Frightening Grant Wahl news

I understand the emotion but the 'how did _____ die?' is just bad form and can wait a few hours or days after the event.
Anyone who's been through anything like this knows how aggravating it is to answer that question a half hundred times.
And then for it to be suggested by a jackass you've not seen in 30 years that it was the vaccine ... yeah.
So-and-so died. The why is for the privacy of the family.

 

This is my one post on the matter and I stand behind it. A complete assessment of his death should be performed, preferably by non-Qatari MEs.

 

Yeah. I don't know why anyone who didn't have a direct emotional attachment didn't read Grant's brother's tweet as anything other than someone who isn't thinking clearly in the moment of a horrific personal tragedy. He lashed out because people who are in emotional distress lash out. Just another function of how social media amplifies things that used to be private.

If you're maintaining rational thought, which you ought to be doing whether you're a journalist or not, you just think to yourself that Grant's brother and family deserve all of the empathy you are humanly capable of conjuring, but also, attach no factual significance to the tweet itself. I don't blame him for tweeting. I don't blame him for anything. His brother died, for crissakes, he deserves a wide berth. We have to be the ones who are thinking clearly in the moment.

I wonder sometimes whether journalists, or anyone else, have one shred of skepticism left in their brains anymore? Well, it's really just journalists that concern me, since they are allegedly trained to be skeptical (or should be) and to think things through before jumping to the most sensational conclusion.

When I read Grant's brother's tweet my immediate reaction was ... OK, I can't say for certain it's 100% out of the realm of possibility that there wasn't foul play, but it's pretty close to 99.9%.

Your skepticism should make you ask, what's in it for Qatar to whack an extremely prominent journalist? What do they have to gain from it? Your skepticism should also make you ask, how would Grant's brother know his brother was killed? Was Grant warned and his brother was aware of something nefarious? Wahl had tweeted he was sick earlier in the week, so those aware of that tweet should (and some did) ask, was this a function of whatever he was sick from?

When you think it through, Qatar, odious though their policies might be, has absolutely nothing to gain from killing Grant Wahl.

For what? Wearing a rainbow shirt? Christ almighty. It doesn't add up.

Most of the countries in the world that have human rights issues have them because of how they treat their own people or those working inside their borders. Even the most repressive nations in the world very rarely kill foreign nationals, even for political reasons way, way beyond the scope and impact of a crusading sportswriter with his heart in the right place.

Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi national killed by Saudis. One of the evil parts of his murder was that the perpetrators knew they would never have to face the wrath of a foreign government for killing one of their citizens. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia, nor likely, any other country, would be brazen/stupid enough to kill a foreign journalist in the glaring lights of a World Cup.

And if Qatar was that blood-thirsty and/or stupid, there's journalists with a global following who have been just as, if not more, critical of Qatar. Western European outlets have been banging the drum against Qatar far longer and far louder than American outlets have.

(It was kind of sad to listen to The Guardian Football Weekly after Wahl died. The panel knew of him and that he was a prominent American on the world soccer journalism scene, but they didn't know him well. It had the vibe that they were trying their best to pay tribute, but what went unsaid was that he wasn't in their club. That takes nothing away from Wahl as a journalist, but what I'm saying is that it's a big world out there, and Wahl is far from the only writer who pointed out Qatar's problems.)

The murder theory never made any sense. With respect to Grant and those who know him, I think it betrays a bit of self-importance on our part to think a non-Qatari sportswriter would be in their assassination sights at all. With the Cup now over, and with Qatar having tolerated Western criticism through barely concealed contempt, they can now go back to oppressing their people and migrant workers without the world glare on them. They didn't need to kill Grant Wahl to wait that out.

 

I’d like to say I appreciate this discussion. It’s more thought about the nature of social media than even its founders and current owners seem to put.

 

Great post by Bubbler. And, yes, when the news first broke, the idea of murder was captivating. Those dirty ay-rabs. For many of us, though, who fit in Wahl's demo of 60-ish sports media guy, him getting capped by a foreign government was preferable to what actually happened: otherwise healthy-appearing dude just keels straight over. We know we're not getting murdered in Qatar. We also know any of us could keel straight over, and that shit terrifies us.

 

When I go, though, I hope I keel straight over. Just not any time soon.

The alternative – a withering decline into a hospital bed – is more terrifying to me.

 

Correct on all counts. It's the any time soon, not seeing it coming at all, that scares us. And it's not a bad way to go. We just don't want to be going that way just yet.

 

My father-in-law died peacefully in his sleep on a vacation in Hawaii, three weeks after we saw him serve as best man at his youngest son's wedding in Las Vegas.

Other than the red tape involved in getting him back (the hotel was on a military facility, which required additional signatures on the release), that's one hell of a way to go.

 

Bubbler, once again serving as SJ's voice of reason while the rest of us are in hysterics.

 

To be fair, I would’ve said the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was just as far-fetched a plot. I think that weighs heavily here.

 

Damn right. I'm not that old, but I'm also closer to that threshold than I'd like to admit. The first thing that crossed my mind when I heard about Grant's death was that I never want that to happen to me. But the grace of God, etc.

One of the saddest deaths I know of was a colleague of mine who died about a half-decade or so ago. I'm not going to mention his name, but if you know me, and the circles I've passed through, you probably know who I'm talking about.

He died at his desk working late. I don't know if he was writing or doing pagination, but it really doesn't matter. Point is he died in the office.

That was my worst fear, dying on the job. I know people try to make loved ones feel better when they say, "they died doing what they loved." Fuck that. There is nothing I would "love" about dying at a desk working late on some bullshit special section or ssome other horse shit of that ilk. That just means I was over-worked by dickheads who look the other way because they've taken away or not given you the support you need to do a job right.

I'm so glad I don't do desk work anymore, because, me personally? I'd be *far* more likely to croak doing that shit than writing.

Still, there's nothing glorious about dying in a stadium (arena/gym, you get the drift) either. I enjoy what I do. I don't enjoy it so much that it's worth dying for.

Not that it's anyone decision where they die, but I've told my family that if were to die in the manner Wahl did, I assuredly did not die doing what I loved.

Dying while fucking. That's dying doing something you love. Work is work, even if you "love" it.

 

I certainly hope I go quickly, but I absolutely don't want to die in my sleep unaware of it.
I want to be outside looking at the ocean, realizing what's about to happen, and my last words be, "Well, this sucks. It's been a good ride."