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...