Why sweep Matthews story under the rug?
Situation underlines how line between teams, people covering them are blurring
Steve Simmons, like most journalists, has a long and complicated history with Twitter, so he was prepared for the reaction when he reported Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews had tested positive for the coronavirus.
“I’d say it was about 80 (per cent) to 20,” the Toronto Sun sports columnist says over the phone from Toronto. “Eighty were, ‘You’re an idiot.’ Twenty were, ‘Good story.’”
OK, nothing too surprising there, especially for someone who’s stumbled into more than one of these encounters. But the reaction from other sectors of the media? That surprised Simmons. Hell, it should surprise anyone in our business. It should also scare them, even if it’s part of a trend that now seems irreversible.
Auston Matthews testing positive for COVID-19 is a huge story on about 48 levels. He’s the biggest star in one of the NHL’s most storied franchises. He’s one of the best young players in the game. The news comes as the NHL tested 200 players, resulting in 11 positives.
Matthews was also skating with a group of players in Arizona that included members of the Arizona Coyotes and Leafs goalie Freddie Andersen. An undetermined number of the Coyotes’ players tested positive. Arizona, where many NHL players are skating during the lockdown, has experienced an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks.
All this comes as the NHL prepares to open training camps on July 10. In Vancouver, the provincial government has thrown its support behind a Vancouver Canucks-driven plan to act as a hub city when play resumes at the end of July. This will bring players from 12 different teams along with support staff, medical people, security, TV crews etc., etc., to our town.
True, that’s not quite 48 different levels. But it’s still a big story. At least it is to most. But there is no mention of it on TSN or Sportsnet, at least there wasn’t three days after Simmons’ story ran on the Toronto Sun’s website. There was no panel discussion. No hot takes from the insiders on what this could mean. Nothing. Crickets. A yawning void.
Simmons did appear on the TSN radio station in Toronto on Friday to discuss his story and the station initially put the clip on its website. But it was down an hour later. If you performed a Google search with the key words: Auston Matthews, COVID and TSN on Monday, you got a link to a story under the headline: Simmons on breaking news that Leafs star Auston Matthews tests positive for COVID-19.
When you click on the link, it directs you to a page that says:
“Oops! There is nothing here to see.”
Couldn’t make it up if you tried.
“I’m upset with my industry,” Simmons said. “I expect more from them.”
All this, of course, raises any number of uncomfortable questions for TSN and Sportsnet, who are NHL rights holders and also have an ownership stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Did the decision to spike the story come from corporate headquarters? Did it come from the Leafs?
Simmons, who’s been a longtime contributor on TSN, poked around for some answers and got some conflicting messages. One suggested Matthews’ positive test was a personal health matter, which made it out of bounds. But both TSN and Sportsnet reported on the positive COVID tests of, among others, Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott and Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell.
Why is Matthews different? Can’t tell you. But we can tell you it’s part of a media landscape in which the lines between teams and the people who report on them have been blurred beyond recognition; a landscape where every attempt is made to manage availability in order to create homogeneous storylines; where access to information and sources is directly linked to what’s reported and when it’s reported.
This, of course, serves the purposes of the leagues and their individual teams. It just doesn’t serve the purposes of their audience but, over time, that’s also changed. Fans seem willing to consume news served in a diluted form. Either that or they’ve been conditioned to accept it. Don’t know.
But do know, unless you’re a rights holder or you’ve been granted that favoured status, a different set of rules applies. You can ask the Canucks if their trainer, Roger Takahashi, would be available for a story on the challenges of staying in shape during the lockdown. Just don’t expect the answer to be yes. Or 1040, the sports talk-radio station in Vancouver, can book an interview with Utica Comets head coach Trent Cull, advertise it on air, then be told Cull isn’t available, presumably because the request didn’t go through official channels.
Maybe you don’t find this outrageous. But this comes at a time when both the business and the soul of traditional media is fighting to survive.
We used to be an unbiased filter between the established order and the public. Sometimes we still are. But we’re losing our strong, independent voices. We’re losing our place and the public is losing something in the bargain.
You can understand why teams and leagues, to say nothing of political parties and their leaders, like this arrangement. But you shouldn’t.
I’m upset with my industry ... I expect more from them.