Access Denied

WASHINGTON – It was a big day for basketball in the nation’s capital.

On June 4, reporters filtered into the ballroom at The Wharf DC, eager to gain intel on the Washington Wizards’ pending rebuild and the plans of new head coach Brian Keefe to resurrect a franchise that had been mired at the bottom of the 2023-24 NBA standings.

I was one of those sports writers, a 20-year-old reporter, writing for SB Nation. The occasion was probably the biggest news conference of my life.

Under glistening chandeliers and with the D.C. skyline glowing in the background, the newser commenced. Wizards general manager Will Dawkins shared kind words about his newest hire before handing the microphone off to Keefe, who thanked his family, friends and mentors.

Following Keefe’s comments, a moderator opened the floor to reporters for a period of open questioning. I thought this might be my big chance. But to my surprise, four of the six questions were asked by employees of Monumental Sports — the TV network that broadcasts Washington Wizards, Capitals and Mystics games.

As it turns out, Monumental Sports is owned by Ted Leonsis, who also owns the Wizards, Capitals and Mystics. So the people asking the majority of questions in the open session that day all worked for the same man that Keefe does.

Wizards play-by-play announcer Chris Miller, color commentator Christy Winters-Scott, radio broadcaster Dave Johnson and radio producer Bryan Albin lobbed softball queries at their newest co-worker. The Washington Post’s Ava Wallace and The Athletic’s David Aldridge asked the other two. Once those six questions were asked, Miller concluded the open question portion of the presser.

To outsiders, it probably seemed like a normal press conference. To sports writers, however, the limited questioning by independent journalists is just one example of a problem that cuts much deeper.

Since that June day, I've started to wonder about the way the sports industry operates. On the surface, it appears to provide opportunities for journalists to do their jobs — not only to inform fanbases on game day but to give them the inside scoop on the latest news and to critique how a franchise performs.

The reality is something different.

What I've seen and learned about in a dozen interviews since September, is that the lengths to which teams have gone to protect their product and get their version of the story out has increased steadily during my lifetime, and even before. I decided to explore what teams are doing to influence or block journalists’ coverage and the impact it’s having on sports journalism.

Bad for democracy?

Ever since social media burst onto the scene following Twitter’s appearance at South by Southwest in 2007, journalists interviewed for this story agreed, teams have become much more guarded about how they are perceived on platforms such as Instagram and what’s now called X.

The penny long ago dropped on teams that they control access, and indeed have all the access to their teams. So, with very little effort, they can steer the message to the public about their athletes, coaches and performance.

Sure, it’s only sports, but sports are a large part of our national conversation, and if these restraints continue, journalists argue, it will degrade free speech and open dialogue.

“It’s not just bad for sports but bad for democracy when people don’t get to ask legit questions,” said Jim Litke, a longtime columnist at The Associated Press who is now retired.

According to Litke, teams have two options: Frame the story, meaning tell it their way, or own the media. While teams have controlled the narrative for years, they’ve also started to own the journalists who push those narratives, Litke says.

As an example, Litke pointed to longtime journalist K.C. Johnson, who made his mark covering the Bulls for the Chicago Tribune, getting hired by the Bulls broadcast network, which is owned by team owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

Litke said that the Bulls, in essence, poached the best reporter who was covering the team, making it far less likely an unwanted story would break. Other papers, up to and including The New York Times, have seen reporters go to work for teams or league media.

Score one for the reporters

Still, sometimes unaffiliated reporters break news.

Take Tyler Dunne for example. In 2023, Dunne released a three-part article in his “Go Long” Substack feed, which included a story involving Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott.

At training camp in 2019, McDermott gave a speech in which he used the 9/11 terrorists as an example, citing their togetherness as a reason for the attack’s success. Dunne caught wind of the story years later, verified it with numerous sources and released a bombshell report that forced McDermott to apologize, both publicly and to the team, for his comments.

Dunne has been no stranger to critical reporting. Following the Bills’ grueling AFC Divisional playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022, Dunne released an article titled, “An Arrowhead Meltdown,” which critiqued McDermott’s decision-making and the Bills’ epic late-game collapse.

Dunne said his credential was denied by the Bills the following training camp after he heard rumblings of the team being unhappy with his reporting. He also acknowledged that the Bills’ denial of his credential was likely due not only to his critical reporting of the past but also to the low profile of his outlet compared to bigger papers.

“If it was the New York Times or Buffalo News, there’s no way (I wouldn’t be credentialed). There’d be hell to pay,” Dunne said. “I’m an independent journalist at a Substack. It’s easier for the team to dismiss it and say, ‘Yeah, we're a little full.”

Following the large public response to his 2023 report, Dunne had a productive conversation with McDermott and members of the Bills public relations team at the NFL combine and was swiftly credentialed for all Bills media events — a peace offering from Buffalo, showing their respect for Dunne’s reporting.

“(The Bills) came to the realization that I live (in Buffalo), I’m gonna write about the team regardless, I’m gonna find people to talk to, and it would behoove them to give me a fuller portrait of the team,” Dunne said.

While Dunne’s experience in Buffalo showcased how professional teams can handle stories for both good and bad, don’t think the ball stops there.

College games

The issue of denied access to sports journalists isn’t limited to pro sports. The relationship between reporters and college officials can be just as tough if not tougher, and has a long history.

Sports journalism historian Patrick Washburn remembers how notoriously explosive Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight fired a starter's pistol toward Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Russ Brown, whom Knight detested because he would ask tough questions.

“Russ, this is for you,” shouted Knight, who proceeded to fire the starter pistol in Brown’s direction following a Hoosiers game in 1980. Knight refused to call on Brown during postgame pressers, but Brown still shouted his questions despite receiving no acknowledgment from the legendary coach.

Buffalo News executive sports editor Perryn Keys recalled that, when he was a student journalist at Louisiana State in the 1990s, reporters could walk into the Tigers locker room, approach any player and ask them a question. Today, reporters covering college football teams are typically prohibited from entering the locker room, which showcases the barriers that have gradually been placed on sports journalism.

It’s not just down South, either.

Penn State coach James Franklin twice walked off the podium during a post-practice media session in October when asked about sexual assault charges related to two former players.

After a spokesman read off a university statement saying no one would comment on the matter, Franklin stepped up to the microphone and was met with a question from a Centre Daily Times reporter, who asked for comment on the charges. Franklin stepped off before the question could be finished.

The spokesman once again read the statement, then as Franklin stepped back to the mic, a reporter from The Athletic asked a question on the same topic, which prompted Franklin to step aside once more as the spokesman offered a more fiery response to the journalists present.

Franklin later apologized, following Penn State’s victory over Wisconsin.

"The reality is there's not a whole lot more I can say other than that (university) statement. It's an ongoing legal situation, and it's challenging. It's challenging on everybody ... I didn't do a good job there. I'm trying to get better like everybody else in a difficult situation,” Franklin said. “I apologize."

Keys, who also serves as a vice president for the Associated Press Sports Editors, a national professional group, said reporters are essentially blocked by schools in such situations. Even if they go to a higher authority to complain, it rarely makes a difference because the schools and conferences are aligned in protecting their players, their programs and their brands.

“You can’t run to the SEC and say, ‘Hey look, there’s a problem,’ because they just say it’s up to the school (to decide),” Keys said.

Ralph Russo, a longtime college football writer for The Associated Press and The Athletic, agreed.

“There’s no real consequences to someone blowing off (journalists’) access. Maybe there's a fine but nothing steeper than a stern talking to,” Russo said. “Ultimately, the conference works for the school, not the other way around.”

According to Amy Sanders, an award-winning journalist and lawyer, who co-authored “First Amendment and the Fourth Estate: The Law of Mass Media,” limiting access has gradually shut the door on oversight in relation to coaches’ misconduct, player misconduct and so on.

“This trend of cutting off access, whether it's from individual reporters in a press conference to more broadly moving to a privatized space to try to limit oversight and public scrutiny, is one that’s continuing, and it’s one that's troubling,” Sanders said.

Pro style

On the professional side, as of this year, eight of 30 MLB teams and six of 30 NBA teams own their broadcasting networks, showcasing the growing movement among organizations to control every possible aspect of the media.

Not only do these teams employ the commentators and team journalists who get the best access, but they also have their own team websites. These sites enable franchises to be the first to break transactional stories, which essentially makes a large portion of journalists’ traditional beat reporting work redundant.

“In this era where fans can follow the team accounts directly, (news) is sent right to them. That’s a game changer,” said Brian Moritz, a sports media scholar at St. Bonaventure University. “It’s a fundamental shift in how (sports journalists) do their jobs because they know they’re not going to break the news.”

Instead, journalists focus more on analysis – the meaning of personnel moves, or the reasons a team won or lost.

Journalism without access?

Moritz said he’s seen a shift in how teams treat the media and highlighted why he, and various colleagues, are concerned for the future of sports journalism. In a piece written for the Nieman Lab at Harvard University, Moritz even predicted that 2025 will be the year that sports journalists turn away from even trying to be credentialed to cover a team.

“That access that reporters have traditionally relied on to do their job — the ability to ask questions of a coach, of players, to build relationships with players — you’re seeing players and teams being like, ‘Well, we don’t need you,’” he said. “That leaves independent sports media at a really precarious point, because if the team doesn’t have to give you access or the players don’t feel like they have to talk to you, then, if you’re a sports journalist, what do you do?”

As for the Wizards newser, I was surprised that certain questions weren't asked – though maybe not so much now, given what I have learned over the last few months.

For instance, no one asked about the long-term plan for veterans Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma, what cultural changes need to be made to turn a bottom-of-the-barrel franchise into a perennial contender or what Keefe thinks of people viewing him as a so-called bridge coach for this rebuild.

Now, it seems, the question to ask is whether the Wizards have given up on the season. As of this writing, the team is 3-20, the worst record in the NBA. The problem is nobody gets to ask that question.

“The stuff that the Wizards are doing, that just strikes me as a move of arrogance and totally disconnected from the type of content that fans want,” Moritz said. “At the end of the day, what fans want is an honest portrayal of what’s going on with the team. If they’re bad, tell me what's going wrong. If they’re good, tell me what’s going good.