Are Baltimore fans hostile to Female Reporters?

[scOtt]

test... for Chris...

[Tony-OH]

Amber and Britt are having no problems at all as far as I can see. Do the job well and the fans judge you on your work and respect you.

This is a great point. Britt has been lauded around here and rightfully so. She does a great job covering the team and regardless of the fact she's a Steelers fan (blech ) I haven't heard a negative word about her.

I don't think it's a female thing at all, but Baltimore fans are traditionally tough on out of towners in key media positions. Baltimore loves it's Bob Haynie's and Scott Garceau's because they were either born here or have been around so long they have become locals.

I think the worse thing a new reporter can do is talk about their "old place" even if that's where their experience lies. I have no beef with Royal, but she didn't do herself any favors when she was "trying out" for the gig with Garceau and they interviewed Yankees GM Brain Cashman and she called him "Cash." Now I realize being around people in baseball that almost everyone has a nickname and it's easy to start calling them that when interviewing them, but here in Baltimore, the Yankees are THE ENEMY, so it doesn't bode well that you look like you are all chummy-chummy with their GM.

I haven't read the link provided and I really don't have desire to get into this discussion, but I will give her one bit of unsolicited advice, "Never generalize the fanbase and never say negative things about them. It's a no-win situation, even if your comments have some merit."

It's like the whole brother thing. You can harass, threaten, and beat up your brother, but by God if someone else does you are ready to pound them.

[scOtt]

While there is no doubt that Baltimore is provincial, that is not the problem for Royle. Nor is the problem her gender.

People like good reporting. In the past year, Ghiroli has proven herself to be one of the better Orioles reporters. She is not from Baltimore either.

I'm not surprised that Royle will no longer be on MASN. Despite their on-air presence, to me the bread-and-butter for MASN is what they do on-line. I think even Royle would agree that she did not blog enough.

As she is going to be staying at 105.7, I wish her the best. She is apparently going to be contributing to a pregame show M-F broadcast at Pickles with Jim Duquette and Joe Orsulak.

My take, on a SSS of the few times I've seen her, and you're much closer, Chris... Jen seems to always be fawning over players, or blatantly flirting. It's just not what I'm looking for.

Britt and Amber are

, but they have an automatic and assumed disconnect. Amber being married, and I think Britt is single... but it doesn't matter! They have a professional distance that Royle and Marks do not.

[Kevin Lomax]

It's not a gender thing at all. I will echo the other things said here already.

There are plenty of poor sports writers at the Sun in my opinion as well.

Connolly, Zrebiec, Vensel, all do a good job. But then you have guys like Ron Fritz and Kevin Coward who write as if they're in padded cells in 1960. A time when stats like RBI's and Wins ruled and the internet was a farcical idea from a Sci-Fi novel.

[NewMarketSean]

Laura Vescey, Anita Marks, Jen Royale...all of these women worked in sports in Baltimore and all of them were viewed negatively, for one reason or another. What did they all have in common? All of them were not from Baltimore and routinely pimped their former cities. For Vescey it was Seattle, for Marks it was Miami and Royale it's about New York. Plus, from what I have heard of them and read of them -- they just aren't very good at their jobs.

Meanwhile, I have no idea where Amber Theoharris is from or Britt Ghiroli...and don't care. They do good work and haven't been talking about where they used to work like we care.

So I think it has less to do with Baltimore and more to do with the quality of their work and their inability to pipe down on where they came from.

[Babypowder]

It's not a gender thing at all. I will echo the other things said here already.

There are plenty of poor sports writers at the Sun in my opinion as well.

Connolly, Zrebiec, Vensel, all do a good job. But then you have guys like Ron Fritz and Kevin Coward who write as if they're in padded cells in 1960. A time when stats like RBI's and Wins ruled and the internet was a farcical idea from a Sci-Fi novel.

This. Anyone who reads our blog (all 2 people) knows that we have been very critical of Royle. We have battled her on Twitter as well and she has expressed her feelings towards us too. It has nothing to do with her being a woman. We praise Ghiroli constantly. It has everything to do with her being terrible at her job. If you follow her on Twitter, you get a real good idea of what she is like outside of her writing, and it ain't pretty either.

[Tony-OH]

And to add to the discussion, Thank you Terp for reminding me about Vecsey. I almost had her scrubbed from my brain.

On the flip side, can't remember her name, and I've only seen her a couple times, the girl on the Natinals coverage seems pretty decent.

Vecsey was one of the dumbest hires ever. How do you hire someone who eviscerated Ray Lewis after we won the Super Bowl while she was still in Seattle. She was doomed before she wrote a word.

Honestly, I think if you are good and take the time to become part of the community you can do well here. Look at what Ed Norris has done. The guy is from New York but he's become a Ravens and Orioles fans and he considers himself a Baltimore guy now.

[TonySoprano]

The headslap "smilie" on this website should be nicknamed "JenRoyle." She puts out more unintentionally inane comments on her twitter account than the rest of the local beat reporters combined.

Britt is far, far better.

[ScottieBaseball]

It is not a female reporter thing. Britt Ghiroli is one of the best young Journalist that I have read in a very long time.

Agreed on Britt. She strikes me as serious and seems like she doesn't take a minute off when she's in the pressbox and it shows in her work.

[Phantom]

Option #6...

I don't think we're hostile to any reporters, only golddiggers like Jen Royle and Anita. Britt and Amber seem to do just fine.

Give us Martians for reporters... just give us quality reporting and we'll love you.

Using a term like "golddiggers" doesn't help the "we're not sexist" argument...

The question isn't if Baltimore likes good reporters or dislikes bad ones. The question is (or at least, should be) would you have treated these females the same if they were males of the same talent/opinions? Frankly I don't remember idiot male reporters inspiring the same venom (maybe Nestor?), but we also didn't have them shoved down our throats quite as much.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I told Amber Theoharis I loved her once when I was drunk....does that count?

[waroriole]

The problem with her is the way she interacts with fans. She acts like she's so much smarter than them because she worked in a big market. Have you noticed that Britt hasn't had any problems? It's not a female thing, it's a Jen thing.

This. Britt is the best (or 2nd best) reporter covering the O's. Everyone likes her, b/c she doesn't act like Jen Royal.

[ScottieBaseball]

This. Britt is the best (or 2nd best) reporter covering the O's. Everyone likes her, b/c she doesn't act like Jen Royal.

I think everyone likes her because she's the best MLB.com writer assigned to the O's in a long time.

[Tony-OH]

I think everyone likes her because she's the best MLB.com writer assigned to the O's in a long time.

or ever..whichever is the longest..

[SammyBirdland]

Using a term like "golddiggers" doesn't help the "we're not sexist" argument...

The question isn't if Baltimore likes good reporters or dislikes bad ones. The question is (or at least, should be) would you have treated these females the same if they were males of the same talent/opinions? Frankly I don't remember idiot male reporters inspiring the same venom (maybe Nestor?), but we also didn't have them shoved down our throats quite as much.

I'm critical of Gary Thorne because of (what I interpret as) his obvious Red Sox love. I can't stand listening to him call Red Sox games because it feels like he calls each Red Sox home run with slobbery lust.

That being said, I believe Gary Thorne is a male.