It was a day when the ongoing tug-of-war between Journalists trying to get information and Public Relation practitioners trying to “manage the process” reached a new level.
Some might say it hit a new low for both sides.
On June 9, 2006, the Kansas City Royals, irritated that a pair of radio journalists were asking tough questions directed at their management, dropped the hammer on the pair by officially revoked their press credentials. The drastic move effectively barred them from covering the team for at least the rest of the season.
The decision was stunning. In fact, no one before or after the incident can remember media credentials ever being taken away from Journalists for asking tough questions. The move reverberated throughout the country and gave the Royals a national black eye.
Ten years later it still serves as an example to PR folks to be very cautious when deciding whether to drop the ultimate hammer on Journalists they dislike.
Rhonda Moss, who was a sports reporter at KCSP radio at the time, and Bob Fescoe, talk show host and rival at WHB, were accused of asking tough questions aimed at Royals’ owner David Glass. At the time, the Royals were in the process of firing General Manager Allard Baird and replacing him with Dayton Moore.
The Royals’ PR staff should have been prepared with an answer for Baird’s leaving and provided it to the media. However, the team simply refused to give any reasons for his departure.
Even today, a decade after the incident, Moss, who left for a radio post in Detroit in 2009 and has been anchoring morning sports covering the Pistons, Lions and Tigers, says she is asked about the incident.
“It’s amazing to me that after 10 years I still get asked about it,” she says, adding that it irritates her “how the narrative of what actually happened has changed over the years.”
In particular, Moss says a re-telling of the incident by Moore in his 2015 book “More Than A Season” is pure fantasy.
“The press conference turned into a debacle,” wrote Moore. “It was the first time that Dan and Mr. Glass had been available to the media since it was announced eight days earlier that Allard had been fired…”
In reality, Moss says Moore had no idea the effort she had put into trying to get an interview before he even arrived on the scene. She says she went through all the proper channels to try to land an interview with owner David Glass almost from the minute Baird was fired.
“I called Bentonville, Arkansas (headquarters for the Walmart CEO), went through the PR department and I even saw Dan (David’s son) Glass and asked him for an interview about Allard and he told me no,” she notes.
“They hired Moore and held a press conference to introduce the new GM without explaining the firing of the old GM, so of course, this was my first opportunity to ask about Baird so I did,” she says. “There was no instruction from the PR staff not to ask about the firing of the old GM. Never once did the Royals talk to me or give me an explanation on why they revoked my credential.”
Moss, who had covered the Royals for three years prior to the incident, says over time the narrative seemed to imply that she was loud, pushy and disruptive, and that’s why the action was taken. She absolutely says that was not the case and vehemently denies the charge.
“The bottom line is they (the Royals) did not like being questioned on the firing of former GM Allard Baird, not my decorum or tone, like they said on their blog,” she notes. “I was not loud or disruptive, which all of a sudden appeared after they revoked my credential.”
Moss was referring to an anonymous blog the Royals created after the incident that claimed the credentials were taken for “reasons of decorum.”
“The credentials were not revoked because someone asked tough questions – we get those every day – but for reasons of decorum,” noted the blog post. “The tone, the abruptness, and the forcefulness of which their questions and added commentary were presented offended many at the news conference.”
Shortly after the incident Fescoe departed WHB for a short-lived radio stint in St. Louis. Within a brief period, he returned to host a morning talk show on KCSP where he still works today.
There is some speculation even today that the Royals only wanted to yank Moss’s credentials, but didn’t want to come across as sexist. To counter that charge they added Fescoe.
Fescoe, whose station today broadcasts the Royals games, refused to comment for this story.
A veteran reporter for more than 20 years, Moss was stunned by the Royals’ action. She says it had never been done before in professional sports history.
Fescoe’s boss and station owner at the time, Kevin Kietzman, seemed to side with Royals management. Fescoe later apologized for the tone of his questions.
“Interestingly, Moss’ management at KCSP is giving her strong support,” noted Star columnist Jason Whitlock at the time. “Fescoe’s support at WHB is mixed. WHB’s afternoon host/owner Kevin “The New Don Fortune” Kietzman spent part of his Thursday show blasting Fescoe and Moss for making Glass uncomfortable on Moore’s special day.”
Did Moss ever consider apologizing for her questions? Not a chance. She said she told Moore she was sorry his hiring announcement had gone so poorly, but not for trying to get answers for the Baird firing.
The Kansas City Press Club and the National Society of Professional Journalists and many other journalists around the country decried the actions by the Royals. However, aside from KC Star columnist Jason Whitlock, the rest of the KC media and the Star (and its baseball beat reporters), did not support Moss or Fescoe. Major League Baseball refused to get involved (LINK) in the controversy.
In his book, Moore even lauded long-time KMBC-TV reporter Karen Kornacki for apologizing for the actions of Moss and Fescoe at the press conference.
An insider at the Star said the newspaper refused to get involved in the landmark Freedom of the Press issue simply because the Royals would never have the “nerve” to yank credentials from a print journalist. He said the Baseball Writers of America would never stand for it.
Moss says she appreciated those who supported her and Fescoe. She says she didn’t care then or now about those who turned their backs on them. She says, those who came to their defense knew “It was the right thing to do.”
The Royals kept their credentials for the remainder of the 2006 season, but quietly restored them prior to the start of the 2007 season.
“I think it was said, ‘Let’s just forget about what happened last season, or let’s move on,'” she says.
The PR people involved with the decision are long-gone from the Royals. But the decision made 10 years ago to pull media credentials is one that lingers even today.
ROYALS LOOKED LIKE MINOR LEAGUERS
I remember when it happened, my first thought was how minor-league the Royals looked. After so many years of being the joke of MLB, they revoke two journalist credentials because they had the audacity of doing their job and asking hard questions.
And the reaction of the local media was very pathetic. Hardly anyone stood up for them. Only Whitlock had their back, calling Glass, “The Worst Owner Ever.” But as Whitlock did, if it’s not the NFL or NBA, he quickly lost interest and stop pressing Glass on his bad ownership.
This reaction from the local press amplified my and others’ belief that many in the local media at the time were hacks who stayed in town because they couldn’t get a job in a larger market.
And what’s even more pathetic is how Fescoe now is the biggest David Glass butt kisser in town. I remember when he came back from St. Louis after not making it in a larger market. He would go on rants telling people how minor-league the Royals organization was compared to the Cardinals. Now, the Royals can do no wrong in his eyes.
But I guess winning can do that.
I wonder how the Royals organization will be like three years from now when most of these guys are gone and the modern fan is asking what have you done for me lately?
RIGHTS HOLDER AT THE TIME?
My memory is fuzzy about the time period in question, but I believe WHB was the Royals radio rights holder at the time.
WHB criticized MLB and the Royals for devaluing its radio rights by subsequently signing a national deal with XM Radio to carry Royals games in its territory without airing WHB’s commercials.
WHB also came out against David Glass’s plan to renovate Kauffman Stadium instead of building a new stadium downtown.
Maybe the Royals pulled Bob Fescoe’s credential as a shot across the bow of WHB.
ROYALS NOT MUCH BETTER TODAY
The Royals organization was petty and unprofessional in its actions. I think the media’s lack of response was, in part, because the Chiefs were doing the same thing - or at least, the Chiefs had threatened to do the same thing to reporters.
Plus, in this market, reporters — especially tv reporters — want to be perceived as “nice”. Whitlock broke the unwritten rule of saying what he thought was right, even if it offended some people.
Jack Harry, after he went to Ch. 41, was the most honest reporter on tv. People loved it, but KSHB made sure viewers knew that Harry’s comments were his alone and not the station’s.
The Chiefs organization is a much better one now. The Royals organization is not a much better one now.