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Peter Rosenberg: Ridiculous To Think Michael Kay Can Go After Yankees Like Fans

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Peter Rosenberg: Ridiculous To Think Michael Kay Can Go After Yankees Like Fans

New York Yankees play-by-play announcer and 98.7 ESPN New York host Michael Kay found himself going back and forth on Thursday with Yankees fans over general manager Brian Cashman.

Cashman addressed the media this week and was asked about the team’s struggles to start the 2023 season. Kay, on Wednesday night’s broadcast on Amazon Prime, drew blowback from some Yankees fans who felt like Kay was a Cashman defender when talking about the press conference.

Kay even apparently sent one fan a direct message asking for proof that anything he said on the broadcast was a defense of Cashman. He said if they could, he’d make a sizeable donation to a charity of the fan’s choice.

On The Michael Kay Show on Thursday, co-host Peter Rosenberg understood a little bit about the fans feeling a certain type of way about Kay.

“You can Yankee-splain. You explain on their behalf,” Rosenberg said. “But people don’t want to hear it. They don’t care what the explanation is.”

“The bottom line is we are here to try to explain why decisions are made, not to co-sign on those decisions,” Kay responded. “I’m trying to explain why those decisions were made.”

Kay added that he has never in his career called for anyone to be fired. Co-host Don La Greca affirmed.

Rosenberg later just couldn’t understand why there’s this expectation for the team’s official TV broadcaster to speak and hold extreme opinions on players and staff like fans do.

“Why do we have to play this game that Michael Kay, the voice of the New York Yankees, is supposed to go as hard on the Yankees as a fan?” he asked. “Let’s be honest. You’re going to be as critical as you can while being respectful of the organization that has changed your life. The idea that you want him to go ranting and raving like he has no connection to the team, is not only ridiculous, you would never do it yourself. You would never have the guts in your life to go after one of your employers as hard as humanly possible.”

Kay said if you want some proof that he’s been critical of the Yankees previously, you can look no further than when New York was swept by the Astros in the ALCS last season. And even then, Michael made it clear he’s not on a tight leash when it comes to sharing his opinion on Brian Cashman.

“I rip him plenty good, much to his dismay sometimes,” Kay said. “The Yankees are really cool with me being ultra critical, but if you think that I’m going to be like a fan and just go off on the people on the Yankees, do you think that the Yankees really want the person that’s broadcasting their games to be a raving lunatic about them? They have never said a word. But there is a delicate balance in life, everybody.”

Don pointed out the fact that Kay is one of the only people in America who is not only the voice of a major pro sports team, but also hosts a sports talk show where he’s paid to share his opinions on the team he works for. But that doesn’t mean he can just say that this person or that person needs to lose their job.

Golden Knights Moving Local TV Rights to Scripps Channels

BSM Staff
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Golden Knights Moving Local TV Rights to Scripps Channels

The E.W. Scripps Company has made it clear they were in a position to help pick up the pieces for teams when things began to change for RSNs like Bally Sports and AT&T Sportsnet.

In Las Vegas, the Golden Knights announced Thursday that Scripps Sports reached an agreement on a multi-year local rights deal. Games will air locally on KMCC-TV, which is owned by Scripps and carries ION programming. The channel is expected to be rebranded as an independent station ahead of next season, and will be available in Nevada over the air for free, on cable and digitally. Games will also have distribution into neighboring states like Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.

“This deal is a significant win for our fans because they will be able to see our games on television and for free, if they wish,” Golden Knights president and CEO Kerry Bubolz said. “That was our goal in finding a new TV partner. We wanted to serve our fanbase in the best way possible.”

Scripps also owns the ABC affiliate in town, KTNV. The station has carried preseason games since the team’s inaugural campaign in 2017-18.

A direct-to-consumer streaming option is also in the works, and more info on that will be revealed when everything is finalized.

Game broadcasters Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy will continue to be on the call. Broadcasts will also include pregame and postgame coverage.

The Golden Knights’ deal with Scripps is very similar to the one the Phoenix Suns and Mercury did with Gray Television to get NBA and WNBA games off of Bally Sports and onto broadcast TV across Arizona. Diamond Sports Group, parent company of the Bally Sports RSNs, has filed a lawsuit against the teams to stop that move.

Ian Rapoport: If I had a Scoop on Another Sport, I’d Tweet It

BSM Staff
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NBA insider Shams Charania turned some heads on social media last week, tweeting that the Carolina Panthers were selecting Bryce Young first overall in the NFL Draft.

Charania didn’t stay on tweeting picks last Thursday for too long, after incorrectly reporting an Arizona Cardinals pick before it got traded to Houston.

NFL insider Ian Rapoport told Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina on SI Media that he and Chams chatted about it this week.

“Shams is my guy. We talked this morning, actually,” Rapoport said. “He texted me. I’m not a fan of it, which I told him. But it’s fine.”

The main thing wasn’t that he was tweeting about the NFL Draft, but it was more so that Charania was essentially out of his lane when tipping picks.

Admittedly, though, Rapoport said if given the chance to drop a scoop on a sport other than football, he would.

“If I got a basketball scoop, I would probably tweet it,” he said. “When I heard LeBron James was in Indianapolis to get his foot checked out when everyone was at the Combine, I debated tweeting it. I didn’t, but it’s true.”

He reiterated, though, that he understood Charania was just doing it for fun. No harm, no foul.

“Chams is great, and he’s done an awesome job. So it’s fine,” he said.

Charlotte Wilder Joins Meadowlark Media

BSM Staff
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The newest addition to the Meadowlark Media family was announced Thursday on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, and Charlotte Wilder has entered the fray.

Wilder was revealed as the new hire by Le Batard, where he said he was told to be “nebulous” about the future projects in store for her.

Charlotte spent the last couple of years working at FOX Sports. She made the formal announcement of her hire at Meadowlark on Twitter not long after her Le Batard show appearance.

Prior to her run at FOX, Wilder had stops at Sports Illustrated, SB Nation and USA Today.

Brandon Tierney: Media Did ‘Horrendous Job’ in Brian Cashman Interview

BSM Staff
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Brandon Tierney: Media Did ‘Horrendous Job’ in Brian Cashman Interview

Craig Carton has often said that the New York media has a tougher reputation than it deserves. On Thursday, Brandon Tierney said his WFAN colleague was proven right when Yankees general manager Brian Cashman met with reporters the previous night.

When reporters asked Cashman about the Yankees’ slow start to the 2023 season, he blamed injuries for the team’s disappointing results. Tierney told his partner Tiki Barber that he heard almost no pushback.

“Brian Cashman is right there, right in front of you for 25 minutes or so,” he said Thursday on Tiki & Tierney. “And when he leans on the injuries, how is a question not posed this way? Here’s how it should have been asked: ‘Brian, I hear what you’re saying about the injuries. For a team that is constructed with many players that have injurious histories, why would you expect this season to be any different?’”

No direct questions about the roster construction let Cashman skirt any blame. Tierney said answering a question like that forces the GM to “take the L or he has to obscure the truth.”

Yankee fans have certainly let their frustrations with Cashman be known. The people that wait on hold at WFAN to vent about the team are supposed to be able to rely on reporters to ask those in power hard questions.

“To me, it’s a horrendous job by the media there and they let Cashman off the hook,” Brandon Tierney said.

He told listeners that he has no doubt that if Brian Cashman ever came on his show, he would ask whether or not the Yankee GM is as good of a talent evaluator as he seems to think he is.

“He might get mad, He might not answer it, and I’m not saying I would try to punk him, but I would ask him again,” Tierney said.

Shannon Sharpe Files Motion to Dismiss Brett Favre Lawsuit

BSM Staff
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Shannon Sharpe Files Motion to Dismiss Brett Favre Lawsuit

Attorneys for Pat McAfee and Shannon Sharpe are in alignment on their stances on the lawsuits brought against their respective clients by Brett Favre. That was clear Thursday when Sharpe’s attorneys filed to have the defamation lawsuit Favre brought against the FS1 host dismissed using the same arguments that McAfee’s attorneys did in their motion last week.

“Sharpe’s opinions — commentary based on reported facts and couched in rhetorical hyperbole regarding an issue of public concern about a public figure — lie at the core of the protections afforded by the First Amendment and Mississippi law,” the lawyers wrote. “Sharpe’s comments are not actionable, and the complaint is irreparably defective on its face.”

Sharpe’s legal team also took issue with how and when Favre’s attorney first filed their complaints. The Mississippi statute demands that plaintiffs wait ten days after sending a retraction demand before filing a defamation lawsuit. Favre did not do that.

“Favre’s failure to comply with that statute provides an independent ground for dismissal,” attorneys for Shannon Sharpe wrote. They added that Brett Favre and his legal team “failed to meet the most basic prerequisite to bringing a defamation claim.”

Brett Favre first filed his defamation lawsuits on February 9. In addition to the two sports media stars, he also filed suit against Mississippi State Auditor Shad White.

Rich Zeoli: Media Matters ‘The Original Trolls’ of the Internet

BNM Staff
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Rich Zeoli: Media Matters ‘The Original Trolls’ of the Internet

Media Matters has been at the center of leaks surrounding former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and 1210 WPHT host Rich Zeoli believes that the organization won’t affect Carlson’s reputation in the slightest.

“I don’t think for a second — for a second — that what Media Matters is doing is going to hurt Tucker Carlson. Not a second,” The Rich Zeoli Show host said Wednesday. “I don’t think this matters at all. I think Media Matters — they are a joke. What they do is they are the biggest trolls in the world.

“They literally monitor conservative media, talk radio, and they try to find any little thing, and then go after people. They are true trolls. They are the original trolls. Any conservative has a target on their back. And there are other little trolls who hear what any conservative has to say and will send it to Media Matters and will try to make a big deal out of it.”

Zeoli argued that the videos showed that Carlson has a sense of humor, rather than painting him in a negative light, which he believes was the intention. The Philadelphia host then argued that if the videos released thus far are “the best” Media Matters has, then there is “nothing that could ever bring him down”.

Buck Sexton: Hosts Are in ‘Precarious’ Position With Behind The Scenes Videos

BNM Staff
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Videos of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson continue to leak, painting the host in a negative light. During The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show Wednesday, Sexton said that’s something he and Travis don’t have to worry about.

“We inherited Rush (Limbaugh)’s team. So we inherited the best in the business, not only in terms of their being really good at what they do but also proving a loyalty and a trustworthiness to Rush and his enterprise, not only personally but professionally for over 20 years,” said Sexton.

“Anyone in the media knows if you have people around you — in your immediate sphere — who want to cut what you say off-camera out of context, who want to get some sort of oppo or compromising material based on off-air conversations, we’re in a business where you’re talking a lot, and that puts you in a precarious position,” Sexton admitted. “So where is this stuff coming from? Megyn Kelly has already come out…and she is straight up suggesting that this is coming from Fox News.”

Sexton’s comments on the situation came after Travis, a Fox News employee who sold his digital outlet OutKick to the network two years ago, said it has been a fine place to work since he joined.

“In my experience, Fox has been very good to work with,” Travis said. “But I also understand that in the grand scheme of things, when you are not the boss, you never get to make all the decisions. Sometimes bosses make decisions, and you look at them and say ‘I don’t know’. I don’t know all the details on why this occurred…I’ve been fired several times in media…unless you’re the boss, you serve at the beck and call of your employer. And your employer — no matter how good you may be — you or someone else may find yourself out of a job.”

Dan Patrick: ‘People Hold On To Michael Jordan’s Memories For Dear Life’

BSM Staff
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LeBron James cannot win according to Dan Patrick. The FOX Sports Radio host probably walked away from his conversation with NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine on Thursday convinced that nothing James does will ever be good enough for him to overtake Michael Jordan in the NBA’s GOAT debate.

Scalabrine tried to explain why he thinks Steph Curry’s championships have been more impressive than LeBron’s. He said that winning with the Cavaliers was an all-time great moment, but he doesn’t view the championship with the Lakers in the Walt Disney World bubble as being on the same level.

“Yeah, but everybody was in the bubble, so it was a neutral site,” Patrick countered.

When Scalabrine came back with the amount of rest that James and the Lakers got as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Patrick again pushed back saying that there was never a moment after Jordan’s first title with the Bulls that the media en masse pointed out that Magic Johnson was injured in that series and called the title unimpressive.

Scalabrine came back with another attempted takedown of James’s legacy. He countered with the fact that once Michael Jordan won his first title, he never lost in the Finals. Patrick dismissed that as irrelevant and an absurd standard that only LeBron James, who is 4-5 in the NBA Finals, is held to. Patrick said he has a go-to response to that argument.

“They’re like ‘Yeah but he lost’ and I’m going ‘Are you gonna hold that against Tom Brady that he lost?’ You got to the Super Bowl! You got to the NBA Finals! That’s not a negative, that he lost.”

Near the end of their argument, it seemed like Scalabrine was ready to relent. He said that if the Lakers win the 2023 NBA Finals, fans and media members may be forced to acknowledge that LeBron James had surpassed Michael Jordan. Dan Patrick doesn’t believe that will happen.

“It won’t happen though Brian, because people are holding onto Michael Jordan’s memories for dear life!”

Ernie Johnson: Inside the NBA Crew ‘Doesn’t Sit in a Production Meeting’

BSM Staff
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It probably comes as no surprise to anyone that regularly watches NBA games on TNT to learn that the key to the success of the network’s studio show Inside the NBA is the natural chemistry within the cast. Ernie Johnson told For the Win that there is a comfort with one another that allows the show to be less rehearsed than some others.

“These guys don’t sit in a production meeting and prepare for what they’ll say in each segment and get their thoughts organized,” he said. “We just want a gut-level, genuine reaction, so when these guys sit down, it’s not like we’ve rehearsed. We’re just going to let her go.”

Johnson added that one of the most important parts of that comfort is everyone on the show being comfortable with their own role. He noted that when you do a show with Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith, one thing you have to be very comfortable with is the fact that there are times no one wants to hear your opinion.

“Everybody knows their role. I’m working with three guys who have been in every conceivable situation in an NBA game. They’ve won championships. They’ve been in every big spot. The last thing a viewer wants from me is my input on what is going on in a huddle with 1.6 seconds to go.”

That doesn’t mean Ernie Johnson feels disrespected. He describes himself as “journalism school” on the set.

He also knows that he has proven himself. Chuck, Shaq and Kenny know that not only is Johnson skilled at the Xs and Os of broadcasting. He also has put in the work to learn about basketball and what makes the best players so good at what they do.

“They respect the work that I do and all the knowledge that I bring to the studio. You can’t just show up and try to bluff your way because everyone will see through that.”

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