Jim Rome Slanders Sandy Alderson And The Mets

by Darren Meenan January 21, 2021 0 Comments

So I'm in my car yesterday and have WFAN on as I usually do throughout the day. Carton & Roberts were in a commercial break, and being the intent listener I am, I was still locked in. Before coming back the station ran a CBS Sports Minute with Jim Rome.

After the Jared Porter news hit I was closely following the situation, as I'm sure most of you were as well. I watched the Sandy presser with the media on Tuesday, and I knew for sure Sandy said the Mets wouldn't have hired Jared had they known about this conduct. He first said "I don't think we would have" then instantly corrected himself and said "in fact I know we wouldn't have".

This is not the same old Mets.

Jim Rome decided to run with the first sentence, completely leaving out Sandy's correction. Keep in mind this didn't just run on WFAN. The CBS Sports Minute hits run on hundreds of their affiliate stations.

Luckily my cars radio has the rewind option, so I was able to go back and record it:

Luckily my car has the rewind option. Don’t spread lies, @jimrome. Trashing Sandy and the Mets here for absolutely no reason. Be better. pic.twitter.com/zmX7gYMf13
— The 7 Line (@The7Line) January 20, 2021

The Mets YouTube uploaded the presser, here is what Sandy actually said:

If you’re too lazy, here ya go @jimrome. A retraction and apology to Sandy and the Mets is in order. He finished his sentance and instantly corrected himself. Don’t spin and twist for your own agenda. pic.twitter.com/vPBALpctnq
— The 7 Line (@The7Line) January 20, 2021

Sports radio personalities are paid for their opinions based on facts, and right here is a classic case of just flat out getting it wrong. There's no way around it, Jim Rome chose to take a short piece of Sandy's response and run with it.

Lucky for a lot of us, we instantly knew Jim Rome was wrong. What about all those sports fans not on social media? Or those that had missed Sandy's presser? They're now taking this Mets slander as fact.

That's not only wrong on so many professional levels, but a defamation of Sandy's character. If the Mets actually did something wrong here, bash away, but they were put in an extremely sensitive, and serious situation and dealt with it as quick as they could.

If you didn't see it, Sandy put out a statement almost instantly:

The Mets have released the following statement from team president Sandy Alderson, regarding an ESPN story that GM Jared Porter sent explicit text messages to a female reporter in 2016: pic.twitter.com/WmQNer4O2i
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) January 19, 2021

And by the morning, Steve sealed the deal:

We have terminated Jared Porter this morning . In my initial press conference I spoke about the importance of integrity and I meant it.There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior.
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) January 19, 2021

This morning Al Dukes saw on Twitter that I clearly wasn't going to let this one go, and asked if I wanted to come on the show. The guys agreed with my passion and anger on the topic, and even Mark Chernoff got involved. He wasn't as understanding.

Check that out here:

Thanks for having @DarrenJMeenan on, @WFANmornings. Still waiting for some kind of retraction, @jimrome. Just unacceptable. We got your back, @MetsGM!
https://t.co/BR8EdR1gVB
— The 7 Line (@The7Line) January 21, 2021

If you're going to bash the Mets, at least do it based on facts.The Porter situation was a total blind side and at no fault of the Mets. Jim Rome could have filled his CBS Sports Minute praising the Mets. Instead he completely butchered the truth, and dragged Sandy Alderson through the mud for no good reason.

Jim has since addressed the situation on his show today:

UPDATE: @jimrome has apologized. Couldn't fit the whole thing in, but he ended with "I want to own that, and I want to be accountable to that, and I want to be responsible for that. So for the record that was unnecessarily harsh and unfair on my part". pic.twitter.com/XIRxkRM1Rt
— The 7 Line (@The7Line) January 21, 2021

CBS is a giant and their talent have the responsibility to put out facts and drop in their opinions. Sure everyone gets things wrong from time to time, but with this situation being as serious as it is, there was really no room for error.

Hopefully this is a learning experience for Jim, his team, and the entire network. Just do your damn homework.

Happy to have helped shed some light on this. I got your back, Sandy.