Stan McChrystal And Barry Bonds

A reader writes:

The conversation you are having about political reporters and their access to the people the cover, and the protection of that access, reminds me very much of the coverage of Barry Bonds. Bonds spent years cheating but very few sports reporters would report the truth because they feared losing their access to the locker room. Bonds would quite bluntly threaten that access, as I remember. His hitting performance, due to the cheating, was making him a big draw for reporters. But if they asked about the cheating, they lost access.  Eventually it took two investigative reporters from SF to expose the cheating. Those reporters, who were not covering sports, did not value access to the locker room, so could not be manipulated by Bonds. 

Hastings' career isn't damaged by losing access to his subjects. But Lara Logan's would be.

And yet Bonds' steroid use was as plain as the zits on his back.