Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ERIC NOLAND LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
\ The Los Angeles Raiders' decision this week to bar a reporter from their practice facility is not an isolated incident, but rather reflects a pattern of media harassment and attempted management of news reporting, according to several media representatives who have had dealings with the club in recent years.
Todd Christensen of NBC-TV, a former Raiders All-Pro tight end, said he was informed he was not welcome at the team's headquarters when he prepared to tape a feature story there three years ago. Christensen said he was told he had reported something to which owner Al Davis objected.
Los Angeles Times reporter Mark Heisler, who covered the team in the mid-80s, said he received repeated threats that he would be barred from the team's facilities.
Hartford (Conn.) Courant columnist Alan Greenberg, who covered the Raiders for the Times before Heisler, said a club official once told him he no longer could attend then-coach Tom Flores' Monday news conferences, but that Flores intervened and countermanded the edict.
Bob Keisser of the Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram, who last year was the target of an unsuccessful attempt to have players refuse him interviews, said of Raiders management: "They went out of their way to try to further intimidate me beyond what was publicly known."
Christensen said he understood that Davis, upset about some criticism NBC colleague Bob Trumpy leveled at the Raiders on the air last season, tried to get Trumpy barred from future Raiders broadcasts.
And a former Raiders official said Davis attempted to use the team's promotional newspaper to smear reporters with falsified letters purportedly written by fans.
Each reporter said he had no doubt that Davis had a hand in each incident.
"It seems to me there is a vindictive streak in the man, which is unfortunate," said Christensen, contacted in Berlin where he is preparing for today's American Bowl broadcast. "It's unfortunate that he sees things [written and broadcast] as personal.
"But when you look at what's happened with the organization over the last five years, it's difficult to talk about brilliant trades, outstanding drafts and great collections of talent."
Heisler, who says he covered the Raiders two years longer than he wanted to just so the club wouldn't think it had chased him off, said he was threatened with expulsion no fewer than three times - once during the '86 season and twice in '88. Each time it was over something he had written that the club deemed critical, he said.
"One year I walked in there every day expecting to be turned away," Heisler said.
Greenberg said he feared the same one morning after being told he no longer would be able to join other reporters for a weekly meeting with Flores. "I showed up anyway," he said, "and Flores made a point of being friendly to me. It was unusual for Tom to acknowledge you like that without any prompting. The implicit message was, `I don't have any problem with you being here.' "
Christensen says he got in hot water during the '90 season, when he said over the air that he felt the Raiders had deliberately low-balled quarterback Steve Beuerlein during summer contract negotiations, orchestrating a situation in which Jay Schroeder could ascend uncontested to the starting job.
"Nothing was said to me at the time," Christensen said, "but later in the month they lost three [out of four] games. Now all of a sudden it's my fault."
He said he received a letter saying he had besmirched the Raiders and should apologize.
Later that season, when the Raiders reached the NFL playoffs, Christensen planned to travel to El Segundo to do a feature on coach Art Shell, but he was told by NBC that the Raiders had objected to his doing the piece.
"I went out to the practice field and went up to Art," Christensen said. "I said, `Art, what is this?' Art's response was, `Todd, my hands are tied. I can't do anything about it.' "
Christensen, of his on-air remarks about the Beuerlein situation, said, "Look, I went to a number of players, a number of people. I didn't guess. It wasn't a hidden source or any of that bad journalism. But they decided to choose me as their outcast person."
Christensen says Trumpy wore the mantle last season when top NBC officials were urged by the Raiders to remove him from future telecasts involving the team.
The Raiders apparently have gone to great lengths in their attempts to discredit reporters.
A former Raiders official, who asked not to be identified, told of the launching in '88 of the Los Angeles Raiders Newspaper, a house publication for the team's fans. Davis insisted on a feature called "Media Watch," the official said, to be used for attacking reporters.
"Al called up and said, `What I want to see is photos of all the writers who cover the team, with bio[graphical] information. And then, underneath, I'd like letters - I don't care where you get them - that say things like, `Mark Heisler of the L.A. Times is a [expletive],' or `I hate the Daily News.' "
The official said the next issue of the paper carried an editorial criticizing the Times' coverage of a story on Marc Wilson's release by the team, and also contained a group photograph of beat writers at training camp.
"We were pretty happy with it," the official said, "but I got a call from Al. He said, `Maybe you didn't understand what I was telling you. This isn't what I was asking for. The next time you ask me for something, I'll take about a [expletive] year to get around to it.' "
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB