On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves 10-2, slugging six home runs, two of them coming from superstar outfielder Bryce Harper. After he was caught off base for a game-ending double play in the second game of the series, reporters in the Braves locker room overhead shortstop Orlando Arcia mocking him in remarks that were, presumably, off-the-record. 92.9 The Game’s Beau Morgan says there are legitimate issues with the coverage of the incident.
Jake Mintz of FOX Sports reported that Arcia had said, “Atta boy, Harper!,” after the win on Monday night, leading to indignation and an escalation of tensions between the two clubs. When Harper hit his home runs on Wednesday, he made sure to stare down Arcia as he rounded the bases, evoking contentiousness and umbrage towards what had been stated.
After the incident, Tiffany Blackmon outlined a previous example of when someone she was speaking with started to express dismay towards another athlete who played the same position making a return and competing for the job. After warning the player three times that his comments were on the record, he realized and understood what had just happened, but Blackmon chose to handle the situation in a professional manner.
“I could have probably doused some gasoline on that locker room and probably walked away,” she expressed Thursday morning on 92.9 The Game, “but I chose not to do that because I understood the nature of the situation.”
Following Wednesday’s loss, Braves catcher Travis D’Arnaud told media members that the situation with Arcia underscores how the media sometimes looks to villainize players, making them less open to conversation.
When Beau Morgan traveled with the Atlanta Falcons, he was informed that the plane was a safe space and any conversations or interactions therein were not to be reported on. Negligence towards basic journalistic tenets can ultimately harm the media as a whole, making the dissemination of the truth more difficult to attain.
“I think the problem that our business is in right now is we’ve got too many people who want to be media members who get credentials who don’t know how to appropriately handle situations,” Morgan said, “because they haven’t been trained and they’re essentially used-car salesmen who now have a media credential, and that’s where things go awry for me.”
