David Stern had USA Today reporter fired

I don't know if this was public knowledge until recently, but Stern told SI's Chris Ballard that he had an unnamed USA Today reporter fired.

From the story: "He said, 'You got me fired didn't you?' And I said, 'Yes, and I'm proud of it. I'd do it again.' There is a family. We call it the NBA family and we really, we live it."

Anybody ever heard anything about this?

 

No. But if it did happen, wouldn't surprise me. Such was the power Stern had.

As for the story? You ask about legalized gambling, but not about Tim Donaghy?

 

Didn't happen, at least not like the misleading graf in the 'SI' story suggests. Stern once had Peter Vecsey removed as a halftime analyst/reporter from USA Network. Vecsey wasn't even working at USA Today at the time.

The Power and Polarity of Peter Vecsey

 

That's not as bad, since USA Network isn't a news operation. But I wouldn't want to work for a boss or a media outlet that would let someone we cover dictate our staffing. Even having a beat person moved off -- which has happened at some newspapers -- due to a team's complaints would be a horrible sign of weakness.

 

So did Stern or SI get USA TODAY (paper) confused with USA Network (cable TV)?

Seems like Stern owes USA TODAY an apology for misspeaking or SI needs a clarification or own up to a fact-check error.

 

I was surprised SI didn’t reach out to USA Today for comment.

 

It is hard for me to believe that that a publication that works as hard as USA Today does to not express a controversial point of view could print something that would anger Stern that much.

 

I think there's confusion here. Stern didn't get Vecsey fired from USA Today. He got him fired from USA Network (as noted above). The league or teams typically OK announcers and analysts.

 

Thank you for clarifying this. I knew something was amiss.

Network analysts and play-by-play guys get fired all the time for not toeing the company line. This is a non-story.

 

That's an error by a publication that has seriously eroded in quality over the last 20 years. An error about a non-story doesn't make a non-story a story.