Jonathan Dienst on WNBC's Inaccurate Steroid List
On Thursday morning, ESPN broke the news that Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte would be among the players named in George Mitchell's forthcoming report on steroid use in major league baseball.
Shortly thereafter, a link on the Drudge Report -- "complete steroid list" -- directed browsers to the Web site of WNBC, the New-York-based flagship station of the NBC network. There, justice reporter Jonathan Dienst had posted a roster of player names, "expected" to be included later in the afternoon in the official Mitchell Report, which included stars like Albert Pujols, Nomar Garciaparra, Johnny Damon, and Jason Varitek.
But soon after posting that list, Mr. Dienst received a phone call from an official at Major League Baseball questioning the accuracy of his reporting. WNBC soon took down the list and posted a note, saying that it had received a phone call from an official at Major League Baseball questioning the accuracy of its reporting. The note added that "original sources are standing by the preliminary list provided to WNBC.com" and that they were "working to clarify" the list.
Today, The Smoking Gun called into question those WNBC "sources," writing:
"The WNBC exclusive…was posted seven minutes after an identical list of names was published by the sports blog Deadspin, which reported that it had been forwarded the names by 'about 25 different people during the preceding hour'. The list, which was whipping around via e-mail, 'could very likely be one of those Web urban legends that somehow got around,' Deadspin cautioned. WNBC, though, showed no such reserve."
And of course, the WNBC.com list -- which is no longer online, but which The Smoking Gun has preserved an image of -- contains many names that are nowhere to be found in the Mitchell Report. In addition to the stars mentioned earlier, there were also Ivan Rodriguez, Jeff Bagwell, Milton Bradley, Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Trot Nixon, Mike Cameron, Brady Anderson, Albert Belle, Kyle Farnsworth, and Wally Joyner, none of whose names ended up in the report.
A chain email that sounded like the one referred to on Deadspin had whipped into Media Mob's inbox yesterday morning, a fact which also made us curious about WNBC.com's sourcing. Reached by phone yesterday evening, Mr. Dienst of WNBC told Media Mob that he had not received the list as part of a chain email, but rather that he had got it from two "separate and distinct" sources. One, he said, was "in very well with Mitchell's people," while the other was "in very well with baseball people."
"They came to us with the same names in the same orders," said Mr. Dienst. "They had different typings. One had first names first. The other was reversed. But the lists matched exactly."
Mr. Dienst said that after yanking his inaccurate list from the WNBC.com web site, he hit the phones trying to figure out what had gone wrong.
"I spoke to a fourth person after I got the complaint from Major League Baseball," said Mr. Dienst. "His explanation was that the people who shared the stuff with me, had an earlier version that had probably been [subsequently] changed and edited because they had been working on the report up until the final minute."
Mr. Dienst said he regretted the error. "We want to be right," he said. "We like to be right and first. But we want to be right before we're first."
This guy is CLEARLY full of baloney. This bogus list that matches EXACTLY the one that was posted on Deadspin appears on the NBC web site seven minutes later, and he expects people to believe he got this from "sources." I've seen this Dienst guy on NBC a bunch of times, and I've never trusted him or these mysterious "sources" he's always referring to. This just proves to me what I've always believed: that he rips stuff from the wires and the web and pawns it off as his own. That measly retraction NBC posted is not enough. The players whose names were smeared should sue NBC for defamation of character, and Dienst should be forced to explain himself and take some real heat.
The list from the Mitchell Report is full of players who are either retired or in the twilight of their careers. On the other hand, the list issued by WNBC has many names of today's stars: Pujols, A-Rod, I-Rod, Wood, Prior, Damon, etc.
Can anyone imagine what it would be like if today's biggest stars, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols were to be found guilty of using steroids? Baseball would become a joke. Fans would stop attending stadiums, stop buying merchandise, tv ratings would drop - MLB would lose millions of dollars.
It's no secret MLB keeps their star's suspensions in the dark. When Roger Clemens was supposedly "deciding" whether or not to retire, he was really serving a 50 game suspension for using steroids. This is why he only played 1/3 of a season for the Houston Astros.
Sammy Sosa, a couple seasons ago took a year off from playing because he "didn't reach a contract agreement with any team." He said he would not play that season, but was not retired. How many baseball players take a year off and then come back to play? Are you telling me that Sammy Sosa couldn't sign a 1-year deal with either, the Rockies, Pirates, Brewers or Royals? We now why he couldnt, because he was serving a steroid suspension.
In conclusion, the Mitchell Report is only out to make it seem like MLB is doing something to solve the steroid problem, when in reality, MLB will continue to ignore the problem. The list was full of names of retired players and ones of players in the end of their careers. The list from WNBC had names of today's stars and if they were to surface, it would be the end of baseball.
Johnny Damon, I don't buy your anger. You can go cut your hair, shave your beard and cash your check from Steinbrenner after shooting up a juicy dose of steroids.
I've known Jonathan Dienst personally for many, many years - so perhaps my bias should be considered. Jon has as much integrity as anyone I have ever known. He is always incredibly careful before he releases any information/does a story. His impeccable reputation within the inverstigative news business speaks for itself. I know his public apologies do not come close to portraying how sorry he is that this happened.
Dienst was out to beat everyone else.. and that got in the way of being accurate.. something EVERY REPORTER must consider before "breaking" a big story.. he has suffered from this.