Daily Fail: Maniacal Minaya

Charlie Klein

Mets General Manager Omar Minaya announced the firing of Tony Bernazard and brazenly attacked a reporter yesterday in Flushing, NY.

Most of the controversy coming out of the press conference did not surround the dismissal of former Vice President of Player Development Tony Bernazard, who, as reported on this site, has become infamous for having issues with anger management.

Minaya challenged New York Daily News reporter Adam Rubin in front of the entire press gallery by implying that Rubin reported the stories about Bernazard in an attempt to get a job in the Metropolitans' front office. Minaya said, "Adam has lobbied for the player development position. I scuffled with it early on. I had to think about that."

When Minaya was asked whether he was alleging that Rubin had plotted to get Bernazard fired, he said, "No. I'm saying that I had scuffled a lot as I made my decision because I had know that the person writing this had been lobbying people for a position in player developent." Omar dearest also took a shot at Rubin's reporting, "All the things that have been public are not exactly how it happened, but I'm not going to go into the details."

In all of my journalism classes whenever the journalist becomes part of the news it is rarely a positive thing. A journalist's primary goal is to report the facts of a situation so that a curious public can sort out for themselves what to believe and how to think. Journalists are meant to be witnesses to events, not the starring players. And yet, Adam Rubin has had the misfortune of becoming the news.

This whole story is a definite case study in the ethics of journalism. Minaya's idea of how those ethics work in his mind was violated by the inquiries by Rubin of how to get into the business. Certainly people are entitled to their own opinion but they are not to have their own set of facts. Minaya's understanding of the facts in this case are as flawed as Rafa Benitez's facts about Sir Alex Ferguson.

It is a fact that Rubin did ask someone in the Mets organisation for "career advice." As Mets COO Jeff Wilpon acknowledged yesterday, Rubin consulted him for advice. Wilpon said, "I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I believe Adam was just doing what anybody else does. I get a call once a week like that."

My favourite professional sports colour commentator Keith Hernandez was part of the Mets SNY triumverate to criticise the actions taken by Minaya. Hernandez, no stranger to contoversy himself, said, "I kind of find it hard to believe that Adam Rubin was brought into this. The point is, Adam Rubin is not the issue here. Adam Rubin is a beat writer and it is his job to cover the team. He got a lead on a story and guess what - he reported it correctly."

The Mets did win last night in dramatic fashion following a pinch hit grand slam by Fernando Tatis and have won two games consecutively. No one will really remember that though, which is too bad for a team that should be labeled as the New York Mess.