All sports reporters have to balance fair coverage with relationships in an organization. That’s no secret. But this week, Dan Le Batard Show producer Mike Ryan took his accusations against Miami Heat analysts a step further, accusing Heat media of withholding negative coverage because they aspire to work for the organization.
“The people that are covering this, the most prominent [X] accounts covering this, aren’t traditional media entities,” Ryan said. “About 25 percent of Heat media is actively trying to get hired by the Miami Heat, so you have to take that with a grain of salt.”
Ryan doubled down against those non-traditional outlets, including independent websites, team-focused podcasts, and individual content creators.
“They are incapable of true criticism,” Ryan said. “Heat Twitter and Heat media-adjacent accounts that have rightfully found their way into the conversation and do a great job covering this team, to a degree, generally spineless. And it’s some real chicken-s*** behavior from them.”
Ryan encouraged anyone covering a team to take the short and long view simultaneously. Criticize a team when it is playing poorly while keeping the context of their overall success as a franchise.
“To just totally ignore certain facts and avoid criticism … you’re just all company men,” Ryan said. “Find your balls.”
Ryan fancies himself the inventor of the toxic, cocksure, passionate community known as Heat Twitter. As the architect of its insanity, Ryan has earned the opportunity to try and govern it from afar.
Still, the reality of independent media is that it does not necessarily commit to the same type of journalistic integrity of a newspaper or local news station. And if you can get a job working for an NBA team, it certainly beats running a blog.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.