Siegel's takedown of Boston Sports media

It was a podcast, actually, but WEEI ran a fair bit of it on-air. Siegel was pounded by Kirk Minihane.

 

If reporting these stories ruins a beat writer's relationship with the team, why wouldn't a national guy reporting these stories ruin his/her relationship with the team?

 

A national writer is concerned about his relationships with his or her sources, not the institutions for whom those sources work. The beat writer has to consider the institution as well as individual sources. For instance, if Passan's main source was Gonzalez, and I'll bet it was, why should he give a fig what the Red Sox think. His source is safely ensconced in the Dodgers clubhouse.

 

That was such a vicious beating. Holy lord. I almost feel bad for Siegel, but he sounded like one of those Deadspin guys trying to defend his "Te'o was in on it!" line. There might be some things that are true within that piece, but my god, that was a beating.

 

They would have stopped this in the 2nd round.

 

I don't know that I've ever seen a writer crushed so severely in such a calm rational way. It was kind of brilliant, actually. No shouting, no anger, just cold, point-by-point evisceration of how lazy and inch-deep that original story was. And again, Siegel might have some good points swirling around somewhere. I ran into some what he's talking about in my own market, where I would have (foolishly) stayed longer if I'd been given the opportunity to do what I wanted to do. But Xan is right. That was like Tyson/Spinks in terms of who can actually defend their turf and knows what they're talking about.

 

Radio guy was masterful with his line of questioning. I tried to envision Siegel on the other end of the line, sitting at a table thinking he was going to coast through a laudatory interview of sorts, without any notes to fall back on. And then the hammer drops time and again and he's shellshocked beyond the point of remembering anything he wrote. I'd love to know the thoughts that swirled through Siegel's mind for the first hour after that interview.

 

The national writer also has to consider the institution (Red Sox). There's trade talk, signings, in-depth access for future stories, etc. It's not like you can just avoid covering the Red Sox if you're Jeff Passan.

 

Not really a matter of avoiding covering them, but the national writer doesn't need to be in the building every day and can't realistically be hurt, access-wise, by the institution the way a local guy can be.

 

So Passan will continue to be floated trade rumors, signings info, etc., but Peter Abraham won't if they report the same story?

 

WAR! Whoo! Good God, y'all!

 

One more thing. Consider the source's point of view. There's way more plausible deniability when a story comes out in a national outlet than when it comes out in a local one. Passan could've picked up that story anywhere, not from me!