The Masters of Spin
The Pirates are drawing ire from the media for the way they chose to spin and distribute the Carmen Mlodzinski story.
NOTE: I posted the article below on my personal Twitter account, which is private and not accepting new followers. I’m repeating it here, as it’s relevant to the overall discussion about the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization.
I’ve seen multiple reporters complaining that the Pirates went out of their way to control the narrative on the Carmen Mlodzinski story.
Before any credentialed reporter could have access to Mlodzinski to get answers, the team activated him from the restricted list on an off-day, and gave team-writer Jason Mackey an exclusive interview to scoop the media.
Tonight, every other reporter is going to be using their access to chase and replicate Mackey’s story. After 24-hours, the story has little value. But every reporter is still going to feel the need to save face.
None of this is a surprise to me. If you’ve been listening to my “industry plant” rants, this has been a trend with the Pirates.
Perhaps “industry plant” was always the wrong term. But it’s not new that the Pirates go out of their way to try and orchestrate favorable coverage. It’s the exact reason why I stopped covering them.
In 2024, I wanted to interview Termarr Johnson about his hitting development for Baseball America. Johnson was in the middle of a hot streak, after mostly struggling at the plate. I wanted to see if there was a change that was working for him.
I never got an answer as to who made the decision, but Johnson wasn’t made available for an interview. The fact that no one could be straightforward with me about why I was getting my interview declined led me to be finished spending any energy reporting on this organization.
What stood out to me the most from that situation wasn’t being denied the interview. It was the response from Dejan Kovacevic.
Today, I woke up and saw Kovacevic complaining about the Mlodzinski situation. His complaint was framed on behalf of all independent media in the city. He stated that if the Pirates are going to go to these lengths to control the narrative, they’re not worth covering.
However, in 2024, days after I announced I was done covering the organization for their refusal to make Termarr Johnson available, Kovacevic had a different approach.
Kovacevic hired Anthony Murphy in August 2024 to expand his site’s live prospect coverage. In the announcement, Kovacevic specifically mentioned that if Murphy wanted to interview Termarr Johnson, his affiliation with Kovacevic’s site would allow that to happen.
Look at the dates on the announcements:
https://x.com/TimWilliamsP2/status/1823815732146389301
It’s not a coincidence that Kovacevic highlighted Johnson in his announcement that hyped up hiring someone who was trying to replace me as the prospect guy in Pittsburgh media.
Murphy is no longer writing for DKPittsburghSports, joining a long list of former contributors who were hyped up so hard at the start. But he always has had ties to the organization, even when he was an unknown writer contributing to my site.
Here’s how I knew: Then-Pirates minor league director John Baker would hype up a player that I didn’t ask about in an interview. If I didn’t write about that player immediately, Murphy would approach me about writing a story about the same player. This happened multiple times, to the point it became predictable.
But this isn’t about Murphy, or his relationship with the organization.
It’s about the continued trend of the Pirates trying to control the media narrative. And, it’s about how Kovacevic’s response to two similar issues has been dependent on whether he’s personally impacted.
When my situation happened two years ago, Kovacevic used that as a moment to prop up his site as being on the inside for access from the team.
Today, Kovacevic is complaining because he realized his site is outside of the inner circle. His complaints aren’t championing independent media. He’s complaining because he realized he doesn’t have the highest priority access.
Don’t get me wrong: His complaints are valid. But he also sounds like a hypocrite wrapping those complaints in a rally cry for supporting independent media. He showed the opposite of support for my situation in 2024.
As for the Pirates, they seem to be getting more bold with their attempts to control the media.
Jason Mackey always used his position to spin the team narrative, even when he was the beat writer for the city’s paper of record. That’s a position that should have full objectivity, and Mackey’s handling was a total disgrace to real media, in my honest opinion.
I’m happy that Mackey got the team writer job, because there’s no longer any ambiguity over who he serves. His writing is no longer disguised as objective, hiding behind the Post-Gazette’s reputation while being a mouthpiece for his team sources. He’s now officially part of the Pirates’ marketing and PR approach, disguised as real journalism.
Spring Training 2024 was the only time I’ve had a conversation with Mackey. It came after I publicly called out his writing for favoring the team, following the “industry plant” trend. My conversation with him did not back down from that sentiment, but detailed my reasoning. The conversation was civil. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that he was a young aspiring reporter who just had a blind spot to the team using him.
There’s no benefit of the doubt. This is who Mackey is as a reporter. He has a need to be the voice delivering the news to the public, and he will sell any shred of journalistic integrity to be in that position. Including working as a team employee posing as a journalist.
That’s the entire “industry plant” trend.
The Pirates try to control the narrative surrounding their organization.
The media landscape is filled with people who are driven by a need to be seen.
There aren’t many people creating content for the true love of journalism, and the integrity the position requires.
So, the Pirates exploit this situation. They align with the people whose main driver is the need to be seen on the field interviewing players and publishing their own words to a crowd of fans.
My younger self was one of those people. There was a point in time when I had a need so strong to be a “legitimate” media member with access that I compromised my own journalistic integrity in the process.
Two funny things about that.
First, I self-evaluated at a certain point in my career, and decided that if I was going to continue doing this, I would do it the right way from a journalistic standpoint. Things have been chaos ever since, but that’s probably how it should be when you’re an objective voice covering a billion-dollar organization.
Second, I made the common mistake of conflating access with real journalism.
Access is just marketing. It’s an easy way to convey that you’re an insider, capable of delivering stories no one else can get. It leads to the idea that you offer real journalism.
As shown with this latest situation with Mlodzinski, access doesn’t equal journalistic integrity. Reporting a story that no one else can get isn’t always a sign of journalistic integrity.
An organization like the Pirates -- owned by a man whose family has controlled a media empire for over 125 years -- can use the allure of access to ensure favorable coverage.
I’ve used the term industry plants. I’ve used the term Astroturfing Network. The most accurate term might be “puppets”.
The Pirates play anyone creating content like puppets.
They know who will say favorable things just to be seen on the media stage. They know who will sell their full integrity to shamelessly push a positive team narrative in the guise of journalism. They know who to avoid: Uncompromising, cold-hearted bastards like myself.
I’m not surprised at the Mlodzinski spin.
I’ve been talking about this trend with the Pirates for years.
Except, when I talked this same subject two years ago, the person championing independent journalism today was doing a bat flip on me and celebrating his own priority access.
Dharma. Karma.
It’s a bitch sometimes.
I feel bad for the honest journalists who feel locked out and minimized with today’s coverage.
That includes Kovacevic, who I also forgive for being late to the realization of how the Pirates operate.
After all, journalism is not merely access and live coverage.
It’s reporting truth.
The edge goes to the person who reaches the pinnacle of truth first.
Today, I’m glad to see others making their way up the mountain to join me.
Until the next time I go live…
-Tim Williams