Shortly after Reds manager Bryan Price’s expletive-filled rant (which showed a grave misunderstanding of the media), a Pittsburgh newspaper columnist is taking heat for relaying the profane criticisms he received from Penguins’ general manager Jim Rutherford Monday night.
Rob Rossi of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote Monday that Rutherford addressed him in “an obscenity-laced diatribe” and went on to relay the content of that diatribe. Dejan Kovacevic (a former Tribune-Review columnist who’s now covering Pittsburgh sports for his own subscription-based site) overheard the Rutherford/Rossi conversation Monday and blasted Rossi Tuesday, saying that Rossi misrepresented Rutherford’s criticisms and that the Tribune-Review had an axe to grind with the Penguins:
For the record, anyone portraying some Rutherford tirade is flat-out wrong. I was next-closest person and could barely hear him 5 feet away.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
This was a conversation being held between two people clearly intended to be exactly that. Portraying the GM as vocally blowing up is a lie.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
I've been yelled at far worse. Was told to go —- myself by Pirates player two years ago in front of whole team. Had bat swung at me.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
Never ONCE wrote about any of those or let it affect my coverage or what readers really wanted to read about, which is their favorite teams.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
Larger issue here: One media outlet in town has a major hatchet out for one of the teams it covers. That's a real problem.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
And I actually can't believe it took @Penguins this long to act on it. Impossible to defend things that are pure fiction day after day.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
I hate talking about stuff like this in public. But watching this thing turn against the people targeted all year long with lies … wow.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) April 21, 2015
Those are some pretty strong criticisms. For comparison, here’s exactly what Rossi wrote about his exchange with Rutherford:
After exiting a media elevator and while walking with other reporters to the Penguins’ dressing room, Rutherford addressed this columnist, a frequent critic since his hiring last June, in an obscenity-laced diatribe.
“Thanks for your support,” Rutherford said repeatedly.
“You’re a (expletive) jerk,” Rutherford said repeatedly.
Rutherford followed the jerk comment with a suggestion to “go sell ice cream now,” then a challenge to look him in the eye, which I did while explaining my role as Trib Total Media’s lead sports columnist.
My role is to provide opinion.
“Well, your opinion is (expletive),” Rutherford said.
It’s important to note that even by Rossi’s recounting of it, this isn’t close to the level of Price’s rant. For one thing, Price was ranting against the media in general (and complaining about them reporting newsworthy events, which is their job); Rutherford is criticizing a specific columnist and his opinions. That doesn’t mean Rutherford’s right (and even the sarcastic “Thanks for your support” appears to be somewhat suggesting that columnists should be supporting the team, which as discussed with Price, is anything but the truth), or that confronting Rossi this way and swearing at him in a situation with at least one other reporter around (Kovacevic said he was the only one within earshot) was the best response. It does mean we’re talking on a very different scale. Consider what the Tribune-Review had done recently, too:
A sneak peek at Saturday's cover as the #Pens head into Game 2 of their Stanley Cup playoff series vs. the #NYRangers pic.twitter.com/m4uBI9tZTm
— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) April 18, 2015
With that said, Rossi isn’t necessarily wrong to write about this either. There’s no indication Rutherford asked for an off-the-record conversation, and even Kovacevic admitted conversations with other reporters around are typically fair game (although he said he wouldn’t have reported this one if the shoe was on the other foot). The way he portrays this isn’t necessarily inaccurate, either; everything in Rossi’s account appears to be factually true even according to Kovacevic’s account. (Rossi’s portrayal of the situation can be questioned, as the context Kovacevic provides of Rutherford’s criticisms makes them seem less dramatic than the way Rossi writes it, but the facts don’t appear to be in dispute.)
Should Rutherford have profanely criticized a columnist in the presence of another one, in a conversation that wasn’t specifically off the record? Probably not. The smarter move would likely have been to sit down with Rossi and address specific issues with his coverage, on or off the record. Rutherford’s frustration after a close loss likely played into this too, though, and it’s hard to blame him for venting a bit at someone whose coverage he didn’t like. Rossi may also not be wrong to use this as column fodder; it wasn’t specifically out of bounds, and it provides an angle for his larger criticisms of Rutherford. Still, it’s interesting to see a situation where a media member takes the team executive’s side over another member of the media. It’s further confirmation that not all anti-media rants are equal.
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