Frustrated with Major League Baseball’s refusal to approve his television rights deal with Fox, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt pushed back on April 27, accusing Commissioner Bud Selig of having a ‘predetermined’ agenda to take the storied franchise from him during a news conference in New York.
“Nobody handed the Dodgers to me, and nobody is going to take them away,” a defiant McCourt proclaimed.
The Dodgers owner was in New York to meet with baseball officials regarding the status of a proposed 17-year media rights package with Fox. McCourt claims that the deal, which could be worth in excess of $3 billion, would provide $300 million up front, significantly easing the financial strain the club has recently been under.
“The lack of a decision to allow us to do this media transaction is what’s creating all of this noise about the financial duress of the Dodgers,” he said.
McCourt labeled Selig’s takeover “un-American,” calling the entire process an unlawful seizure of property. “There are core values in this country, and fairness is one of them,” he said. “Transparency is another, and private property is another. Thankfully, it’s not appropriate for one person’s property to be seized by somebody else just because they get divorced or just because of some arbitrary reason.”
Tom Schieffer, who was recently appointed as the trustee responsible for overseeing the Dodgers by MLB, responded on a Los Angeles area radio program. “There’s nothing more American than following the law, and that’s what we’re doing in this regard,” he said.
Selig and MLB assumed control of day to day operations of the ball club on April 21, citing bylaws that allow the commissioner to act in “the best interests of baseball,” after the Los Angeles Times reported that McCourt accepted a $30 million loan from Fox in order to cover payroll.
The Los Angeles Times and ESPN both covered the story.
ESPN ran a headline that read “Frank McCourt blasts Bud Selig, MLB,” which essentially summed up the entire story, even if it wasn’t the most creative choice.
The reported opened the story with a basic news lead that was unusually long (58 words). However, it did identify the who, what, where, when, and why. Some of the content could have been moved to the second paragraph (nut graf), which was only one sentence.
ESPN used three principle sources in its story; McCourt, Schieffer, and MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred.
The LA Times’ headline read “McCourt digs in,” which, although not as information laden as ESPN’s, created enough of an interest to make a person read on. The headline was also helped by the subhead, which said, “Dodgers owner says Selig has ‘predetermined’ agenda to oust him.” Combined, these two headlines provided a reader with enough information to know what the story is about.
A basic news lead that ran a tight 29 words made this a lot easier to digest than ESPN’s. 29 was enough words to identify the who, what, when, and why.
For the nut graf, the Times went with what was the most powerful and engaging quote of the entire news conference, letting it stand alone, to be absorbed by the reader.
The Times included quotes from McCourt, Schieffer, and Manfred, as well as an anonymous source identified simply as “A person familiar with Selig’s thinking.”
While ESPN produced a well-crafted story that provided the reader with enough background to understand the context of the quotes, The LA Times delivered a better story, largely due to their powerful nut graf.
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