Jemele and Mike

Of course, people tip-toe around the subject of her.

There is no upside to taking her on through Twitter or social media, no matter how correct a person may or may not be. The general "rules" don't seem to apply to her on these cases. A flipside is that the vitriol she takes from the racists and angry people is nothing that I ever face. Tradeoffs, I suppose.

 

She makes for an interesting case study, that's for sure. Some people here, and Pearlman, see her as one of the best in the business who has rightfully become a star. Others read her columns or watch her on TV and just don't get it.

 

Here's my problem with her Trump and white supremacist take (shared by others in the media): 63 million people vote for him. I wasn't one of them. But not all voted for him because they thought he was going to be the second coming of George Lincoln Rockwell and that was okay with them. I think a very small minority voted for him for that reason. My parents both voted for Trump and they never taught me to hate or discriminate against anyone a day in my life. I got my ass blistered for dropping a Hispanic slur on a kid in school when I was 12. So I actually don't appreciate people painting my parents as racists just because they voted for Trump, when the real truth is they're far from it.

 

Did she say that people who voted for him are white supremacists, though? That's a common refrain on my own social media feeds, but I don't recall seeing her tweet it. (I could be wrong.)

 

I don't watch her and I never really got into her writing when that was career. But I recognize the talent and I can see why ESPN would be interested in trying to appeal to specific demographics instead of a "something for everyone" approach. That worked for full-service radio stations in the 60s and CNN in the 80s, but today that strategy usually makes you roadkill.

 

What is the talent then? What is she talented at?

 

I don't know the broadcast side, but talent hasn't been a a determining factor in moving up the print ladder in a long time. There are some talented people in the right spots but not nearly enough.

 

Jeff is a talented reporter and a successful book hawker. But I find his commentary and opinions to be consistently incorrect, and this is such an instance.

 

being the same color as Rob King, who oversees SportsCenter?

 

She has a strong screen presence, can talk extemporaneously about multiple topics at length (or at least she can make it seem extemporaneous, which might be even more valuable), has a quick wit, is attractive. If all that seems shallow, welcome to television. We aren't talking about trying to get published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

Come out and say it, coward. Use yiur words. She only got where she is becausr she's black. No other reason. Stop being a pussy with your opinion.

 

So, this is true of most writers and TV people, correct? Some people like them and some people don't. You and I disagree on Charlie Pierce. A lot of people seem to hate Joe Buck. I don't get why. He's fine to me.

The difference is that when we don't like a white male writer, nobody says, "He only has that job because he's a white male." We say, "That guy sucks." Even though the fact that he's a white male probably has a lot to do with his success.

With Jemele, it's instantly: "She only has her job because she's an African-American woman."

It's a ridiculous double standard.

I'm not saying you're doing this. But there's plenty of evidence of it on this thread.