More Than One Way To Skin The Press
Yesterday we wondered aloud about the changes taking place in how the press and the people and institutions it covers due to the increased ability and access to tools that allow almost anyone to create their own stories. Today we find more evidence of just how aggressively some are moving to control their own messages through their very own media.
The Washington Post reports today that Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins football team, "is nearing the purchase of three area radio stations as part of a broader plan to expand his media holdings." According to the article, those stations would carry broadcasts of the Redskins games and perhaps other sports programming. Snyder is also rumored to be in the market to buy more stations and has hire former Clear Channel executive Bennett Zier to head a new media company, Red Zebra Broadcasting.
The idea of a team owner also owning media outlets is certainly nothing new, but this case is different given Snyder's past relationship with the press – and the aggressive way in which he has moved to shut it out. Snyder's public spats with the press, most notably The Washington Post, is well-known in the Washington area but overlooked at times are the lengths the owner has gone to in order to, basically, eliminate any need to answer to the paper – or anyone else.
Over the weekend Lorne Manly, a sports reporter for The New York Times, gave the rest of the nation a detailed picture of Snyder's unique approach. Manly describes and incident in which journalists were told Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Williams, who had just signed a major contract to remain with the team, did not want to do any interviews. Shortly afterward, an interview with Williams appeared on the team's official website, Redskins.com. Manly wrote:
"Tensions between news organizations and the sports teams they cover are nothing new. But journalists who deal with and observe the Redskins see Tuesday's events as a piece of a media strategy that, more than other teams, seeks to control the message and harness technology to speak directly to fans, while freezing out or even publicly chastising news organizations they believe have strayed from fairly reporting the news."Snyder has long complained about what he has seen as unfair coverage of himself and his team and has been involved in very public battles with The Post. His reaction has been to tighten control over his team's image and message. While Snyder can't (yet) control the television broadcasts of the Redskins games, he's all but taken over the radio broadcasts of them, hiring Larry Michael, a former radio executive for Westwood One to help manage his media operations. Michael, paid solely by the Redskins, is also the play-by-play broadcaster for the Redskins games on the radio. Most fans are used to "homers" calling games, but even they are prone to be a little critical of the team.
Sports in general, and football in particular, are unique from news and sports organizations have a tremendous amount of power to control image. The products they put on the field have loyal fan bases for the most part and those fans would just as soon go to Redskins.com as any media outlet to find information on their favorite team, player or coach. It's natural for the owner to want to control – and profit from – the popularity of the team. It also insulates the owner and team executives from negative information or stories that might appear in other outlets.
It may be a leap to extrapolate the Redskins' situation to, say, a political party, government entity or corporation. But it's one more indication of the advanced and sophisticated ways that are being used to skirt traditional press outlets and one more reminder that those outlets need to think very hard about how it impacts them.