Today's "Sources Say" column in the Trib has a brief blurb on the O's examination of its sports section's relationship with the Blazers--extraordinary because they've gone outside the paper not just to write the piece but also to edit it. The short bit points to sportwriter Henry Abbott's blog True Hoop and his interview with freelancer Craig Lancaster, who was recently in town talking to all sides and then some:
"It's definitely not an ombudsman-type piece," [Lancaster] explains. "It's not even an investigation. Because there's really nothing to investigate. It's just a whole lot of he said, she said. It's really more of an examination of what has gone on. Things had gotten bad enough that the Oregonian thought they ought to explain. But they can't do that directly, because they have a dog in this fight. So they asked me to do it. And they have given me no direction. I think they have made an effort to be independent. Of course, you can never be totally independent, but I have told everybody that I have asked to talk about this story that I intend to be independent. All I can really ask is that they take my word for it. I understand that they will be hiring an independent editor to edit the story. It will go to the sports desk merely to get a headline and be flowed onto the sports page. Mark Hester, the sports editor, won't see it before it runs."
"As for my relationship with John Canzano, we did overlap at the Mercury News for a few months. I was assistant sports editor, which meant preparing the weekend editions. I was not his editor. I did not work with him closely, other than copyediting a few stories on deadline. Certainly, I've got my own basic feelings about him. But he's pretty well known. It would be hard to find someone who was blind to everything he has done--and if you could find that person, I'm not sure they'd have the perspective to take on this story. It's not like we're old friends, though. We have swapped e-mails a handful of times... In my life, I have had as many dinners with John Canzano as I have had with [Blazer Vice President of Communications] Art Sasse: one."
Is anyone else as confused as I am about why this story is being written? Granted, I don't follow sports except tangentially, but still.
Memo to the Oregonian: No one cares about your strained relationship with the Blazers.
I follow sports closely and to me, this story is a solution (and a bizarre one at that) to a non-existent problem.