Are Baltimore fans hostile to Female Reporters?

[Fan4Life]

Right on the money, as usual.

It's ridiculous to say that gender has no effect on perception of media figures, particularly in sports media.

At the very least, female beat reporters have more of an uphill battle than their male counterparts, having to "prove" to their readership that they are more than a pretty face.

Ghiroli and others, to their credit, have done that. But the mere fact that we have to discuss their appearances over the course of a discussion of their merits should be evidence enough that it's a harder road for a woman in this business. Being a female sportswriter is not, by definition, damning, but I think it's safe to say that it makes the rise harder and the fall easier.

I wonder how male reporters are viewed by their female audience when their primary function is covering women's sport(s)?

[SilentJames]

Well if it's a twitter account through MASN I would think it should be used mostly for work content. I don't use twitter. Personally I think it's stupid, but I can see it's use and why some people like it. Her twitter page comments were always on the side of the web page where she wrote her blogs which have been few and far between and I don't think I've hardly ever seen any baseball news on it.

Really? really?

[SilentJames]

But the fact is, this really shouldn't even be part of the discussion. Is the woman a good reporter, or isn't she? You can't even bring up the subject of a female reporter without half the comments giving opinions on her looks. There is no question that the male sports fans don't view female reporters in the same way as male reporters.

As to Jen Royle, I don't read her stuff. All I know about her is that she incorrectly stated that a deal with Adam LaRoche, on very generous terms, was imminent a couple of months ago. That was enough to convince me not to pay too much attention to her.

In all fairness to her, she wasn't the only one doing that.

[jgdomino]

In all fairness to her, she wasn't the only one doing that.

Just to add to this HOW many respected writers and Analysts have a source that gives them bad information? It happens, people want reporters to break stories and be 100% accurate everytime. I find this crazy. As I said before her job was to cover the other teams in the AL East and do some O's stuff as well.

If Anita Marks wasn't treated the same way by a majority of Baltimore fans I'd say this is an asinine thread but there is a pattern at this point. Your a woman, you don't strictly cover the O's and You don't have a Pro Baltimore Tint to your work. So you have no idea what your talking about and I'll make snarky comments to get under your skin because I'm a tough guy who knows more than you stupid woman.

[Frobby]

Does sexism play into male's views of female reporters? Absolutely. But that doesn't mean it's coming into play in any significant way with Jen Royle and for her to play the sexism card discredits those reporters who have more legitimate cases.

I don't think she played the sexism card. Go read the MASN thread that was linked to the opening post in this thread. She didn't raise that issue at all.

[El Gordo]

Right on the money, as usual.

It's ridiculous to say that gender has no effect on perception of media figures, particularly in sports media.

At the very least, female beat reporters have more of an uphill battle than their male counterparts, having to "prove" to their readership that they are more than a pretty face.

Ghiroli and others, to their credit, have done that. But the mere fact that we have to discuss their appearances over the course of a discussion of their merits should be evidence enough that it's a harder road for a woman in this business. Being a female sportswriter is not, by definition, damning, but I think it's safe to say that it makes the rise harder and the fall easier.

There's a big difference between the criteria for print reporters, radio persona, and TV persona. Looks and gender issues factor large for TV types. Some print reporters like Gammons or Rosenthal make it to TV, but it's certainly not for their looks, and as great as he is, it's unlikely you'll ever see much of Joe Angel on TV.

[SammyBirdland]

and as great as he is, it's unlikely you'll ever see much of Joe Angel on TV.

That's true. I'm not saying that Joe Angel is ugly, but he's no Jon Miller when it comes to good looks.

[Frobby]

As to Jen Royle, I don't read her stuff. All I know about her is that she incorrectly stated that a deal with Adam LaRoche, on very generous terms, was imminent a couple of months ago. That was enough to convince me not to pay too much attention to her.

In all fairness to her, she wasn't the only one doing that.

Just to add to this HOW many respected writers and Analysts have a source that gives them bad information? It happens, people want reporters to break stories and be 100% accurate everytime. I find this crazy.

I'm just saying that I haven't been a Jen Royle reader, and the first time I became aware of her (because of a thread relaying her reports on LaRoche), she got something completely wrong (plus, it seemed so implausible to begin with), so I continued to not pay much attention to her.

You know how it is, first impressions count for a lot. Roch and others confidently predicted that Terry Crowley was staying on as hitting coach, and that turned out to be wrong, but Roch has been right about most things he has reported and so I don't stop reading him just because he's wrong occasionally. But when someone is wrong the very first time you read something from them, you aren't likely to go back a second time.

And lord knows, I didn't cut Spencer Fordin any slack for the multiple mistakes he made when he was writing for Orioles.com.

[Scrat1]

I don't think she played the sexism card. Go read the MASN thread that was linked to the opening post in this thread. She didn't raise that issue at all.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was projecting. Apologies to Royle.

[El Gordo]

That's true. I'm not saying that Joe Angel is ugly, but he's no Jon Miller when it comes to good looks.

Actually Miller projects a geniality on camera that you don't get from Angel. Joe is perfectly suited for radio, but he comes on to hot for the cooler TV medium. You could probably enjoy having dinner nightly with John, but I doubt you'd want to see Joe more than a couple of nights a month.:laughlol:

[TonySoprano]

Is she obligated to provide baseball content on Twitter?

I mean, I just joined Twitter and I have seen her mention some baseball stuff.

It is possible to have two twitter accounts; one for her job-related stuff, and one when she feels the need to tell the world she had a burrito or drank a beer for breakfast.

@Jen_Royle Jen Royle

Baltimore sports media is doing story on me today. I'm gonna be brutally honest about my year in Baltimore. Prepare yourself

This is sure to be note-worthy

[BaltimoreTerp]

Well, I applaud her for responding the way she has.

When you deal with a bunch of douche bags, they don't deserve a well reasoned response or respect.

Roch is the same way...and most of the time he is right too.

You can argue the professionalism of it and I can see that but she isn't doing it in a forum as an employee...She is doing on her personal Twitter account.

First, as mentioned, she didn't do it on her "personal" account, unless that was also her professional account, too.

Second, part of my point was that Roch DOESN'T do it that often, and when he does it blows over quickly because he has earned it from the fans. That's not the case here.

[Sports Guy]

First, as mentioned, she didn't do it on her "personal" account, unless that was also her professional account, too.

Second, part of my point was that Roch DOESN'T do it that often, and when he does it blows over quickly because he has earned it from the fans. That's not the case here.

Roch doesn't get as many d bags attacking him for no reason.

[Frobby]

By the way, Royle's reporting on LaRoche wasn't as bad as I remembered it. She first reported that the O's had offered him 3 years, "$16-18 mm or more." She then reported that LaRoche had rejected it because he wanted "good money" and "saw what Pena got." There was a lot of debate over whether the O's had ever offered LaRoche 3 years. He ended up signing with the Nats for 2/$15 mm with a $10 mm option that had a $1 mm buyout. So, it is not implausible that the O's could have offered 3/$16-18 mm and had that rejected.

[JTrea81]

The difference between a reporter like Britt Ghiroli and MASN staff member like Jen Royle is that Britt has to be objective about what she writes. All she does is inform.

Jen Royle doesn't have those restrictions. She can have opinions and obviously is paid to share them.

I think so many flock to Ghiroli over Royle is because Britt doesn't cast a negative tone toward anything the Orioles do, because I doubt she can. That's not her job.

Also I think there is a "homer" effect here too as I think the fans that live in and around Baltimore are the ones that likely that are the most optmistic about what is happening in the MacPhail regime. And it's likely because they aren't hearing a negative opinion about their Orioles as the media is pretty much controlled by them. And I'm not talking about OHers, but the common fan that watches MASN and listens to the radio and reads the Sun for their news.

When you get outside of the Baltimore area in other areas of the country, such as NE, I think you'll find more critcism of the Orioles because they don't have control over national media outlets, and you are bound to get a more objective if not negative opinion of what they do when they deserve the critiquing.

So when you get somebody from New York, who is used to winning and used to seeing a team run a certain way, when the team you are following isn't following that model and isn't having success, she's going to call them on it.

And Orioles fans especially in Baltimore don't like hearing negative things about the Orioles and immediately lash out at those who say them.

It's not a good situation.