They were stripped and then they weren?t. A firestorm erupted in Las Vegas when respected Filpino reporters Recah Trinidad and Hermie Rivera were told their approved media credential to cover the Manny Pacquaio-Marco Antonio Barrera fight Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay had suddenly been disapproved.
Trinidad, who wrote a book on Pacman, writes for The Inquirer, the biggest circulation tabloid newspaper in the Philippines. Rivera, another boxing veteran, has written for Boxingconfidential.com and others.
Press credentials are given out by Andy Olson and his Magna Media company. But the approval of credentials?and where reporters are placed, be it ringside or up in the Bob Uecker Binocular sections?is done by committee with promoters (in this case, Top Rank and Golden Boy) and the hotel-casino all having their say.
Olson told a reporter (not me) that Trinidad?s media pass was stripped ?for cause? but went no further. Another source told me that Mandalay Bay pr chieftain Scott Ghertner gave the credential removal order.
I learned late Thursday night of allegations that some boxing writers were letting uncredentialed individuals use their temporary media credentials and that was what irked the normally unflappable Ghertner.
Now, riding to the rescue, Uncle Bob Arum reports to Boxingconfidential.com that both of the reporters have had their credentials restored.
?I would not let them do this,? Arum said. ?All I know is they?ve got their credentials back. I told them to cut the nonsense.?
Uncle Bob, defender of the First Amendent and guardian of freedom of the boxing press.
I don?t mean that sarcastically. No one should be handing out credentials like candy but the remedy was draconian.
Good for you, Bob Arum.
