You hear this on sports talk shows and on social media after games. Fans wondering why reporters, both print and broadcast media, don’t ask the manager or coach tough questions about the contest. The answer is quite simple. Covering sports in today’s age has changed greatly.

First, the man in charge generally isn’t going to call out a player in the media, so asking about a player making a key mistake or not putting out the best effort is fruitless. The question will be asked, so the reporter doesn’t lose his credibility, but he knows the inquiry will not be answered. The only time the manager or coach will do it is if the player is on his way out of town.

And we have seen cantankerous relationships between teams and reporters who persist in asking questions the organizations do not want to address. Quite frankly, those reporters are trying to do their job, but on the other hand, they can’t without the cooperation of the team they cover.

It’s a chicken or the egg problem.

From a national standpoint, each of the major professional sports leagues have their own network, so listen closely to hear anything negative about any team or any sport.

NBA TV is mostly a pure lovefest. They focus on the individual great plays and not really on teams until the playoffs. We feel this is a reaction to the younger fans of basketball, who are fans of individual players more than teams.

The MLB Network has followed this formula as well. They will show a player belting a 450-foot home run, ignoring that his team lost, and he struck out in his other three at bats.

Both networks cater to the bigger markets. We tuned in to NBA TV after the Cavaliers knocked off Boston on the road, only to listen to the panel discuss the winless Lakers for 15 minutes. As for baseball, their network barely mentioned the Guardians all year until they made the post-season.

Locally, both the Guardians and Cavaliers have their own broadcasts of most games, and the announcers and pregame hosts are partners with the teams. This isn’t necessarily totally a bad thing, because you do get a lot of insight fans would not have received in the old days.

Both Andre Knott for the Guardians and Serena Winters for the Cavs seem to have developed great relationships with the players and therefore, viewers have seen the personality of the players, which helps fans of the team relate.

Just don’t expect them to ask “hard hitting” questions. That’s not their jobs.

There are also “influencers” on social media to talk up the teams and present favorable points of view on both the players and entire organization. Just another way for them to get their message out there. For example, we saw a number of comments from the Cavs’ group during training camp talking about how good Isaac Okoro is, and getting excited about Mamadi Diakite.

There is nothing wrong with this, however, folks listening, or reading should be aware of where the content is coming from.

It’s really nothing new. In the old days when newspapers were in their heyday, it has been said several star players had reporters as “mouthpieces”. Ford Frick, who eventually became the Commissioner of Baseball, was said to have served that function for Babe Ruth in the 1920’s.

Of course, Frick was the man who put the asterisk on Roger Maris’ 61 homers in 1961 because the season had expanded to 162 games. But we are sure there wasn’t a conflict of interest there.

It’s just a different day and age these days. Each sport and each team try to control the message. That’s nothing new. However, credibility should be questioned by the person consuming the message.

That’s a whole different problem in society. Thinking for yourself.