Tim Benz: Orioles' suspension of team broadcaster highlights a bigger sports media issue
I’m happy to see that suspended Baltimore Orioles broadcaster
According to The Athletic, the Orioles shelved Brown after a MASN game broadcast at Tropicana Field in Tampa-St. Petersburg on July 23. As AwfulAnnouncing.com pointed out earlier this week, he was quietly shifted to radio broadcasts for three days, then taken off the air entirely after what appeared to be a very tame, fact-based introduction before a Sunday afternoon contest between the Orioles and Rays, which outlined a long history of struggles for the Orioles at Tropicana Field.
But Brown’s whole premise — and that of the graphics department who put together a full-screen image relaying the stats Brown was outlining — was that the resurgent Orioles were on the verge of gaining a rare series win in Tampa, having taken two of the first three contests.
I challenge you to find anything suspension-worthy in what Brown said.
Here's the clip of Kevin Brown's pregame comments on the Orioles' recent record against the Rays ahead of a series finale on July 23. Sources tell AA these comments led to Brown's current indefinite suspension from Orioles' broadcasts. pic.twitter.com/csURU04fJU
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 7, 2023
It’s not as if Brown shouted some sort of scalding commentary on why the Orioles had been so bad at Tropicana Field.
He didn’t bloviate over whose fault it was — ripping individual players, coaches or members of management. He was just fact-stating. The tone of his monologue was inherently optimistic about the potential of the Orioles finally getting over the hump in a recent house of horrors for the club.
Reportedly, the stats even came from the Orioles’ own game notes, and clearly, there was a collaboration with the directors and producers of the team broadcast crew.
Related:
Were they all suspended too? What about the media relations department for publishing the notes in the first place?
It’d be one thing if the Orioles were guilty of anal-retentive spin control. This is worse. This is their attempt to erase history.
What’s next? Are they going to burn any media guides from previous losing seasons? If so, get some marshmallows. They had five in a row before last year. Plenty of kindling to be had.
I was thrilled to see so many others across baseball shred the Orioles for what they did to Brown. Team broadcasts for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox lambasted Orioles management. Chris Russo on Sirius XM went right at owner John Angelos. The Mets broadcast went so far as to cut away from a shot of the field in between hitters so play-by-play man Gary Cohen could look at the camera as he was eviscerating the Orioles franchise during an inning.
It was spectacular.
Gary Cohen goes off on the Orioles.
— Mike Mayer (@mikemayer22) August 8, 2023
To Cohen’s point, from now on, how is any Orioles team broadcaster supposed to be looked upon as anything else but a shill for the team? No other person who has that job will be willing to advance the slightest negative opinion. The franchise has tainted that position forever.
But as an entity, the media at large deserves some blame for why Angelos and his Baltimore front office minions felt empowered to do something like this. So do the fans. And so do empty-headed, stuffed shirts in team and broadcast executive roles who listen to the fans too much in the first place.
For the past 20 years, we’ve been heading in this direction — especially in the last 10-15 with the advent of social media. For decades now, there has been a blurring of the lines between what is “media coverage” and what is home-spun, organizational advertising.
With teams’ in-house coverage of their own product, many fans don’t seem to be able to differentiate between what’s coming from the franchises (or leagues) themselves and what’s coming from people who are paid to cover those sports from unbiased traditional media outlets.
To a lot of fans, “media” is simply anyone with a press pass. The opinions espoused by those media members seem to matter less and less based on what the mission statement of the outlet is paying you to be in the press box. What seems to matter more and more is if those opinions are going to make the audience feel better about the team they want to see win.
That’s why if I’m critical of the Steelers after they lose on a given Sunday, my inbox is filled with emailers complaining, “Why don’t you support the team more? Why don’t you move to Cleveland?”
As if Art Rooney II signs a per-game check for me any time I file a postgame column.
Don’t worry, Steelers fans. I won’t ask for too much against the Steelers salary cap. I’d settle for the franchise tag Le’Veon Bell turned down.
Owners are aware of that tone. They are used to people kissing their backsides.
Executives see that stuff online. They tend to believe it’s a unified opinion among everyone in their fan base. And with social media feedback seeping into the skulls of Twitter-addled media types like us, I think we tend to pay too much attention to it as well.
Hey, tweeting something nice about a team you cover sure does get a lot more likes and retweets when they do well than being critical after a tight loss.
Ah, that social media dopamine! It sure is addictive, isn’t it?
Sports are no different than politics or any other walk of life in 2023. We only hear what we want to hear, and we shout down anything that we don’t like. So if you are selling a product, like a team or a league, turn into the skid. Pump out as much sanitized “media” messaging as you can, and swat away anything to the contrary.
The difference between reporting and public relations has never been less identifiable.
Sure. This thing in Baltimore is an extreme example. But it took a leap by the Orioles this severe to create the blowback it has gotten.
The pushback wasn’t this extreme when talk show host Brent Axe got fired by Galaxy Media for being too negative about Syracuse University Athletics a few months ago.
I went to Syracuse. Believe me. There’s been plenty to be negative about in recent years.
There wasn’t a similar amount of upheaval when the Los Angeles Angels were prescreening media questions. And why was there so much hate thrown at Alexi Lalas for making accurate criticisms of the U.S. women’s national soccer team in the wake of their woeful failure in the World Cup?
The public has fostered an environment where Angelos and his pea-brained lackeys felt secure in their decision to suspend Brown and justified in doing so.
Spin is now expected by the audience, and propaganda is often applauded.
That’s the real problem. Not the Orioles’ road record in Tampa.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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