Washington Post Expose on Mehta - The Juicy Details

[IndianaJet]

I know there is a few Mehta threads out there, but since this has lots of good details, I thought it needed it's own thread.

I'm probably not supposed to post something behind a paywall....but this is too good....sometimes you have to break the rules.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/12/11/manish-mehta-jets-daily-news/

 

Quote

 

A divisive Jets reporter, accused of bullying, loses his place on the beat

Ben Strauss

Dec. 11, 2020 at 11:03 a.m. EST

 

Last summer, Charles McDonald, an NFL writer for the New York Daily News, got a call from the paper’s sports editor. The paper needed him to fill in on the Jets beat while the Daily News sorted out a credentialing issue for its longtime Jets beat writer, Manish Mehta.

The request, McDonald said, came with one explicit instruction: Do whatever Mehta asked.

Mehta had spent a decade breaking stories and writing firebrand columns for the Daily News. That he wouldn’t have access to the team was strange, McDonald thought, but he did as instructed.

He relayed observations from practice, he said, only to see them published under Mehta’s byline. Mehta demanded that McDonald hold his phone up to Zoom news conferences and tweeted quotes in real time. And he wanted McDonald, 26, to ask ridiculous questions over Zoom, such as whether the Jets had not signed a player because Mehta reported they were considering it.

After a team public relations staffer complained, McDonald said, he stopped holding his phone up to Zooms. When McDonald didn’t attend a news conference with the Jets’ owner and Mehta began calling and texting about his whereabouts, McDonald blocked Mehta’s number, he said.

McDonald finally got fed up and quit the Daily News last month. On his way out, he tweeted that Mehta’s credential had been revoked, sending their saga spilling into public. It looked, for a moment, like a window into an only-in-New York tug of war over access between a cutting tabloid and struggling team.

But McDonald, who has since taken a new job covering the NFL for USA Today, also spoke to human resources, he said. And his viral tweets pushed former Daily News employees and former Jets beat writers to reach out to higher-ups at the paper, touching off a wider inquiry into Mehta’s treatment of colleagues and competitors on the beat, according to a person familiar with the probe.

On Thursday, the Daily News announced that Mehta had been removed from the beat. Tribune Publishing Company, which owns the Daily News, told The Washington Post that Mehta is no longer an employee of the Daily News. Daily News sports editor Kyle Wagner and editor-in-chief Robert York declined to comment. The Jets did, too.

Mehta said in a statement that he’s "behaved professionally and ethically throughout my career. I’ve respected my peers and colleagues, though I’ve had disagreements with some of them in the past, as is common in a competitive environment. I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”

Presented with specific complaints about his behavior and coverage, he denied or dismissed all of them, including McDonald’s claim that he used his reporting or mistreated him.

Mehta’s departure, and the circumstances surrounding it, raise questions about where the line is between sharp-elbowed reporter and locker-room bully, and about who should police the behavior of a reporter who breaks big stories but pushes boundaries and the people he interacts with to their limits.

 

“It wasn’t a normal work situation,” McDonald said. “I mean, it was insane.”

Scoops and slams

Mehta arrived at the Daily News in 2010 from the Newark Star-Ledger. In New York’s competitive media market, tabloids such as the New York Post and Daily News go toe to toe for the juiciest scoops, and Mehta made an impact.

He wrote a splashy back-page cover story in January 2012 about anonymous Jets teammates criticizing quarterback Mark Sanchez’s work ethic. That fall, Mehta delivered a bombshell with anonymous Jets players ripping quarterback Tim Tebow.

 

“There was a fear in the organization that he would get stuff they didn’t want out,” said a national NFL writer. "If you look at a lot of the big Jets stories over the last decade, he broke a lot of them.”

According to colleagues from that time, Mehta was a perfect fit for new editor Colin Myler, a Brit who previously worked for News Corp. and had distinctly tabloid sensibilities.

“Manish became the fair-haired boy,” said a person who worked there. “He could do no wrong.”

Even some Jets employees viewed Mehta with begrudging admiration. "He was aggressive,” Rex Ryan, who coached the Jets from 2009 to 2014, said in an interview. “I thought this dude wanted to win. By God, he wanted to get the story.”

 

But there were rumblings about his reporting methods. Jets offensive lineman Matt Slauson was quoted by name in the Tebow story, but Slauson told The Washington Post this week that his interview with Mehta happened months before the story came out, and that he was complimenting Tebow’s athleticism when he spoke to Mehta. Slauson believed Mehta used his quotes selectively to portray Tebow as a quarterback who was nothing but an athlete.

“It was sloppy reporting and I had to pay for it and get up in front of the team to explain it,” Slauson said. Mehta said he talked to Slauson a few weeks before the story ran and quoted Slauson accurately.

Other players complained to the Jets, too, convinced Mehta would be critical of them if they didn’t cooperate with him. In 2016, kicker Nick Folk told the Jets that Mehta threatened Folk’s wife with bad coverage of him if she didn’t apologize for criticizing Mehta on Twitter, according to people familiar with the incident. Julianne Folk declined to comment; Mehta said he never threatened bad coverage.

 

The Jets complained to the Daily News after the Folk incident. In an interview, Eric Barrow, then the Daily News sports editor, said he spoke to Mehta but did not discipline him. Before training camp last year, the Jets expressed interest in limiting Mehta’s access by restricting him from conducting one-on-one interviews. But after conversations involving the Daily News, the Jets, the Pro Football Writers of America and the NFL, the team backed off, said Bob Glauber, a Newsday columnist and the president of the PFWA.

Mehta’s relationship with the team deteriorated. He accused Coach Adam Gase of operating a burner account to defend himself on Twitter, only to have internet sleuths argue that Mehta himself could be behind it.

After the season, the Jets turned to a law firm, Foley & Lardner LLP, for help. The firm compiled a dossier, according to two people who have seen it, that called out reporting the Jets said crossed the line from aggressive to inappropriate, including allegations that Mehta approached the 11-year-old son of Jets General Manager Joe Douglas at a baseball game and, later, threatened Douglas with bad coverage if he didn’t grant an interview.

 

The Jets delivered the dossier to the paper over the summer. NFL policy says teams can’t bar accredited media’s access “for what is perceived as ‘unfair coverage’ or any similar reason.” But the Jets said it was about his behavior, not his negative stories. After talking to Mehta and Jets officials, the PFWA, which advocates for reporters’ access, did not fight the Jets’ decision.

The paper did. In a written response, it defended Mehta’s reporting, according to a person who read it. His encounter with Douglas’s son was innocuous, the paper said, and in pushing for an interview he had simply put forth a recognizable journalism proposition: talk to me or I’ll have to write what I have.

Mehta defended his reporting tactics, too. His stories did what many big-city columnists’ stories have done over the decades, grinding axes and nursing grudges. And the Jets, some at the paper believed, were trying to muzzle critical coverage.

 

“If he were not writing negative things," one Jets reporter said, "I find it hard to believe the Jets would have gone after his credential.”

Digging into Mehta

The paper and team were still battling over Mehta’s access when McDonald started tweeting, transforming a fight about coverage into a referendum on Mehta’s treatment of his fellow reporters.

Daily News editors would not discuss their investigation. But in interviews, current and former Jets reporters described incidents involving Manish that were reported to higher-ups.

In 2011, Jenny Vrentas, then the Jets reporter for the Star-Ledger, was conducting a one-on-one interview. In a locker room on a crowded beat, one-on-one’s are sacred for journalists, arranged with the team ahead of time or directly with players. As she saw Mehta lurking nearby, she asked Mehta not to encroach.

Afterward, in a hallway outside the media room, Mehta screamed at her, according to multiple people who were there, cursing repeatedly: “F--- you! F--- you! F--- you!” The tirade lasted several minutes, these people said, and two other writers had to calm Mehta down.

“While this incident happened nearly 10 years ago, it’s still a clear, and unpleasant, memory,” Vrentas wrote in an email. Her editor raised the issue with the Daily News that offseason, she confirmed, but it’s unclear whether the paper took action. The Daily News sports editor from that time, Teri Thompson, declined to comment. Mehta denied interfering with or cursing at Vrentas.

Kimberley Martin, who was Newsday’s Jets beat writer from 2012 to 2017, said Mehta constantly sent her abrasive messages, often questioning her reporting or demanding credit for obviously available information. She also reported Mehta’s conduct to her Newsday editor.

Mehta defended asking for credit on stories. But the messages stuck with Martin.

“Early on, I was uncomfortable around him,” she told The Post in a text message. “And I brought it to the attention of my sports editor, who in turn brought it to the attention of The Daily News. Where it went from there, who knows? Clearly nowhere.”

She added, “A lot of people enabled this guy. And a lot of people shrugged off questionable behavior.”

Even inside the Daily News, some staffers thought Mehta should have been disciplined in 2014, after he berated a young colleague at the Jets’ facility for writing a story Mehta had planned to write, according to people familiar with the incident. The reporter, Seth Walder, declined to comment; Mehta called the encounter an isolated incident.

The paper could not afford to risk losing Mehta, the former staffers said. The Daily News was sold in 2017 for just $1 and endured massive layoffs the next year. Mehta’s big columns could generate nearly 100,000 page views, far more interest than most anything else the sports staff did.

“It was crucial for us,” one former sports staffer said.

But McDonald’s tweets triggered an outpouring of concern from current and former staffers that the Daily News couldn’t ignore.

Mehta’s last byline in the Daily News was Nov. 29. On Sunday, the Jets fell to 0-13, after allowing a long touchdown pass in the game’s waning seconds. On Monday, they fired their defensive coordinator. On Tuesday, the Daily News ran a big Jets spread under the byline “Daily News Sports Desk.” On Thursday, Mehta was gone.

 

 

 

 

[mrcoops]

Lots of stuff we knew, lots of detail that we didn't.

Basically, confirmation that Mehta is a scumbag and that the NYDN knew it but ignored it for years.

[IndianaJet]

It looks like he choose to pick on the women beat writes too.

Sounds about right for him....******* scum bag

[jgb]

I enjoyed Mehta's articles. I'll miss those. But it does seem like he crossed a lot of journalistic ethical lines and had to go.

[jgb]

5 minutes ago, mrcoops said:

Lots of stuff we knew, lots of detail that we didn't.

Basically, confirmation that Mehta is a scumbag and that the NYDN knew it but ignored it for years.

[Warfish]

Good.

[KRL]

Thanks for the full story.  The Daily News, Washington Post and Mehta are
all trash and deal in propaganda.  This nonsense couldn't happen to more
"worthy" people

[Warfish]

1 minute ago, KRL said:

The Washington Post are trash and deal in propaganda. 

I wouldn't have taken you for one those folks.

[Integrity28]

So, his sh*t bag behavior was fine with his employers until it became inconvenient for them to be accountable for it. 

Typical.

[Integrity28]

16 minutes ago, jgb said:

I enjoyed Mehta's articles. I'll miss those. But it does seem like he crossed a lot of journalistic ethical lines and had to go.

Entirely replaceable. It was tabloid crap. No offense to your taste. 

[Matt39]

23 minutes ago, jgb said:

I enjoyed Mehta's articles. I'll miss those. But it does seem like he crossed a lot of journalistic ethical lines and had to go.

Pretty much. The media covering the media though is always a good laugh. This article was hardly necessary.

[jgb]

6 minutes ago, Integrity28 said:

Entirely replaceable. It was tabloid crap. No offense to your taste. 

Careful. He's the master of burner accounts. You never know who he might be!

[THE BARON]

Let's rejoice in saying goodbye to Manish and Adam Gace.   See ya, fellas... The air in hear already feels a lot better. 

[bitonti]

It's good that Manish is gone but I can't help but notice how the team has money for a white shoe law firm conducting an internal investigation but they can't find the money to pay for players. And I'm not talking Adams.




Sent from my Pixel 2 using JetNation.com mobile app

[jgb]

2 minutes ago, bitonti said:

It's good that Manish is gone but I can't help but notice how the team has money for a white shoe law firm conducting an internal investigation but they can't find the money to pay for players. And I'm not talking Adams.




Sent from my Pixel 2 using JetNation.com mobile app
 

We've been paying 2 GMs and 2 HCs for what, 10 years?

[Matt39]

5 minutes ago, bitonti said:

It's good that Manish is gone but I can't help but notice how the team has money for a white shoe law firm conducting an internal investigation but they can't find the money to pay for players. And I'm not talking Adams.




Sent from my Pixel 2 using JetNation.com mobile app
 

Mannish got fired for being a jerk and rightfully so. The Jets hired Adam Gase, but found enough coin for a 2k an hour firm to write up a dossier on Manish.

[Long Island Leprechaun]

39 minutes ago, KRL said:

Thanks for the full story.  The Daily News, Washington Post and Mehta are
all trash and deal in propaganda.  This nonsense couldn't happen to more
"worthy" people

Pray tell us who the "truth tellers" are. Last time you simply dismissed "the media." Now you seem to be peddling an agenda. 

[WhartonJet]

18 minutes ago, bitonti said:

It's good that Manish is gone but I can't help but notice how the team has money for a white shoe law firm conducting an internal investigation but they can't find the money to pay for players. And I'm not talking Adams.




Sent from my Pixel 2 using JetNation.com mobile app
 

This isn't fair IMO.  We have a state of the art training facility, we are 2 years removed from spending 100 million + in free agency, we are still paying Todd Bowles, etc.

Who did you want them to pay?  Leonard Williams?  We finally have an adult in the room in Joe D.  All of the 1 year contracts look great now - I am a firm believer that Joe D. got one look at Sam Darnold and knew he couldn't build a team around him.  If you look at the moves he's made with this lense, it should give us all great hope for the future because he will now have the QB of his choice plus 3 additional 1st round picks plus the most cap space in the league to build this team the right way.

[southtown24th]

guy is a giant piece of sh*t

these pieces of sh*t are EVERYWHERE.

anywhere a paycheck is being written, there is a piece of sh*t like Mehta.

[Greenseed4]

56 minutes ago, IndianaJet said:

On Sunday, the Jets fell to 0-13, after allowing a long touchdown pass in the game’s waning seconds. On Monday, they fired their defensive coordinator. On Tuesday, the Daily News ran a big Jets spread under the byline “Daily News Sports Desk.” On Thursday, Mehta was gone.

We fell to 0-13?
Your first big article, Ben, and you’re going to bust a rookie mistake like this?!

[jj71787]

17 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

Mannish got fired for being a jerk and rightfully so. The Jets hired Adam Gase, but found enough coin for a 2k an hour firm to write up a dossier on Manish.

He wasn't fired he was removed from the beet. Not sure why they won't get rid of this guy. Nothing but issues for a decade. 

[Sarge4Tide]

[bitonti]

Who did I want them to pay? Matt Rhule

That 100 million spend was to get them above the floor

The team hasn't spent to the salary cap since Rex and they have not handed out a second deal since mo Wilkerson

Todd Bowles by the way was getting paid peanuts by hc standards and the Jets get a refund from TB hiring him at DC

Put it another way they are paying this lawfirm an assistant coach salary to pursue a grudge

This isn't fair IMO.  We have a state of the art training facility, we are 2 years removed from spending 100 million + in free agency, we are still paying Todd Bowles, etc.
Who did you want them to pay?  Leonard Williams?  We finally have an adult in the room in Joe D.  All of the 1 year contracts look great now - I am a firm believer that Joe D. got one look at Sam Darnold and knew he couldn't build a team around him.  If you look at the moves he's made with this lense, it should give us all great hope for the future because he will now have the QB of his choice plus 3 additional 1st round picks plus the most cap space in the league to build this team the right way.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using JetNation.com mobile app

[jgb]

11 minutes ago, Long Island Leprechaun said:

Pray tell us who the "truth tellers" are. Last time you simply dismissed "the media." Now you seem to be peddling an agenda. 

Woody is extremely sensitive how the team is covered by the media. I am glad the media is rough on the team when they suck.

[mrcoops]

6 minutes ago, jj71787 said:

He wasn't fired he was removed from the beet. Not sure why they won't get rid of this guy. Nothing but issues for a decade. 

He's not an employee of the NYDN any more - not clear if he was fired, or chose to walk though.

[freestater]

22 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

Mannish got fired for being a jerk and rightfully so. The Jets hired Adam Gase, but found enough coin for a 2k an hour firm to write up a dossier on Manish.

This is what I read too. Wish football was as high a priority for the Jets as the drama of a sh*tty reporter. 

That said, Daily News shouldvhandled his abuse much earlier and in house. Hope the women he bullied get some level of satisfaction with his now public excoriation. 

[Mogglez]

8 minutes ago, jj71787 said:

He wasn't fired he was removed from the beet. Not sure why they won't get rid of this guy. Nothing but issues for a decade. 

It specifically says in the article that the NYDN confirmed that he is no longer an employee with them.  He wasn’t just removed from the beat, he’s on the unemployment line.

[Maxman]

59 minutes ago, mrcoops said:

Lots of stuff we knew, lots of detail that we didn't.

Basically, confirmation that Mehta is a scumbag and that the NYDN knew it but ignored it for years.

Well this confirms what was pretty much already known. He was abrasive. But this isn't really breaking anything new. 

Sounds like Seth Walder could have piled on, as the other beat reporters could have, but most of them are staying quiet.

So Manish is gone and life will go on. Good recap in this article but I felt like there was going to be more to this. 

[jgb]

4 minutes ago, mrcoops said:

He's not an employee of the NYDN any more - not clear if he was fired, or chose to walk though.

"Resigned" with a package and a mutual NDA. Hence all the "no comments" from the NYD.

[southtown24th]

still reading

this is a bombshell

this guy is a piece of human sh*t

make him the owner of the Jets! 

[Jetsbb]

Now we know why Mehta went scorch earth on Adam Gase. He went after him after they tried to limit his one on one interviews. Makes me think what Todd Bowles must have done for Mehta to be so glowing on him even when it became evident he had no clue on how to manage a game.

[More Cowbell]

Manish was a good read. I got a kick out of a lot of things he wrote. Yeah he was over the top and a jerk but most reporters have this good relationship here and a bad one there. 

[Scott Dierking]

45 minutes ago, Maxman said:

Well this confirms what was pretty much already known. He was abrasive. But this isn't really breaking anything new. 

Sounds like Seth Walder could have piled on, as the other beat reporters could have, but most of them are staying quiet.

So Manish is gone and life will go on. Good recap in this article but I felt like there was going to be more to this. 

Probably why the article was delayed. Some of it was probably hearsay and unsubstantiated innuendo that could not be proven. WaPo likely covering their asses, as they should.

Bottom line of this, the DN knew exactly what they had, how he was operating and just shrugged their shoulders. They are as culpable as Mehta is, and as nasty. Truth and objectivity be damned. 

For me, now every Mehta story is tainted and non-believable. Everything he touched has to be questioned.

[joewilly12]

Just now, Scott Dierking said:

Bottom line of this, the DN knew exactly what they had, how he was operating and just shrugged their shoulders.

The NY Daily-News is trash has been for years. 

[Jetster]

Crap sells, negativity sells, journalism is dead, the AP is totally biased BS, NYTs? garbage, anything written in Washington? garbage. 
This is what social media & competition for eyeballs has created.