Transcript
Post Presumes Piazza’s Proclivities, Peeves Penman
June 1, 2002
BOB GARFIELD: Sports stars often have to deal with trade rumors or, these days, steroid rumors. But two weeks ago Mets catcher Mike Piazza had to quash a rumor about his sexual preference. The gossip was becoming a distraction to the team, and Piazza put it to rest, or at least tried to, with the unequivocal statement "I am a heterosexual." But at the newspaper where the gossip began, The New York Post, the furor was just beginning. Columnist Neil Travis started the rumor by twisting a quote, an unsourced quote, to suggest a famous Met player was about to announce he was gay. When the Post sports columnist Wallace Matthews was asked by his editor for his take on the story, he wrote a column condemning Travis as a shoddy journalist. The Post delayed running this bit of self-criticism, and Wallace quit. The Post says he was fired for insubordination and for posting his column on the web without permission. His editors refused to join us on the show, but Wallace Matthews did not refuse. He joins us now. Wally, welcome to OTM.
WALLACE MATTHEWS: Pleasure to be here, Bob.
BOB GARFIELD: All right. The Post says you were fired. You said you quit. Which is it?
WALLACE MATTHEWS: [LAUGHS] I quit, and 8 hours later they fired me for the insubordination of having quit. I couldn't write my column without mentioning the Post's accountability and when they objected to that, we came to our, our loggerheads which ended with my employment ending there -- let's say by mutual agreement, but I'm telling you I quit at 10 in the morning. They fired me about 6 o'clock that night.
BOB GARFIELD:Okay, now hold on a second, Wally. Isn't it part of the package when you take your paycheck from the New York Post that there will be items in the paper that will infuriate you almost on a daily basis?
WALLACE MATTHEWS: Absolutely! And it does happen. However, this is one that directly affected something that I was writing, and the way that I've been able to justify this Bob, and I understand -you know - there are people out there that say well he took their money for 8 years. Yeah, I did! But for about the past 2 years, I've seen a perceptible shift in the tone of the paper, and the accountability of the paper, and I have been able to justify this by saying well as long as my stuff lives up to my own standards and I don't indulge in that kind of thing, you know, I think I can separate myself from the rest of it. However this particular story -- the two things crossed over completely. I mean when an editor asked me to write a column about Mike Piazza coming out and saying I'm not gay, I start pointing fingers. That's what I get paid to do. And the bone of contention between myself and my employer was that they didn't want Neil Travis or the Post criticized in print! I said this is one of the reasons why the Post has such horrible credibility -- because we make mistakes like this, and we don't correct 'em; we don't apologize. We just laugh about it and move on! And I'll tell you the truth -- I don't think my column works without mentioning Neil Travis's responsibility in all this.
BOB GARFIELD:Although in fairness to the Post, and in fairness to Col Allan, the editor, he was prepared to run this piece as it turns out the next day. I know you weren't aware of that when you quit, but--
WALLACE MATTHEWS: That was too late, and I'll explain to you why, Bob.
BOB GARFIELD: Okay.
WALLACE MATTHEWS: You know an editor has a certain duty to try to get his reporters' work into the paper the next day -- if it's been done under good faith and to professional standards which mine was, and if you've read the column, I think you know that. Now my request to Greg Gallo [sp?], my supervisor, and to Pat Hanigan [sp?], his deputy, was to take this column to Col Allan on Tuesday night and get either thumbs up or thumbs down from him and to put us on the phone together so I could explain my position and he could explain his. This was never done by either of those gentlemen for whatever their reasons, but I told Greg Gallo that if you don't do this and this column doesn't run tomorrow, I will not write for you any more. I cannot work with you if you will not go to bat for me on this. And when I picked up the paper Wednesday morning and I saw that he did not run the column on Wednesday morning my decision had already been made. You know I don't consider myself a hero, a victim or a martyr here; but at least admire me for being a man who when I say something, I stick to it.
BOB GARFIELD: Wally let's go back to the Post for a little bit.
WALLACE MATTHEWS: God, must we?
BOB GARFIELD:[LAUGHS] Let's just say that this issue had not come up. Were you incrementally being disillusioned by the journalism practices there to the point that you might have found yourself quitting absent this precipitating event?
WALLACE MATTHEWS: I don't think so Bob, because they had just extended me a 2 year contract which I had not signed only because some details had to be worked out; and in fact I had a talk with my boss about this, because he knew that I was uncomfortable with many of the things that were done in the paper, and he asked me, you know, do you still feel comfortable working here -- and I gave him the answer I just gave you: as long as I feel that my stuff is done to the best of my ability, I can overlook what happens in the front of the paper, but I cannot tell you that there weren't many days when I picked up the paper and I was embarrassed by it. Quite honestly, I mean we had had disputes about criticism of the paper in my columns previously, but in all of those the conflict was resolved and I agreed to take the offensive passages out. This was one instance in which I felt the column could not stand without it.
BOB GARFIELD: All right, well listen best of luck to you.
WALLACE MATTHEWS: Thank you very much.
BOB GARFIELD: Wallace Matthews is a former columnist for the New York Post. [MUSIC]