Sorting out the media fumble of Gov. Shapiro's quotes on publicly funded NFL stadiums in Pa.

The media kerfuffle over what Gov. Josh Shapiro said — or didn’t say — about public funding for football stadiums in Pennsylvania is just the beginning of what will undoubtedly be a hair-pulling, mind-numbing process until the Steelers and Eagles work out their new leases.

That’s whether they play in their current stadiums moving forward or elsewhere.

If you missed the easily avoidable consternation, a few quotes from Shapiro about the prospect of allocating state money for new stadiums were improperly framed on Sunday.

Via a transcript from ProFootballTalk on Monday, Shapiro was at the NASCAR event at Long Pond over the weekend. He was asked about his previous lack of willingness to grant state funds to the Philadelphia 76ers for a new arena and if he had a similar stance regarding the Eagles potentially wanting a new stadium when their lease at Lincoln Financial Field expires in 2032.

Keep in mind the Steelers’ lease at Acrisure Stadium expires in 2030.

This was Shapiro’s full response, as transcribed by Mike Florio at PFT via a video of the exchange with a reporter, which he claims to have eventually seen.

”Well, I’m not going to get into the specifics of any of our conversations here in this setting. I will tell you that we want to make sure that the Steelers, we want to make sure the Eagles, and all of our pro teams have outstanding places to play, that are welcoming for fans, that generate revenue for the economy, just like the good folks here at Pocono do.

“But we also need to be really careful about utilizing state tax dollars, particularly at a time where we’re seeing the likeliness of massive federal cuts that are going to knock half a million people off of their health care — 140,000 are going to lose food assistance. I’ve got 25 rural hospitals that will likely shutter if these federal plans go forward.

“And so I’m very worried about the overall budget. I’m very worried about the overall economic situation given the federal cuts, and so you want to balance investing in tourism, investing in sports, investing in great arenas and facilities with making sure that you’re also requesting those dollars in the things that Pennsylvanians need most. So it’s always a balance. We’ve got really great communication with Jeffrey Lurie and with (Steelers owner) Art Rooney, and we’re going to continue to dialogue with them about what they need and what’s possible.”

I haven’t seen the video, but I’ve heard the raw audio. That transcription is 100% accurate.

Clearly, Shapiro isn’t high on the notion of public funding for new football stadiums. It’s obvious he is going to need some convincing to green-light any significant funds to these billion-dollar cash cows.

But he didn’t slam the door on the idea. In fact, he went so far as to say his office was “going to continue to dialogue with them about what they need and what’s possible.”

Yet, somehow, the Associated Press took those quotes and framed the story as if Shapiro definitively said there would be no state funding. You can still do a web search and find various outlets who did a cut and paste of the post. Quite a few had inaccurate headlines such as “Gov. Shapiro: No state money for new Steelers, Eagles stadium,” or “Shapiro Remains Steadfast on No State Money for New Arenas.”

Now, you can click on those outdated links and get a brand-new headline once the page opens up, or just a broken link.

Channel 6 in Philly ran with that flimsy interpretation verbatim. Channel 3 did something similar, yet even ran a soundbite from Shapiro couching his comments.

ESPN.com and PFT themselves were two of those outlets, who have since reposted the story with the modified language that the AP used when it corrected its mischaracterized headline. The one at ESPN.com now reads “Pennsylvania governor to work with Eagles, Steelers on stadium needs.”

To his credit, Florio at least did the diligence to follow up with that first-hand transcription from the governor’s office and posted a full explanation of what transpired. However, he and anyone else who aggregated the story Sunday are guilty of an overwhelming lack of reading comprehension and gross journalistic laziness for simply republishing the AP quotes and tone in the first place.

I saw the AP story directly repackaged at ESPN and repurposed at PFT. I used it as well in Monday’s “First Call.”

But at least I bothered to read it first and noticed there were no quotes that backed up what the headline stated and eliminated that inaccurate assessment of what Shapiro said from our presentation of it. I just ran the quotes and wrote that Shapiro “didn’t sound too keen” on the idea of state funding for stadiums and that he’d “maintain conversations with both franchises.”

That was a lot closer to the quotes that actually ran in the initial story and what was reflected in the longer transcription.

The point of this exercise isn’t to stand on a soapbox and wag my finger at the AP, PFT, ESPN.com and others for a journalism fumble.

Eh, maybe it is in part.

My greater intention is to straighten out what happened because, honestly, the way the AP has handled this, it almost looks like Shapiro said something and then backed off of it in less than 24 hours.

It was as if there were two different press conferences or something, and he reversed course on his stance from Sunday. In reality, that’s not what happened at all.

Those who don’t want to see two more publicly funded stadiums in Pennsylvania will be happy to know that.

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