Great write up over at Boston Sports Media Watch, examining the conflict of interest regarding the New York Times (owner of the Boston Globe) and its 17% ownership stake in the Red Sox.
The major revelation is the Times's use of an accounting method in a non-standard manner. Their use of "equity method" in this situation, instead of "cost method," shows that the Times feels it has a significant, concrete influence over the rest of ownership, resulting in power that exceeds its 17% minority stake. It's doubtful that a corporation of the Times's size would never do this without a tangible justification, albeit an unofficial one.
I wonder if that justification has anything to do with the manner in which the Globe covers the Red Sox! Could it possibly???
Sarcasm aside, I consider this to be irrefutable proof of something that has long been suspected: the Boston Globe is a puppet of Red Sox ownership. There are several troubling quotes in the BSMW piece, all of which indicate that the Times is uninterested in mutual exclusivity between newspaper and sports property; synchronicity between the two has always been their goal. Pretty insidious.
But still, it's tough to take this kind of thing too seriously. While it's bad news to acknowledge the gaping disconnect between the reality of sports and sports journalism (incestuous business) and the perception of sports by fans (their birthright), conflicts of interest in sports journalism are a relatively trivial symptom of the overall failure of journalism as a whole. When you consider that the front page suffers from the same lack of integrity as the sports page, the consequences are staggering. All you can really do is take what you read with a grain of salt, and pray that eventually someone with an ethic and a pair of brass ones will cover your team.
The major revelation is the Times's use of an accounting method in a non-standard manner. Their use of "equity method" in this situation, instead of "cost method," shows that the Times feels it has a significant, concrete influence over the rest of ownership, resulting in power that exceeds its 17% minority stake. It's doubtful that a corporation of the Times's size would never do this without a tangible justification, albeit an unofficial one.
I wonder if that justification has anything to do with the manner in which the Globe covers the Red Sox! Could it possibly???
Sarcasm aside, I consider this to be irrefutable proof of something that has long been suspected: the Boston Globe is a puppet of Red Sox ownership. There are several troubling quotes in the BSMW piece, all of which indicate that the Times is uninterested in mutual exclusivity between newspaper and sports property; synchronicity between the two has always been their goal. Pretty insidious.
But still, it's tough to take this kind of thing too seriously. While it's bad news to acknowledge the gaping disconnect between the reality of sports and sports journalism (incestuous business) and the perception of sports by fans (their birthright), conflicts of interest in sports journalism are a relatively trivial symptom of the overall failure of journalism as a whole. When you consider that the front page suffers from the same lack of integrity as the sports page, the consequences are staggering. All you can really do is take what you read with a grain of salt, and pray that eventually someone with an ethic and a pair of brass ones will cover your team.
posted by Jeff at
2:01 PM
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