Mortensen: Raiders lost "privilege" of him asking them for comment

I have the problem with the word "privilege," too.
But, anyone that has dealt with this "franchise" knows what lies and spin they deliver on a consistent basis. They are a bunch of assholes. There is only one person anyone can trust in the organization, and she doesn't talk on the record.

 

Then you note their lack of credibility in stories you write about the Raiders.

Al Davis certainly sets a negative tone for that organization.

 

I know what to do, and how to handle it. That wasn't the point.
And mentioning anyone's credibility directly after a statement in a news story isn't a tact that should be taken. Or, you won't be writing too many stories in your career. Our job is to understand the situation, report it as we know it. Reporting something that we know is a lie doesn't always reflect on the source. The reflection is under the byline, too. Then there are credibility issues all around.

 

I never thought I would ever defend Mort on anything, but he right here.

The Raiders are the worst professional franchise to deal with from a media standpoint and they always lie.

I think it was a few years ago that Schefter reporter they had fired Bill Callahan and the Raiders spent a week disparaging Schefter and saying how it was 100 percent false.

Then they fired Callahan.

 

But you still report the denial.

You don't have to mention the credibility issue, because that becomes evident when the thing they denied occurs.

 

Here's a related scenario

What if you can't go to the head honcho of an organization because you know said head honcho will turn around and feed it to their favorite writer, thus undercutting your scoop?

Do you take away their "privilege" ?

 

I actually get where Mort is coming from. If the team denies every single report you run by them, including, "Sources say the sky is blue" -- then what's the point?

I guess you can run it by them, print their denial, and then remind readers of the dozens of stories they've denied that actually turned out to be true. That's another option, I guess.

 

WFW

 

This is kind of a shock, too, considering Mortensen's print history. According to the ESPN history book, when Mortensen was the football writer at the Atlanta Journal Constitution all sorts of sources returned his calls, even Al Davis.

 

He should have asked, even if he already knew what the answer would be.

The Mort of today is a long, long way from the Mort of old. Mort is so in bed with some of the top agents that he doesn't even seem to hide it anymore. As soon as the Thomas Jones criticism of Favre was out there, Mort was immediately doing the talk show rounds to dispute it.

He's a whore. Pasquarelli is worse, but we see him so rarely these days.

If I want NFL national news, I'll go to Glazer, Clayton and Schefter.

 

How can you call anyone a whore and then say you will go to Glazer?