Host fired from CSN Northwest shakes up local media landscape
“The sports Trump.” That’s how Isaac Ropp affectionately refers to Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey. It would make sense as Ropp, an analyst on Comcast Sports Network Northwest’s Blazers post game show Talkin’ Ball, heard Trump’s signature line — “you’re fired” — early last week from the T.V. station. A move which he claims came from Olshey himself.
However, in an email exchange with Molly Blue of the Oregonian, CSN Northwest vice president and general manager Larry Eldridge challenged that claim. ”It was totally, 100 (percent) my decision to remove Isaac from Talkin’ Ball,” Eldridge wrote. “The team/(Neil) Olshey did not participate at all in that decision.”
Ropp claims he was fired for being too critical of the team on his personal Twitter account, as well as during his T.V. segments on Talkin’ Ball. So then, how critical can you be of the Trail Blazers?
Andy Johnson, known as “Dirt” on 1080 The Fan’s Dirt and Sprague, a local Portland radio show, thinks the Blazers’ record this season makes it harder to report on the team. “It sucks to cover a bad team. It’s much more enjoyable to cover a winning team,” “Dirt” said.
The Trail Blazers this year are a major step down from the team that made it to the Western Conference Semifinals just last season. As of writing this story, their record this year sits at 23–33, putting them 10th in the Western Conference.
Dirt and Sprague’s co-host Brandon Sprague thinks just the opposite. “I prefer when they suck… more people like to talk about them when they suck,” Sprague said. “I think people enjoy a negative spin.”
“Dirt” believes that the criticism from the media isn’t just to get ratings. “We’re (Dirt and Sprague) both from Portland, and I think we speak as fans of the team,” Dirt said. “We just voice the frustrations that many fans have.”
But Dirt and Sprague are on a radio station that doesn’t host the Blazers games, which gives them and the other hosts on 1080 much more freedom to say their mind about the team.
This isn’t the case for Travis Demers, who is the host of the Rip City Drive on 620 A.M. Portland, the station that carries the radio broadcasts of Trail Blazers’ games. He says that due to the recent firing of Ropp from CSN, the city has been on high media alert.
Demers: “Lately, fans assume I can’t be critical of the team. I don’t base my content on the Blazers reaction. I’ve been critical at times. I don’t want to kill anyone too much.”
He understands the Blazers don’t want people to hurt the team’s image.
“If I have a product, I don’t want someone saying things that damages my product,” Demers said.
Demers hosted Blazers Pulse on CSN Northwest during the 2013–14 season. He was unable to return for the next season due to scheduling conflicts.
“I always liked working for them, I never had any problems,” he said.
Ropp’s claims of Blazers’ GM Olshey reaching out to Comcast to fire him is not totally outlandish, as similar situations have happened in other markets.
Chris Bianchi was a beat reporter for the Colorado Rapids in 2014 when he tweeted that the management deserved blame for the team’s poor run of play. His tweet lead to an email exchange with the president of the Rapids, which later lead to a phone call from his editor saying he was fired.
Tim Gleason, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, specializes in legal protections for journalists.
“Would Comcast pay some attention to the GM of the Blazers? Absolutely,” Gleason said. “A GM is going to use his power to try and create positive press for his team.”
General Mangers may try to punish reporters who are too negative, Gleason said. “You probably won’t get the same access to a team if you are critical,” he said.
But Demers, “Dirt”, and Sprague don’t expect their criticism of the team to affect job security.
“Personally, no,” Demers said.
“As long as the criticism is fair. If you lose eight of your next nine, I’ll tell you how much you suck,” Sprague said.
“No doubt in my mind,” said “Dirt.” “That’s why 1080 has been the sports leader in Portland the past 25 years, because we can all speak our minds here.”
“Dirt” may be exaggerating, but 1080 The Fan has had the best ratings in Portland sports talk radio for over a decade. Most of its success can be attributed to Ropp and his partner Jason Scukanec, who have dominated the Portland market for the past 11 years, when the radio show Primetime first debuted on 1080 The Fan.
And while Ropp has been removed from CSN’s Talkin’ Ball, he still is the host of Primetime, where he can be critical of the Blazers as much as he wants.
The only question now is, who will last longer, Olshey, or the hosts who criticize him?
