Redskins to Post: You’re a Filter—We’ll Do Our Own News!
Sportswriters are used to competing for breaking news with one another. In Washington, they now have to compete for scoops with the teams they cover.
On Wednesday, the Washington Redskins signed a $31-million contract extension with wide receiver Santana Moss. Minutes later they announced the deal on their Web site, Redskins.com, and ran streaming video of an interview with his agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
The Washington Post ran the news on its Web site at about the same time. The next day’s paper ran a story with details of the deal that the Redskins would not divulge.
The gauntlet is down: The Post and the Redskins are going head to head.
“They become another competitor,” says Post sports editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz. But he adds: “I think the fans see right through this.”
Redskins spokesman Karl Swanson says the team is ramping up its Web site and putting up news because fans couldn’t see through the “filter” of DC’s news outlets. Both Redskins owner Daniel Snyder and coach Joe Gibbs are behind the effort to portray the Redskins “unfiltered.”
“We want people to see things for themselves, as opposed to information filtered through editors or producers,” Swanson says. “Our focus is to be a news source.”
There’s nothing new in sports teams’ offering video on their Web sites. If anything, the Redskins are late to the game; the Dallas Cowboys Web site has long featured video. And there’s nothing new about a team’s trying to put its spin on a trade or a contract dispute.
But trying to scoop reporters? “What the Redskins are doing is highly unusual,” says Glen Crevier, sports editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and vice president of the Associated Press Sports Editors. “I am not sure of any other team using this procedure to break news.
“Obviously,” he adds, “the Redskins feel a high degree of animosity and lack of trust toward the Post. It’s an unfortunate situation to say the least.”
The Post fawned all over the Redskins when they brought back legendary coach Joe Gibbs before last season. But coverage during the season turned less friendly. Post reporter Nunyo Demasio forged relationships with players and agents and used them to break stories that didn’t always please the Redskins, especially the one about linebacker LaVar Arrington’s tussling with Snyder over $6.5 million he felt the team owed him.
Things turned uglier after the 6–10 losing season.
Gibbs was infuriated when his joke about being a short-timer as coach turned into a news story that he might leave the team. He quit his regular radio show and started to turn away from news outlets. He directed Redskins officials to figure out a better way to connect with fans.
Snyder started seriously feuding with the Post in February, after Demasio broke a story that star receiver Laveranues Coles was dissatisfied and wanted out.
Then columnist Sally Jenkins sliced and diced Snyder’s management style in a column. The Redskins yanked all but 12 of the Post’s block of corporate seats. Then the newspaper ran a piece about Snyder’s clearing a hillside on federal land between his mansion and the Potomac River to improve his view. Then Snyder gave a long, rare interview to the Washington Times.
“There definitely has been a level of frustration about getting out the complete picture of what we’re doing,” says Karl Swanson.
So the Redskins started enlarging their Web site to present their side of the story.
“At the end of the day,” says Swanson, “Dan Snyder said let’s do this.”
The Skins hired Larry Michael to develop the site and become executive producer of media. A Silver Spring native, Michael was an executive producer at Westwood One radio for 20 years before Snyder lured him to the Redskins, first to be part of Redskins radio broadcasts.
“We are in the early stages of ramping up,” Michael says. “Our goal is to be the best Web site in the NFL. We want to give you what you can’t see on TV. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Fans can already see video of Brock Forsey working out at Redskins Park in a tryout that won him a contract. They can see Joe Gibbs explaining why the team released backup quarterback Tim Hasselbeck.
“It was on Redskins.com first,” says Swanson.
Post editor Garcia-Ruiz says to the Redskins: Bring it on.
“The notion that their news will be unfiltered is nonsense,” he says. “It will give them the chance to put their spin on the news. It’s Orwellian. The fans won't be fooled.
“If season-ticket holders complain because they can’t see the field because their seats are behind a pillar, you’re not going to see it on Redskins.com,” he says.
Will fans see more of media-shy Dan Snyder on his Web site?
Says Swanson: “If there’s a call for it.”
While you wait for the call, look for Joe Gibbs interviews every day next week.
—HARRY JAFFE
hjaffe@washingtonian.com
http://www.washingtonian.com/inwashingt ... /0506.html
