for Bischotti. The decision had to be made.

Anyway, regardless of who's right and who's wrong about the facts of what happened with the coordinator search, I'm glad we have people in this town who search out the truth, express unpopular opinions, and hold the Ravens' brasses' feet to the fire. Mike Preston is sometimes right and he's sometimes wrong, but he's doing his job exactly the way I want to see it done, and the way I'd like to see it done by people who cover the Orioles. Remember what Preston had to say about Billick and Boller? Certainly looks like he was right in retrospect. And if he's wrong about some things, he's balanced out by the official team site and less critical media, he's not the only voice.

The truth is, the way the local media covers the Ravens is, in my view, a big part of why Baltimore fans have high expectations of the Ravens, and a big part of why the Ravens so frequently meet those expectations.

We see have happens when the media treats a team with kid gloves and encourages fans to put on blinders and not be critical- you get the Orioles. I wouldn't want that for the Ravens.

**NC Raven** · 01-29-2014, 01:13 AM

1. Agree with the general premise that you need a strong and independent media voice, and that having such a thing does cause responses from those in its crosshairs.

2. Reid is a waste of a roster spot. Thanks for the reminder, I sometimes forget about him. I'd rather have dead money and a promising rookie to try out than another year of Reid.

3. So we need to upgrade both Reid's spot and Gradkowski's spot on the roster. Other than that I think we're in good shape, subject to the FA departures ahead that will need to be offset, of course.

**duffybr** · 01-29-2014, 01:30 AM

I would not even refer to doughboy as 'journalist' He Writes an opinion column that is seldom substantiated and often wrong. Good writers work at the sun for a few yeArs And move on to better national jobs. Preston is a poor writer who stayed here because he is a lousy writer.

**Corey** · 01-29-2014, 04:54 AM

Sorry, I don't buy this at all. The stories about the O's were substantiated by the product on the field. Preston is not an investigative journalist. He is a guy that throws shit at the wall to see what sticks. I honestly dont believe he has a crediable source inside the Ravens organization. The biggest story surroundind the 2012 Ravens was the near mutiny after the loss to Houston. If Preston had a crediable source, how come the national media broke that story and not him? That is exactly the kind of juicy drama he likes to run with. Yet it took weeks and Mike Silver for it to come out.

**Captain Silver** · 01-29-2014, 05:10 AM

Originally Posted by duffybr

I would not even refer to doughboy as 'journalist' He Writes an opinion column that is seldom substantiated and often wrong. Good writers work at the sun for a few yeArs And move on to better national jobs. Preston is a poor writer who stayed here because he is a lousy writer.

WHAT?!?!

Journalism died with John Steadman. Period.

**GOTA** · 01-29-2014, 07:06 AM

Sports journalists who challenge the party line are a good thing. Too bad there isn't one in Baltimore.

**PurpleApocalypse37** · 01-29-2014, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by Captain Silver

WHAT?!?!

Journalism died with John Steadman. Period.

Id recommend reading the book Hidden America by Jeanne Marie Laskas. Also when I finish my documentary on the woes of the public school system, you should watch that too. There's still gray journalism imo, just like there's still good music. It's just the good stuff is hardly ever mainstream anymore.

**HoustonRaven** · 01-29-2014, 08:00 AM

Mike? Is that you?

**wickedsolo** · 01-29-2014, 08:31 AM

Do folks not realize that there is a difference between journalism and being a columnist?

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**HoustonRaven** · 01-29-2014, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

Do folks not realize that there is a difference between journalism and being a columnist?

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Apparently not.

**wickedsolo** · 01-29-2014, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by HoustonRaven

Apparently not.

Sent you a pm btw.

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**I Touchdown There** · 01-29-2014, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by wickedsolo

Do folks not realize that there is a difference between journalism and being a columnist?

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THIS!! I have a journalism degree so I would know this. Not sure how I feel about Preston...sometimes his articles are entertaining since they present a different perspective...but who am I kidding. Most of the time he's just trying to stir the pot. Gets old after a while b/c it seems like a shtick. Also seems to "have it out" for certain people.