SB Nation pulls Daniel Holtzclaw longform piece

This was my lone pang of sympathy for Shaun King's Peyton Manning piece, which I expressed on that thread. It was horribly executed, as well know. But I do think he was trying to build tension into the story. The mindset was the right one. He just wrote it like a 10th grader. He made it about himself and his journey of self-discovery. And, maybe the even more egregious sin that less people are talking about, he oversold the destination. The story would not have "rocked" the sports world to the "core."

 

Not to beat a dead horse, but that was among the biggest problems of the Dr. V story as well.

It's like they're writing for a TV detective show.

I'm not interested in how thrilling it was for you to chase down the story.

 

I can totally see how this story was pitched and that the writer felt comfortable interviewing Holtzclaw's old teammates and was probably not at all eager talking to victims or prosecutors.

So maybe you could get the green light based on that thinking you'd be hearing a different viewpoint, playing up the football and teammates element from someone who was there. That's your expectation going into the story -- so you don't realize how far out of balance it has become.

One key to editing is know what writers are good at and what's out of their comfort zone. Clearly, the writer would have access to former teammates, so you'd need to have the conversation early that he'd also have to talk to victims and prosecutors as well. But I can totally see how some freelancers would try to write around that or use court documents, etc.

 

I assume he just thought he was covering the uncovered portion of the story, and trying to keep the focus narrow. (As narrow as it can be in 12,000 words.) We're all told in j-school about the brilliant journalist who talked to JFK's grave digger.

I'm not defending the execution.

 

SB Nation's best weighs in:

 

When you are bashing a type of writing for all the world to see, might be best not to have two typos in your tweet.

 

Jimmy Breslin

Breslin: Digging JFK grave was his honor

 

I love it when people take PFTCommenter seriously

 

That's part of the schtick. It's actually an ironic tweet. It is, in fact, defending longform.

I know, high art, right?

 

I love it that SB Nation thinks it wise to allow one of its idiots to crack wise about something so serious to the site's credibility.

I mean, really: Let's drag Hitler satire into it via a one-note satirist who may or may not reflect the mindset of the leadership.

 

I don't know PFTCommenter from Adam ... or Eve. I guess we don't run in the same Twitter circles.

 

Yeah, a lot of PFTCommenter's stuff is funny, but it's a little early for one of their own to be making light of this complete clusterfuck.