when your editor goes to bat for you; good on you, Terry McDonell

It doesn't happen often. It happened for me, way back when (Bob Sales was my ed), so I can appreciate it.

The readers/fans need to understand this, so the reporter in question is not classified as a stalker.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/sports/baseball/17sandomir.html?ref=sports



Subsequently, Rodriguez called to apologize privately to her. But that was not enough for her boss, Terry McDonell, editor of the Sports Illustrated Group.

He said he wanted Rodriguez to publicly admit that his accusations were false. “I want the record to be set straight,” McDonell said in a telephone interview.

He said he had pressured A-Rod’s public relations advisor at the Outside Eyes agency in Newport Beach, Calif., to force him into a public accounting.

“They’ve tried to get away with a private apology, which is outrageous and unfair and allowed the preposterous charges to stand,” he said.

•

McDonell’s dealings have been with the firm’s Ben Porwitt, who did not return a call for comment. McDonell said there was no plan to take legal action against Rodriguez even if he does not renounce his accusations against Roberts.

“I’m hoping this press conference will be a really fine hour for sports journalism,” McDonell said. “I hope it will be fair, direct and go specifically to answer questions that will shed light on the period when he was taking these drugs, and clarify things that have fallen off the story, like the attack on Selena.”

 

Good for you, Mr. McDonell.

And it still pisses me off every time I see A-Fraud's "this lady" clip, and I still wonder if he would have tried the same crap if the reporter in question was male.

 

Assuming A-Rod will begin his spin session press conference tomorrow with some kind of prepared statement, that statement absolutely should include a public apology to Selena Roberts. If it doesn't, somebody better jump on him about that right way.

 

Yes "this lady" says a lot about A-Rod. Way way way back in the day I was called "a bitch" -- that was so offensive, then, but I'd rather be that than " this lady." It says a lot about him, and his advisers, that they chose to beat the drum with that term. And to use the word "stalker" which, we all know, means she was only being a reporter, trying to give him the opportunity to comment on a story 48 hours before they went public.
Nothing bothers me more about this story than the way Selena has been portrayed. She has done nothing wrong, and indeed had followed every step we learn in journalism class.
And to tell you how the world evolves, I probably am now "a bitch" and a "lady."

 

pseudo, since we might be the only ones here who care ... I wonder if Alex and his advisers decided to use the word "lady" thinking it would make him look chivalrous, and also thinking the mostly male world of baseball writers would do the ugh, ugh, thing, and not go off the cliff, as he suggested.
Of course he was wrong, and of course they all respect Selena and beyond that, they were doing their own reporting/writing totally exclusive of SI, but it is interesting, A-Rod's choice of words.
He'd didn't say "That man," David Epstein."

 

Maybe there was some thought behind the choice of words ... but for me, at least, his delivery managed to make "lady" sound like a slur. Far as I'm concerned, he deserves whatever hed the Post comes up with next.

 

I have a feeling Selena will have a lot of allies shooting questions ARod's direction tomorrow. Sportswriters often have each other's back, as well.

 

From what I'm told, Boras doesn't employ women in high positions to advise clients, and that's where he first went wrong .
And Alex doesn't listen to women in general (the wife, the trainer, the girlfriend...), the word, "that lady," might have been seen as something that the baseball writers would all fist-bump over. Honestly, I think that's what they thought. And honestly, no baseball writer I know -- and I know a lot -- would have done that. They'd have thought, "what? seriously?" when A-Rod went on his Selena rant. They would not be fist-bumping over her supposed demise. In fact, the guys on the beat spent the next days proving his lies wrong about Selena.
It was a bad, very bad calculation on journalism, and gender journalism

 

just curious, and i know you are an excellent source, but how do you know arod hates all women and doesn't listen to their advice? he said some awful things about selena in that interview for sure, but isn't a stretch to say he hates women? that he doesn't listen to them? is their proof of this?

 

dammit, i meant there.

 

Very true ginger. A total miscalculation on the part of Boras/A-Rod et al on the male beat writer/columnist reaction to his unfounded attack on Selena.
Everything I read the NY area papers last week ripped him for the Selena comments. I guess he really is self-centered/oblivious enough to not realize that she is -- deservedly -- highly respected as a reporter and writer.

 

And, where, gola, does ginger say he hates all women?