Source Tells CNN If MLB Didn’t Move All-Star Game, Media Would Have Hounded Players

An “informed source” admitted to CNN that the MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, Georgia, came in part because media outlets would have hounded players about their thoughts on boycotting the state following a sustained media campaign of misinformation about Georgia’s new voting law.

In a Twitter thread, CNN anchor Jake Tapper relayed what the anonymous source told CNN regarding the political considerations behind the MLB’s decision. This source told CNN there would have been consequences if they hadn’t pulled the All-Star Game, so they acted proactively. Among those consequences were the fact that a biased media would have repeatedly asked professional baseball players about their own stance on the law and urged them to boycott the state, though the source didn’t say that explicitly.

“MLB officials made the decision because if they didn’t then the decision would be left to individual players, individual All-Stars, some of whom no doubt would have individually boycotted the game themselves,” Tapper tweeted. “In short: There was no way to avoid this becoming political.”

Tapper followed up that tweet with one about how the media would have treated All-Star players for the next several months.

“If MLB hadn’t acted, individual players would certainly have been asked from now until July whether they were boycotting or not. It would have — arguably — become a bigger issue,” Tapper wrote.

3/ If MLB hadn’t acted, individual players would certainly have been asked from now until July whether they were boycotting or not.

It would have — arguably — become a bigger issue.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 7, 2021

This is the giveaway. The MLB appears to have feared an activist media – not fans or residents of Atlanta.

The source explained to CNN that the MLB made its decision in part to protect players from this coordinated media attack.

“So @MLB did what they thought was taking one for the team, as it were, trying to protect the individual players and to operate as a cohesive whole, the source tells CNN,” Tapper wrote. “Whatever you think of the decision, that was part of the calculation.”

4/ So @MLB did what they thought was taking one for the team, as it were, trying to protect the individual players and to operate as a cohesive whole, the source tells CNN.

Whatever you think of the decision, that was part of the calculation.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 7, 2021

As evidence to support these claims, Tapper linked to a CNN interview with former MLB All-Star outfielder Curtis Granderson, the current president of the Player’s Alliance, as well as a statement from the Player’s Alliance supporting the decision after it was made. The Player’s Alliance made no suggestion of an issue prior to MLB’s decision.

Further, as GOP consultant Dan Foster pointed out, the activist focus on the MLB was because of its prominence, when there are many other companies that will continue to operate in Georgia without being criticized.

“Part of what makes this so alienating is the randomness of it. Think of how many corps—including CNN!—will go on doing business in Georgia unmolested because they weren’t the first two or three that popped into the activists’ heads. They get to go about their lives, this time!” Foster wrote. “Who’s going to ask every CNN employee, every day, how their company can in good conscience keep their headquarters in Atlanta? Nobody is, because most of us are not sociopaths.”

Who’s going to ask every CNN employee, every day, how their company can in good conscience keep their headquarters in Atlanta?

Nobody is, because most of us are not sociopaths.

— That Guy (@DanFosterType) April 7, 2021

Beyond the decision, the media’s portrayal of the new Georgia voting law has been completely false. As The Daily Wire has previously reported numerous claims from the media about the law were false, including the refuted claims from President Joe Biden and others that it banned people waiting in line to vote from receiving water.

The Washington Post’s fact-checker spoke to experts who said “the net effect was to expand the opportunities to vote for most Georgians, not limit them.” In that same fact-check, the Post noted that claims about the Georgia law restricting voting hours was also false.

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