Wynaldagate: the fallout
Andrea Canales wrote an interesting piece that describes how Christian Franek got the infamous inebriated interview with Eric Wynalda.
This thing really has the makings of a great scandal: bogus press credentials, an on-the-record/off-the-record debate, a pseudo-celebrity showdown between Waldo and Jim Rome, Wynalda furious with the higher-ups of a famous, unnamed magazine, and a lot of liquor.
Where is Bob Woodward when you need him?
Update: Canales was mum on the name of the magazine. A perusal of the FulhamUSA site reveals that Franek identified himself as being with 90:00.
14 comments
This could result in a distancing of those associated with MLS and the fans. Which would be a huge bummer.
Yeah you knew it would come back and bite him. But I’m floored he apologized on the air to Rome. I mean pay the fine, whatever – but making him suck up to Rome? That’s just cruel and unusual.
You just knew there had to be something about how that interview stayed on the record, but I wouldn’t jump on Franek without knowing the whole story. Hell, I thought most of what Wynalda said was dead on. Maybe he thought the interview was over – maybe not. If the questions keep coming – like a commentor said
I don’t think this distances MLS from the fans anymore than it already is. He spoke the truth and the truth hurt. Too bad he’s the one made to pay for it.
Yea, listening to the clip from Rome’s show when Waldo apologizes was one of the most painful things I’ve had to experience in a long time. And I’ve never even watched or heard Rome’s show so I’ve never heard his disparaging remarks about soccer, although I can easily imagine what they’ve entailed.
Ken,
He’s an obnoxious jerk and mocks the sport like it’s not even worthy of the term sport. Every soccer fan who has heard Rome cheered what Wynalda said
Like I said, I can imagine.
Every soccer fan who has heard Rome cheered what Wynalda said
I cheered too…
If you are interested in a real American soccer fan’s honest and truthful follow-up to this interview, based on facts, please visit http://www.beerswith.com.
DCF -
I have to say I think Wynalda’s been the man for quite some time. Thanks for the link though, and getting out another side of that interview.
DCF,
One comment was enough, don’t you think?
Josh,
You had two different blog posts on the same issue. What is the problem with posting twice?
You had two different blog posts on the same issue. What is the problem with posting twice?
For one thing, my two posts covered two different aspects of the story. His two identical comments were part of a copy/paste job that he posted on every blog he could find that referenced “Christian Franek.”
Feel free to do the google blogsearch yourself; it took me about 3 seconds to find the first.
I’m sure there are more but the exact same comment appears at least on another site and twice on this one. If that isn’t comment spam, I don’t know what is.
“If that isn’t comment spam, I don’t know what is.”
True, it is comment spam. But if a fellow “journalist” was being attacked for not honoring the journalistic code and their good name was being ripped apart on blogs across the net, I think you would try and post on as many sites as possible in an effort to get another side of the story out there.
That said, DCF could be glory hunting to try and get him some extra press out of the Wynaldgate mess, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt in this case.
Devil’s Advocate signing off,
Mark
Mark is right with his first comment. No glory hunting. Just trying to mitigate any damage created by articles trashing two regular guys who happened to get what I think was a great interview.
I think John’s article gives a very open and honest, first hand summation of what happened. Not a bunch of guessing and assuming like some others, as it appears Andrea and Luis will not let the truth (and some censoring of posts) get in the way of what they think is a good story.
Well, thier’s are not a good stories, nor honest, nor do they show any of the journalistic integrity that they espouse.
DCF: For what it’s worth, I appreciate that you came back to offer more substance. I appreciate your good description.
And—again, for what it’s worth—I haven’t really taken a side in the matter. In a lot of ways, I agree almost completely with what Wynalda said and I’m quite jealous that you guys scooped it. I linked to the Canales story simply to give the other side.
Anyway…no hard feelings, eh?
No hard feelings, Josh.
My spelling and grammar in the last sentence of my previous post were just indefensible, however.
I aspire to do better, in all things, moving forward.
On a side note, I think Tommy Smyth with Wynalda just might be a good partnership if tonight was any indication. (Although I did only get to see the last 15 minutes.)