Joel Glazer, the co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, has released a statement blasting WDAE radio host Dan Sileo today for his wild speculation that "massive losses" due to investments with disgraced fraudster Bernie Madoff are forcing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to run their team on a lean budget.
Glazer called the report, "s baseless, irresponsible and slanderous. This type of behavior by Mr. Sileo and his company Clear Channel will be dealt with in the appropriate manner.”
Maybe Glazer could include the St. Petersburg Times and Channel 10 as well?
A short while ago, CL contacted WDAE's Program Director Mike Killabrew to try to reach Sileo. Killabrew replied that he has told Sileo "not to comment further on the matter."
Normally a random comment by a talk show with little substantiation could be written off as interesting gossip.
Too bad some parts of the Tampa mainstream media didn't follow that logic.
According to WTSP Channel 10's website from around noon today:
Sileo says it's largely a result of the family's $450 million indirect loss to Madoff schemes, a claim he backs with information from Wall Street insiders.
Not only did Channel 10 lead with this story on their noon newscast today, but the St. Pete Times was giving the story prominent coverage on their home page of their web site as well.
Later Times adjusted their story from an earlier posting, leading with a spokesman denying the allegation. Now they are leading with Glazer's comments.
Some of the comments on the Times blog before Glazer's statement were withering, denouncing the paper for running with a story with little credibility so prominently on their site, and it did make me almost question if the Times knew something that was not being reported in the post. Because to run with a comment made by a sports talk show host according to "Wall Street insiders" seemed far too unsubstantiated for Paul Tash's crew. I guess not.
As to what Channel 10 was doing leading off their newscast with this story, it would be good to get an answer as well.
