Czarniak's questions couldn't beat the band

By Leonard Shapiro
Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Good for Lindsay Czarniak. Good for the Channel 4 sports anchor for walking up to Redskins owner Daniel Snyder last Tuesday at an event in Clinton and asking him to appear on camera for a few questions after he had addressed a crowd celebrating the dedication of a new team-sponsored football field in Prince George's County.

To his credit, Snyder agreed, breaking his regular season of silence to tell frustrated Redskins followers that he was "disappointed and embarrassed" about the team's dismal season-long performance. To his discredit, Snyder never directly answered one of her initial questions about taking play-calling duties away from Coach Jim Zorn and then abruptly ended the session.

Over the past week, Czarniak has taken some heat over a line of questioning that appeared in a transcript of Snyder's remarks posted on the team's Web site the next day. They were not exactly hard-hitting queries, but Czarniak said in an interview this week that she was just about to start whizzing fastballs toward the team owner when a funny thing happened on the way to getting to her best stuff.

"That's when the band started playing," she said. "It was like a bad movie."

But first, let's set the scene.

Czarniak, one of two local television reporters who attended the event (Channel 7's Alex Parker was the other), said she approached Snyder just after his scheduled remarks to the crowd.

"I asked him if I could grab a few questions with him," she recalled. "He said, 'No problem, just let me go shake a few hands.' "

Czarniak and her crew, along with Associated Press reporter Joseph White, the only print reporter at the event other than a few student reporters from a local high school, then set up in a school parking lot and waited for Snyder. He eventually showed up and stepped in front of the camera.

Anyone who has ever dealt with Snyder knows full well that asking him a hardball question right out of the gate is not exactly the wisest journalistic strategy. Czarniak knows it better than most.

"If you ask him something he doesn't like," Czarniak said, "he'll walk away after the first question."

So she took a gentler approach at the start, hoping to segue into tougher questions.

"In the beginning, I wanted to find out how he was reacting to all this stuff," Czarniak said of her first question. "Then I got to the play-calling, and I think he started realizing what was coming. He didn't bristle, but he didn't really answer it. And that's when the band came by."

According to White's story on the Associated Press wire, "After 2 1/2 minutes, in the middle of a question about stripping Jim Zorn of his play calling duties, the Surrattsville High School marching band happened to approach the area, playing at full volume. Snyder stopped the question and made small talk. . . . Just as the music was quieting down, Snyder said he had to go. He walked away, leaving the question unanswered."

Czarniak said she was satisfied with the owner's semi-apologetic remarks but not at all happy about being cut off just as she was getting to the point.

"There are a million things still unanswered," she said. "I was pleased with the apology, but there is so much more to be asked."

In August, I was highly critical of Czarniak, but mostly the higher-ups at Channel 4, for allowing her to wear Redskins team apparel on the air as she worked the sidelines as a reporter during preseason games aired on the so-called official local broadcasting partner of the team.

Some have suggested that Czarniak showed up in Clinton only after being tipped off by the team, but Czarniak said that was not the case. She said she went to the event just as she or someone else from the station has attended other events this season on the Redskins' off-day. Asked if he had received advance word that Snyder might speak, White declined to comment.

"I didn't even know for sure if [Snyder] would be there, or whether he would talk," Czarniak said. "That is not how it happened."

She also believes that Snyder ought to make himself available to the people covering his team far more often.

"I think Dan Snyder needs to talk because the fans want to hear from him," she said. "I've made it clear to the team all season that we wanted to sit down with him. He's very aware I wanted to do that."

Blache speaks

Redskins defensive coordinator Greg Blache has declined to speak with local reporters since early in the season for reasons only he knows. But after John Riggins's televised remarks blasting Daniel Snyder on Showtime's "Inside the NFL," he showed up last week in the Redskins Park media room and defended his "good friend Mr. Snyder" from the latest attack on the man who signs his paycheck.

After making his statement in support of Snyder, Blache declined to take questions. Here's a suggestion for the team's media contingent: Next time Coach Blache wants to make a statement, show up and take notes, but turn your back on him. In this case, one disrespect clearly deserves another.

By the way, I loved Lavar Arrington's take on Blache's defense of Snyder on WJFK, when he properly wondered out loud why Blache kept referring to his so-called great friend as "Mr. Snyder" and not Dan. Friends don't call friends "Mr.," do they? Arrington also offered an emotional on-air rant Monday afternoon, when he bellowed into the microphone that the Redskins "lack heart, lack character and lack accountability" among their many other shortcomings.

Stay tuned, it's only midseason.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Len.Shapiro@washingtonpost.com