Kevin Brown absence explained?

[drjohnnyfever1]

Simply put, this has gotten out of control.  When other teams' broadcast crews are discussing this situation and Brittany Giroli vents like she did on the radio this morning, it just amplifies, after ALL of the other issues that the FO have had with broadcasters here, how clueless JA is.  Britt called him a "Clown Show!"  Good Heavens?!

I know it will never happen, but JA needs to go dark again and just stay unseen... after apologizing for punishing someone who made an accurate comment.

[AdamK]

Just now, Aristotelian said:

What did she say? Agreed, she is terrific and trustworthy, and the fact she has picked this up is significant.

It's nearly 11 mins worth of pent-up anecdotes, examples, facts, critique, strong feelings...

The first 1 min is particularly noteworthy because of the awkwardness between Brit who felt Rob was doubting her publicly which she pressed him on forcing him to explain himself before they could move on to the meat of it all.

Worth a listen if you haven't had enough of this yet.

 

[Tony-OH]

25 minutes ago, kidrock said:

I find this thing so hard to believe, but alot of people I trust, including you, say there is alot of truth to this.  Therefore, I believe it.

I will say, as someone who fires people frequently, there is usually much more behind the scenes than the "reason" given" sometimes.  However, I really dont trust the O's outside of Elias/Sig.

I do like Kevin as an announcer and am pretty disappointed in the O's.  Appreciate you and the other reporters getting the story out.

Thanks. The one thing I will say is that I agree, there can be and usually is more to a story then what is reported. 

What we have to remember is that most likely there are only a few people who know what Angelos said, and one may not even be Kevin Brown. I have a hard time believing Angelos would talk to such a peasant like Brown so he must've used an intermediary. 

Now, was that person a MASN person or an Orioles PR person? My guess is it was probably somebody in MASN who was told to take Brown off the air and the PR people may not have even known this was happening because MASN is separate from the Orioles. 

This would make some sense in my mind because any competent PR person would get in front of this story before it came out because there was no way his doesn't leak at some point.

Now, who leaked the story? Well, it would make sense that Brown would talk to his fellow broadcasters and other people he knows in the industry, especially after he has lingered for so long. It's not like he lost one game to this, but has been out for a few weeks now, right? 

At some point someone, maybe even Brown himself, leaked this to the people who started to make this a story. Once it went viral, the cat was out of the bag and now the PR people are trying to do damage control and it appears that is deny that the comments were the reason he's not on the air and then say they don't discuss personnel matters publicly.

Ok, fair enough on the second part, but basically they are calling all the reports on why he was suspended false. 

Now, I believe the reports because of past actions by John Angelos and that this does fit his character, and the fact that the sources I know are corroborating the story. Saying that, none of us know what Angelos said to who or what Brown did in response to hearing that he was being taken off the air in the middle of this great season for such a dumb innocuous comment. 

I've heard there are many people involved with the broadcast, including other broadcasters that are not happy about this. But what are they going to do about it? Besides Brown, who else is getting picked up by another major league team in their current roles? 

 

 

[Yardball85]

1 hour ago, CallMeBrooksie said:

Just say you have no idea how journalism works

LOL - great minds Brooksie. 

[Gatoriole]

You can find a link to Rob Long's interview of Britt here: https://www.audacy.com/stations/1057thefan

I don't think she said anything that hasn't already been said on OH.

[baltfan]

1 hour ago, 2001OriolesFan said:

Do those "multiple outlets" have any vertified facts or are they just repeating the same rumors?

They have sources.  This idea that unless someone is on the record that it can never be believed is just silliness. There is a long history of news being broken in this manner and being accurate.  People, however, see 1 time out of 1000 where something ends up wrong and then think nothing is reliable. 

[seak05]

37 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Roch has not kept his job for as long as he had by not knowing when to go quiet in a situation where he has nothing to gain by saying something. 

The one thing I do think people forget is we are talking about livelihoods here. Jobs can be at stake if they make the smallest of blunders so why put yourself in a situation that could cost you your gig? It's easy to be at home and writing on social media about what people "should do" but until they have to make a decision that could cost them their job, I'm not sure they are in a position to tell others what they should do.

The one thing PR people and the media have learned is that the public attention can easily be diverted and I believe that's what the Orioles will do. By waiting until August 11th for Brown to come back on the air, they will assume this will have simmered down and if the Orioles are still winning and in 1st no one will be bringing this up.

But they are risking a few things here. IF for some reason the Orioles go into a tailspin, people will bring up this distraction as the cause. 

Nothing is going to ever change in how the Orioles are run as an organization administratively as long as an Angelos is involved with owning this team. From Peter's well-documented exploits over the years, the public infighting between the mother/John and Louis, and now the recent exploits and comments made by John Angelos, there is only one constant and that's the last name Angelos.  

No slight intended to Roch, people need to earn a living. Just saying if Angelos had a "side" to get out he thought would make him look better, it would have leaked somewhere. 

Maybe we aren't talking about this in a week..but look how much we still talk about what happened with Jon Miller. If Brown leaves for another team this offseason (and I would put money on it), I think we might still be talking about this in the same way years from now.

[Malike]

Now that this is a national scandal, I'd not be surprised if this distracts the team on the field some.

[spleen1015]

1 minute ago, Malike said:

Now that this is a national scandal, I'd not be surprised if this distracts the team on the field some.

It will be a distraction. How much let it be is the question. Reporters are going to have to be reporters and ask the players about this. I think with this group, they don't care. The pbp announcer has no bearing on what the players need to do.

I hope this just goes away. It's dumb that this has to be a story. F JA.

[lovetoaster]

26 minutes ago, dzorange said:

If MASN is playing the game tonight, I'm wondering why they wouldn't have Brown back in the booth tonight. Would it be too much attention on them? Do they not want Brown there answering questions from fellow colleagues or the national media? I assume it's the latter.

Maybe its as simple as he wasn't available to come back tonight. This all just blew up yesterday. Maybe KB decided to go off the grid for a few days and could not make it back to Baltimore for tonight's game. I would not blame him for getting far away from the situation for a few days if that's the case. Or maybe they asked him to come back tonight and he (or his agent) told them to shove it, and he wants a few days to hopefully let things die down. I wouldn't blame him for that either. 

[Moose Milligan]

4 minutes ago, Malike said:

Now that this is a national scandal, I'd not be surprised if this distracts the team on the field some.

I don't think Adley and Gunnar and the rest really care.  Let's not forget they've wrestled away first place no matter who's in the booth.

And even if it was a distraction, there's no real way to prove it unless someone admits it.  

[AdamK]

13 minutes ago, Gatoriole said:

You can find a link to Rob Long's interview of Britt here: https://www.audacy.com/stations/1057thefan

I don't think she said anything that hasn't already been said on OH.

True, it's been written here, but definitely hits differently when shared on the air among people who used to -- and currently -- work for the team. 

It's an awfully good, concise primer on why people have the right to buy-in on siding with Brown at this juncture. 

[Malike]

Just now, Moose Milligan said:

I don't think Adley and Gunnar and the rest really care.  Let's not forget they've wrestled away first place no matter who's in the booth.

And even if it was a distraction, there's no real way to prove it unless someone admits it.  

Right, but fair or not, the "Orioles" go from the golden child of MLB to a national embarrassment, I don't think it's too far out there to suggest it can spill over to the field. It puts the players in an uncomfortable position.

[Baltimorecuse]

21 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Thanks. The one thing I will say is that I agree, there can be and usually is more to a story then what is reported. 

What we have to remember is that most likely there are only a few people who know what Angelos said, and one may not even be Kevin Brown. I have a hard time believing Angelos would talk to such a peasant like Brown so he must've used an intermediary. 

Now, was that person a MASN person or an Orioles PR person? My guess is it was probably somebody in MASN who was told to take Brown off the air and the PR people may not have even known this was happening because MASN is separate from the Orioles. 

This would make some sense in my mind because any competent PR person would get in front of this story before it came out because there was no way his doesn't leak at some point.

Now, who leaked the story? Well, it would make sense that Brown would talk to his fellow broadcasters and other people he knows in the industry, especially after he has lingered for so long. It's not like he lost one game to this, but has been out for a few weeks now, right? 

At some point someone, maybe even Brown himself, leaked this to the people who started to make this a story. Once it went viral, the cat was out of the bag and now the PR people are trying to do damage control and it appears that is deny that the comments were the reason he's not on the air and then say they don't discuss personnel matters publicly.

Ok, fair enough on the second part, but basically they are calling all the reports on why he was suspended false. 

Now, I believe the reports because of past actions by John Angelos and that this does fit his character, and the fact that the sources I know are corroborating the story. Saying that, none of us know what Angelos said to who or what Brown did in response to hearing that he was being taken off the air in the middle of this great season for such a dumb innocuous comment. 

I've heard there are many people involved with the broadcast, including other broadcasters that are not happy about this. But what are they going to do about it? Besides Brown, who else is getting picked up by another major league team in their current roles? 

 

 

Given the sheer stupidity of suspending a popular announcer for a total nothing I have to believe there is way more to this than is being reported.  My best guess is that Brown is some kind of pawn in an internal power struggle at MASN.  

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, Malike said:

Right, but fair or not, the "Orioles" go from the golden child of MLB to a national embarrassment, I don't think it's too far out there to suggest it can spill over to the field. It puts the players in an uncomfortable position.

I think most people can separate the good that's going on in the field vs JA/Kevin Brown.  

People outside of this market are going to forget about this in a week or two.  We certainly won't forget but this is a nothingburger after Brown is back on the mic.