This is what happens when you over-centralize your power and resources. When you make a blunder, you being the so-called authority, the fallout is magnified.
MLB Advanced Media (perhaps the greatest Orwellian doublespeak that you’ll ever hear) is Major League Baseball’s subsidiary which seeks to control and monopolize baseball related web content. It’s the reason bloggers and websites don’t get media credentials.
Believe it or not, I’ve read the media portion of the collective bargaining agreement and there are provisions in it for television, newspaper and radio; none for the internet. That’s because access for web outlets is restricted to simply MLB’s so-called “Advanced” division. Although they’re actually pretty regressive as it took them years to figure out how allowing embedding of video is actually a good idea, not a bad one.
Yesterday they dropped the ball big time in “breaking” a trade between the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves that never happened.
Ryan Dempster was NOT traded for Delgado despite what you heard. Here are the tweets that set everyone off around 1 PM CDT yesterday. The first from MLB’s official Twitter account, the second from MLB.com’s Braves beat writer Mark Bowman.
BREAKING: @Cubs dealing RHP Ryan Dempster to @Braves, confirms @mlbbowman.
Confirmed Ryan Dempster is coming to the Braves. Still trying to confirm details but Delgado could be on the other end of the deal
Maybe both these tweeters need to learn what “confirm” means. Or “BREAKING” for that matter. Here’s some BREAKING news: MLB Advanced Media is terrible for the sport and makes us more ill-informed as fans. Do we have CONFIRMATION? Yes we do. Because every media outlet nationally and locally ran with what they first saw here. And it was wrong. Way to be guys.
Eventually, Dempster de-confirmed the trade on his foundation’s Twitter page.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Chicago Tribune.com, Fox Sports, MSN, Walter Football and Yardbarker
A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too