On the eve of the Girl's State Tournament which begins tomorrow A.M. (Tuesday 3-14), this is normally a very exciting time for me as I'm pouring over the brackets for all four classes and trying to predict a winner and making sure all my ducks are in a row. The first day of the tournament is an exhausting one to be sure with four quarterfinal games in Class AAAA and two more in Class AA that evening. But it's always a time of year that I look forward to and I've been lucky enough to sit in press row since 2008 with my mentor; the late Tony Geer, to learn the ins and outs of how things go during the five-day event. I've been lucky enough to cover the last four state tournaments in my blog and although it's a lot of work, I enjoy doing it because I've always viewed it as the showcase for high school girl's basketball in the state as it should be. I've met a lot of very good people in my time doing this and it's always great to be able to catch up with them during state tournament week.
This time around, however, I feel an emptiness and sadness on the eve of the Girl's State Tournament as I'll be relegated to strictly fan status and likely for the forseeable future as well. The reason for this is because the MSHSL, in its infinite wisdom, decided after the school calendar year last summer to remove bloggers (such as myself) from covering state-level events (such as the Girl's State Basketball Tournament as we're not an accredited news-gathering organization or an accredited website. I first got wind of this from other bloggers I know this last fall but really didn't know the extent of the MSHSL's actions until I tried last week (unsuccessfully, of course) to apply for media credentials and was promptly denied.
And who would want to do this you might be asking yourself? Why, none other than MSHSL Communications Coordinator Tim Leighton. Leighton, as you may know, worked for the St. Paul Pioneer Press as a sports reporter and was a fixture at the Girl's State Basketball Tournament as a reporter there when I first started sitting in press row. Recently, Leighton accepted the Communications Coordinator position and there has been a drastic change in attitude towards bloggers (such as myself) that became quite apparent during last year's tournament.
I could tell that as early as two years ago when, on the final day of the 2015 tournament at Williams Arena, bloggers (including myself) were forced to relocate to the upper rafters from court level where the WiFi was quite unreliable and unpredictable (to put it mildly) which made finishing up reports of games on that day and night quite an arduous task. That happened because a reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune threw a hissy fit because he couldn't find an empty space at court-level and complained to MSHSL about it. As a result, we were the ones forced upstairs.
The real-clincher came last year when, on the first night of the tournament when I was following an evening game and writing up notes on it in my notebook, Mr. Leighton strode by where I was sitting and told me that "I'd like to talk to you when you get a chance." This struck me as totally out of the blue and, considering the fact that I was trying to keep track of things of the game going on, it really rattled my concentration and made me wonder what I did (Interestingly enough, I was able to catch up with him after a press conference and asked him if he still needed to talk to me and he replied "No, your fine" which only added to the whole puzzling situation in the first place. But on Thursday that week when my blogger friends and I attempted to sit courtside at Williams Arena that morning, Mr. Leighton strode by and brusquely informed us that we had to go up to the facilities in the rafter; that the court-level seats were for newspaper reporters and radio people only. Like scolded schoolchildren, we gathered up our computers and other belongings and retreated to the rafters. I kind of knew then and there that our days of being able to report at the state tournament were numbered and that bloggers, such as myself, were quickly becoming persona non grata in the eyes of Mr. Leighton and the rest of the MSHSL.
To be fair, I did get a call back from Mr. Leighton last week Tuesday afternoon after I called the MSHSL office to try and get an explanation for the denial of my media credentials for the state tournament. Essentially, the context of our phone conversation centered on the fact that the MSHSL Board adopted a resolution this last off-season that included updating their Media Policy Manual (see letter below) and that this is something that has been going on with other high school governing bodies in several other states as well; based largely in part to recruiting concerns. While I can buy that up to a certain point, I definitely had issue with the other concerns that MSHSL purportedly had with bloggers (such as myself) at press conferences after games. Basically, I was told that we had created "problems" at these press conferences (and I have absolutely NO idea what those "problems" might be). Moreover, there was concern expressed that bloggers (again, such as myself) knew coaches and players on a personal basis and that this was creating a problem as well. I asked about who made the determination(s) on this and was informed that MSHSL receives feedback each year from coaches and administrators alike on how particular tournaments went and supposedly there were complaints about the bloggers at the state tournament.
Needless to say, I was stunned beyond belief when Mr. Leighton told me this. Just for me, I don't EVER recall, in all the interviews I've conducted at the State Tournament, where I ever did anything outrageously out of line or offended anybody in any way. I've always conducted myself in a professional manner so I can get the story which is what I THINK my readers would (hopefully) expect. At least I've never been personally reprimanded either verbally or by a written notice. As far as my relationship(s) with coaches and players over the years, all I can say is that you'd have to be a complete and utter moron to NOT know some of these people on a personal basis when you cover this as much as I and others do. For me, to claim that something like this is causing "problems" seems to stem from petty jealousy from the MSM more than anything. It's not my fault that they're not out there during the regular season covering games like I and others are and then feel somehow betrayed when coaches and/or players warm up to bloggers such as myself and others because they know me.
To me, it seems we have a clear-cut conflict of interest on the part of MSHSL and Mr. Leighton doing favors for his sports-reporting buddies of the various MSM outlets. It reeks of favoritism and, worse yet, it exposes a culture of fear that seems to emanate from MSHSL wrt reporting at state-level events; eerily similar to that which exists at my old employer, Canadian Pacific Railway, when E. Hunter Harrison assumed the CEO spot there five years ago. Though Harrison has mercifully moved on to eastern carrier CSXT (where he'll rape and pillage that railroad ten times worse than he ever did CPRS), it seems as though MSHSL has fallen in love with Mr. Harrison's tactics to draw fear from employees and will stop at nothing to get its way.
Look, in the final analysis, it's the MSHSL's gig; it's their show and they can do whatever they please I guess and if that means keeping bloggers such as myself out, then so be it. My blog will survive just fine without the Girl's State Tournament and I'll let the clowns of the MSM outlets do their thing so they can get their "story". While I can accept the MSHSL's decision to do this, what I don't like is how they covered up this thing with lies and half-truths. If someone at MSHSL has a genuine problem with what I've done over the last several years during the state tournament in my reporting, be man enough to come up to me and call me on it. And be ready to back up your claim with facts. And, to be sure, yeah, I could "blog" from the stands but I wouldn't be getting the complete story on games and the people who were in on the action and I think my readers deserve better than that.
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961, President Kennedy; who felt betrayed by the agency responsible for covert paramilitary operations that were really responsible for what happened with the failed invasion of Cuba, declared that "I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the wind." After covering the Girl's State Tournament for the last nine years and now being left out in the cold because of the MSHSL's actions in the last year, I can't help but feel some of the same sensations he must have been feeling at the time. And we know what happened to him a little more than two years later on Elm Street in Dallas and how the MSM, some 50+ years later, STILL covers up the truth about that day in Dallas. So is it any wonder I have such a mistrust and disdain for the MSM? I don't know......I guess we'll just have to read the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press for the "real" story about the games this week. Enjoy.
From: Yvonne Walsh <ywalsh@mshsl.org> [Add to Address Book]
To: "alexlarams@earthlink.net" <alexlarams@earthlink.net>
Cc: Tim Leighton <tleighton@mshsl.org>
Subject: Media Registration denied
Date: Mar 7, 2017 10:56 AM
Since your web site, Alex, is from a non-accredited news-gathering organization or a non-accredited website, it does not qualify you for a news media credential for state tournament level events. An online entity or social media site, ie: Facebook account, Twitter account, etc., does not fall under the definition of an accredited news organization.
This is the policy per our media policy manual.
On page 7 of our Media Policy Manual states:
Media of a Personal, recruiting or rankings nature, or whose demographic audience are fan-based or focused on primarily one school or a small number of schools DO NOT qualify as news-gathering organizations for purposes of media credentials.If you have any questions, please contact Tim Leighton at tleighton@mshsl.org. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance. Thank you!
________________________
Yvonne Walsh
Administrative Assistant
Minnesota State High School League
Phone: 763-569-0486 - Fax: 763-569-0499
www.mshsl.org
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