Bob Nightengale, the insider of Major League Baseball and USA Today’s columnist, has come forward with media criticism as well.
His role was instrumental in refuting Jon Morosi’s reporting that Shohei Ohtani had signed his contract with the Toronto Blue Jays.
According to Awful Announcing, Morosi later took back his report as Ohtani had signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
He shared, “We have made fools of ourselves plenty of times before in the history of baseball media, anywhere from criticizing the integration of the sport, to calling Ohtani a fraud in his first spring training, but we have taken this to new heights.
It was reported early Friday morning that Ohtani’s decision was imminent.
Well, that was news to Ohtani and his agency, who had a private appointment later in the day, and knew there would be no announcement.
Ohtani was still sleeping at his home in Newport Beach when the flight took off, but that didn’t stop furious reporting, with TV and radio reporters tracking the flight in real time.”
The coverage of the Ohtani trade had gone wrong in terms of reporting and both reports from J.P. Hoornstra and Morosi were not accurate.
Nightengale further shared what had happened with Hoyer, “They’re engaged in trade talks and while the Rays may want Morel, I had received incorrect information and his name was never mentioned.”
“Jed Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations, who was on his way to address reporters in their media scrum, stopped me, and told me that I was wrong: Morel was not involved in the talks. They won’t trade a prized commodity for a one-year rental in Glasnow. The conversation lasted eight, maybe nine seconds.”
Next thing you know, a Chicago reporter breathlessly goes on his radio station and says that Hoyer and I got into a heated argument over the Cubs’ interest in Ohtani. The reckless report pops up on a Chicago website, and it goes viral. Never did Ohtani’s name come up. Never did Hoyer raise his voice. Never did this reporter ask Hoyer or myself what happened.”
The journalist’s reaction to what happened was, “Instead, hundreds of baseball executives, officials, agents and players came asking what happened, with our brief conversation getting exaggerated to the point that it was said we nearly came to blows. This of course set off vitriol across the internet. We can’t even accurately report on ourselves now, let alone real baseball news. It’s time we take a deep breath, and check ourselves before we further wreck ourselves.”
However, the issue of flawed reporting was brought up by Nightengale, as there were many instances where inaccurate information was put up, which led to the MLB insider making claims against the journalism habits currently held by the journalist, especially regarding the Ohtani trade.
