MLB.com Eats Itself

The inherent conflict of interest at MLB.com is consistently amusing. Those who work for MLB.com are:

1. Paid by MLB. 2. Go to offices in buildings owned by either MLB or individual teams. 3. Answer to bosses who answer to bosses who ultimately answer to Bud Selig.

Yet, MLB.com still maintains the illusion that the "journalists" who cover the teams are dispassionate and unbiased; real beat reporters, rather than, say, PR hacks. The main way they try to convince us: The tagline on every story, which reads, "This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs." This has always been a rubber-stamp template that's meaningless. Now we have proof.

MLB's site today runs a letter from commissioner Bud Selig addressed directly to fans. It's the usual prattle; we want to clean up the game, we care about you, please keep stuffing the dollars in the G-strings, don't you have anything larger than a five, so on. But sure enough, at the end of the story, there it is: "This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs."

This is a letter directly from the commissioner. Heavens, if he didn't approve it, who did? God? (David Stern?)

Selig Outlines Testing Goals [MLB.com]