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In certain contexts, a minority group will have the upper hand and will use negative reinforcement to punish all "unacceptable" opinions, so that (hopefully) it becomes more of a hassle than it's worth to annoy the watchdogs.
This occurred once, a few months ago, on SSI.  A troll from the other side of the country, not a baseball fan, found that SSI had used one word in a non-approved way and promptly started a flame war trying to enforce code.  The irony is that these people see themselves as *most* interested in free expression, and constantly represent the other side of the political spectrum as censor-happy.
Ideologies aside, the canceled speech in Ottawa last week was another example of suppression -- ironically, from those who would regard themselves as most progressive in Canada.  The university VP warned the U.S. speaker -- we're trying not to encourage a big digression away from baseball here :- ) -- that Canada does not "define" free speech as we do in the USA (!!!).   Neither did a lot of notorious historical figures...
Fortunately, most Canadian educators reacted strongly against this idea of "defining free speech" more rigorously, and the attempt backfired.  So perhaps there's some hope of maintaining free debate in the Western Hemisphere for a few years yet :- )
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That said, we don't suppose that NPB players are encouraged to criticize management :- ) and the M's TV announcers are de facto employees of Major League Baseball and of  the Mariners.
Geoff Baker is the local reporter who will say exactly what he thinks without fear of "access" repercussions.  Jack Zduriencik gives him exactly zero punishment for this, as far as I can tell.