A Toronto radio station reporter has reportedly been given the weekend off after speaking his mind about Cito Gaston, the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, on his blog.
Mike Wilner of The Fan 590 (which, like the Blue Jays, is owned by Rogers Communications), wrote at length about what he perceived to be a slight by Gaston during a scrum with the rest of the media after Wednesday night’s game.
Basically, Wilner wanted a specific answer from Gaston about why he chose to use relievers Scott Downs and Shawn Camp too early. All Gaston would tell him was to check the stats. Wilner kept pushing until a Jays communications person told him the question had been answered and to move on.
You can read the whole thing here, but here are some highlights:
Cito went on to tell me that it’s a lot tougher in his seat and that he can’t just sit there and blurt out anything that comes into his head. That was enough of the discussion for me. I think he also suggested I should come down and try managing
It’s unfortunate that I can’t have a legitimate discussion about strategy with the manager without him feeling as though he’s being attacked.
I don’t need to be belittled by the skipper in front of the entire assemblage when I’m asking legitimate, rational questions about a situation that he brought up earlier in a conversation.
The National Post reports that the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America have written a letter to the Blue Jays, saying that Wilner’s suspension basically amounts to censorship:
“The baseball writers association would like to officially voice its support of the right of Mr. Wilner or any other reporter to ask challenging questions,” president Richard Griffin wrote according to the Post.
“Similar lines of questioning in the wake of difficult losses are not uncommon in all pro sports. The concern of the BBWAA is that this amounts to an attempt to either censor or intimidate the media coverage that the Jays receive on a daily basis in all four newspapers and the wire services.”
Here’s the thing, I don’t think Wilner was suspended because he asked “challenging” questions of Gaston but because he blogged about it on a company blog. And blogged by making it about him.
Maybe that’s the talk radio thing, but I would never — not in a company blog or otherwise — talk about how someone I interviewed made me feel. If a story subject made me feel like an idiot, the public does not need to hear about it. I need to do my job better, or discuss it with the person in question, or my employer. I do not put it out for the entire worldwide web to read. But maybe that’s just me.
After all, many reporters in a scrum will continue to ask the same question if they are not getting the response they want from the person in the scrum — whether he be a politician or a sports figure. So I just can’t see that being the problem.
And sure, this whole situation raises a whole bunch of questions because the same company that owns the team owns the radio station which employs the journalist in question. But I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
If that were the case, then anyone who ever wrote anything disparaging about Gaston or the Jays would have gotten a call from the organization about it demanding action. And while I do not now, nor have I ever, covered the Blue Jays — I think if that was how the Jays operated, we’d know about it.
If Wilner was suspended for the comments on his blog, I don’t think it’s fair to blame Cito Gaston or the entire Blue Jays organization.
Maybe, just maybe, The Fan suspended Wilner for a justifiable reason that we the public are not privy to.
And nor should we be.
Wilner’s suspension not censorship
A Toronto radio station reporter has reportedly been given the weekend off after speaking his mind about Cito Gaston, the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, on his blog.
Mike Wilner of The Fan 590 (which, like the Blue Jays, is owned by Rogers Communications), wrote at length about what he perceived to be a slight by Gaston during a scrum with the rest of the media after Wednesday night’s game.
Basically, Wilner wanted a specific answer from Gaston about why he chose to use relievers Scott Downs and Shawn Camp too early. All Gaston would tell him was to check the stats. Wilner kept pushing until a Jays communications person told him the question had been answered and to move on.
You can read the whole thing here, but here are some highlights:
The National Post reports that the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America have written a letter to the Blue Jays, saying that Wilner’s suspension basically amounts to censorship:
“The baseball writers association would like to officially voice its support of the right of Mr. Wilner or any other reporter to ask challenging questions,” president Richard Griffin wrote according to the Post.
“Similar lines of questioning in the wake of difficult losses are not uncommon in all pro sports. The concern of the BBWAA is that this amounts to an attempt to either censor or intimidate the media coverage that the Jays receive on a daily basis in all four newspapers and the wire services.”
Here’s the thing, I don’t think Wilner was suspended because he asked “challenging” questions of Gaston but because he blogged about it on a company blog. And blogged by making it about him.
Maybe that’s the talk radio thing, but I would never — not in a company blog or otherwise — talk about how someone I interviewed made me feel. If a story subject made me feel like an idiot, the public does not need to hear about it. I need to do my job better, or discuss it with the person in question, or my employer. I do not put it out for the entire worldwide web to read. But maybe that’s just me.
After all, many reporters in a scrum will continue to ask the same question if they are not getting the response they want from the person in the scrum — whether he be a politician or a sports figure. So I just can’t see that being the problem.
And sure, this whole situation raises a whole bunch of questions because the same company that owns the team owns the radio station which employs the journalist in question. But I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
If that were the case, then anyone who ever wrote anything disparaging about Gaston or the Jays would have gotten a call from the organization about it demanding action. And while I do not now, nor have I ever, covered the Blue Jays — I think if that was how the Jays operated, we’d know about it.
If Wilner was suspended for the comments on his blog, I don’t think it’s fair to blame Cito Gaston or the entire Blue Jays organization.
Maybe, just maybe, The Fan suspended Wilner for a justifiable reason that we the public are not privy to.
And nor should we be.