“Objective” Press…

So another from “On The Media” (transcript here), an interview with Frank Firtzpatrick about reporting on baseball player Lenny Dykstra:

FRANK FITZPATRICK: Did we all suspect that he was doing storage? Yes. Did we all suspect that that he was taking greenies, you know, the amphetamines that were omnipresent in the baseball clubhouse in those days? Yes. Did we know he cheated on his wife on the road? Yes.

We knew all these things, and yet behind everything a baseball beat writer does there’s this fear of severing a good relationship because without them in a competitive news environment, you’re dead [emphasis added]. So I think we’re probably all guilty of hiding the true character of Lenny Dykstra for all those years.

So here’s a freekin’ sports reporter – a sports reporter, not a White House reporter, or a Congressional reporter, or any sort of national beat reporter. Just a sports reporter, and he’s so afraid of losing “access” that he’s not reporting the full story.

What do you think happens with the guys who rub elbows with the Timoth Geithners of the world?

UPDATE:

I should note, I don’t actually want people reporting on affairs and crap like that. It’s not our business. In baseball, performance enhancing drugs are another thing though.