D'oh! Sports writer tells mag.. he's embarassed to cover sports.

Reporters, more than anybody else, should know that any time you are talking to another reporter, anything and everything you say probably will end up in print.

Therefore the usual excuse of "offhand unguarded remark" doesn't fly.

 

chico's good people, a hell of a writer and a hell of a reporter... who cares how he feels about it as long as he gets the job done?

 

True, however, I think the previous analogy is apt and interesting: nobody in music or politics worries about being perceived as a "fan" of their beat. That's a major neurotic problem in sportswriting. Even when you look at opinion writing in those areas, it's not a matter of whether George Will or James Carville hates politics, it's which side they're supporting. In sports, some people try to prove their objectivity by being above the subject, which returns to the heart of Harlan's comments.

 

I think you ought to be allowed to hate sports, if you do a good job of writing about it anyway. I don't think anybody cares whether a great political reporter hates politics. There are things all of us hate about sports. There are things all political writers probably hate about politics.

 

Writers, of all sorts, should be aware of this. Yet many want to trot out the same tired excuses.

 

Did writing about food somehow become prestigious and I missed it?

 

Give the guy a break, he covers the freakin' Nationals.

Hi Moddy!

 

That's a spectacularly tone deaf thing to say right now. If you're so above sports, find someone to give you a job writing about something you deem worthy of your brilliance. Otherwise STFU.

 

I wasn't bothered by the original statement, the apology was more problematic.
The truth is the ultimate defense and it sounded like the original statement was truthful. So why apologize? When I was covering sports full-time, I grew to hate sports. I mean really despise them. Now I cover news and I feel the same way.
I still like to report. I still like to write. Just because I don't like what I cover, that doesn't mean that I hate my job.
I like my job, some days I love my job but that still doesn't mean I love or even like sitting in a windowless room, reviewing legal filings as they relate to real estate transactions, as I try to tie together three different threads for an enterprise project I'm working on.

 

Says who? Him?
Guy has been tremendously full of himself in every interaction I have had with him. His quote to the Washingtonian just substantiates that.

 

Because there are countless journalists jobless in this shitty economy (even worse for this profession) who would kill for that gig.

 

Couldn't agree more. If you hate your job, why publicize that to the public when there are millions who don't have a job? I'm sure there are plenty of people who hate their job, but please, keep it to yourself.