04/26/24
May 16, 2010
Mariners Boycott Reporter After Griffey Caught Napping: The Seattle Mariners are refusing to give any interviews in the presence of Tacoma News Tribune team beat writer Larry LaRue, who explained last week why Ken Griffey Jr. was unavailable to pinch hit in one game: "He was asleep in the clubhouse," an unnamed player told LaRue. "He'd gone back about the fifth inning to get a jacket and didn't come back. I went back in about the seventh inning -- and he was in his chair, sound asleep." The newspaper stands behind the story, but LaRue regrets not speaking to Griffey before it ran -- and the way Junior's storybook career is wrapping up. "I wish Junior’s career was ending the way his season ended last year, when he was helping more and when his teammates carried him around the field after the last home game of the season. That’s the way he deserves to go out."
As a journalist, here I go again: he regrets not talking to Junior before the story ran?!? Why, so he and the Mariners could make up some lame excuse? So the Mariners' brass could try to exert pressure on the News Tribune?
True, there won't be a total media blackout, but opinion pieces from other media outlets in support of the News Tribune would be good.
posted by jjzucal at 03:37 PM on May 16, 2010
That's not a boycott, that's a blacklist. Haungh ptui on the Mariners.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:21 PM on May 16, 2010
I'm not so inclined to give the reporter the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was a lie, and that's why the players are mad. Anyway, the linked article doesn't say the Mariners organized a boycott, just that some of the players refused to talk with the reporter present.
posted by bperk at 09:22 PM on May 16, 2010
What would be the benefit of an easily-disproved lie? Maybe he gets one story out of it, but the reporter would know it was the last Mariners story he'd ever get.
posted by yerfatma at 09:51 AM on May 17, 2010
A story like that can never be disproven. Reporters can say any old thing if they use the whole unnamed source crap.
posted by bperk at 03:26 PM on May 17, 2010
While it goes against the whole competitive nature of the news industry at this time, it would be nice if all of the local newspapers and television stations simply didn't report ANYTHING about the Mariners until the boycott was lifted.
A complete media blackout, other than the boxscore with the rest of the MLB ones, might give the Mariners pause.
Of course, it's foolhardy of me to think they'd do that, as it is so cutthroat in the media now that if you competitor has a problem, you exploit it.
I think the Mariners should rethink that boycott. The better option (if they feel they must retaliate) would simply not to answer any questions from the reporter, and grant no interviews with the newspaper.