Brandon Aiyuk reporting sparks a media fracas in Boston

I love a good media fight. Primarily when it doesn’t involve me.

Via Sports Business Daily, an interesting tussle emerged on Wednesday between long-time Patriots reporters Mike Reiss of ESPN.com and Mike Felger of WBZ-FM.

It happened when Felger suggested Reiss was pushing a “team-friendly” report on a possible trade of 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk to the Patriots. Said Felger: ““To me, I smell a rat with the reporting on the money. . . . He’s incredibly well-sourced within the Patriots. So I know where it’s coming from, and I know how [the Patriots] operate.”

That prompted Reiss — one of the genuinely nicest people in the entire industry — to call the show. He said on the air, “The insinuation that bothers me is that you think, Mike, that this information is coming from the team.”

Felger said that’s exactly what he thinks.

“You can feel that way,” Reiss said. “But the fact that you think I would go on SportsCenter, on that platform, and say that based on something from the team. . . . you’re creating a perception with listeners that that’s the way this works. That’s incredibly dangerous.”

Before I say anything further, I need to say this. Unequivocally. Mike Reiss is a great reporter. And he’s a great person.

But certain basic facts in this business are undeniable. When one reporter covers one team and that reporter reports on something involving that team, of course the information has come from, or has been corroborated by, the team. It would be stupid for a reporter to publish a report regarding the team the reporter covers without running it by a team source, even if only to say, “Tell me if I’m wrong.”

Reiss wouldn’t have been doing his job properly if he didn’t check with a team source. And, in situations like this, the information came from one of two sources: the team or the player’s agent.

Even if Reiss got it from Aiyuk’s agent, Reiss wouldn’t have used it without checking with the team. If he hadn’t, and if the team had taken issue with his reporting, he would have had to do damage control with the one and only team he covers.

In my opinion, this is ultimately about Felger committing what many in the media regard as a cardinal sin — speculating on reporters’ sources.

I’m in the distinct minority on this, but I think it’s fair game for people who know how the sausage is made to try to guess where the pork came from. It’s part of the process of helping the audience understand what’s really going on. Usually, reporters don’t publicly fight source-guessing when it happens.

By calling Felger’s show, Reiss made the issue into a thing that made its way into Sports Business Daily. And who knows? Maybe Reiss did it because he got a call from his Patriots source asking him to do it.

I’m kidding about the last part. But it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it actually happened that way.