http://www.sportsmediaguide.com/01052007-HarveyAraton.asp

Q. The column implies that the media plays a role in the team's performance – how much truth in that?

A. Media, particularly in a place like New York - and Boston and Philadelphia as well – can create an atmosphere around the team that ultimately has an effect on the way players perform and also the way players and coaches relate to each based on things getting into the media. So yes, the media can – if the factors are there to begin with – exacerbate the situation. It all depends on how the team handles it. Some are more media savvy and handle it better.

We have a situation with the Knicks where the organization is run on paranoia basically – there's hardly an interview that gets done where the p.r. person isn't standing right there with the reporter. That's happening more and more across the board, particularly at the Garden. They stand there and time an interview – the players answer three or four questions – and then the p.r. guy says, "Thank you, that's all". The upshot is that the way the media covers the Knicks aggravates the situation. The idea should be to defuse the tension and make it more informal so that both sides benefit.

It's changed dramatically since I started - a wall got put up between organizations and sports journalists. The original explanation was that there's too many of you, the media is growing, and they couldn't facilitate all of this. I'm not sure it's that. Yes, at major events there are more media. But by and large the daily coverage is still the beat writers from the papers. In the days when I covered the Knicks for the Post and News we traveled with the team, stayed in the same hotels, rode the bus with them and flew on charters or commercial with them. There was a sense of accountability. If you got on the bus at 8 a.m. and wrote something critical you had better be prepared to defend it. Now you have people lobbing grenades from across the wall. It has created a much more volatile and negative atmosphere and strained the relationship to a certain degree.

In New York the perfect marriage was Steinbrenner's Yankees with Murdoch's Post in the 70s. I was a young reporter with the Post. It changed the sports tenor in the city – it became more accusatory. There always had been firings and disappointments and fans booing – now you had Steinbrenner's paternal disappointment combined with a newspaper trying to sensationalize in an attack mode. The News, which was a sleepier tabloid, changed its approach to compete with the Post. As we've gone into the 80s and 90s with talk radio and ESPN there's so much chatter and discussion and accusation it's really changed the whole feel of sports coverage.