Annual Augusta National He-Man Woman Haters Club Masters Dilemma

Elliotte, it always used to irritate me when athletes said "you never played the game" ... until I came to this board. Then I began to understand them. I know that makes me the ugly American, but I'd rather be that than lie.

 

Elliotte, I agree with your first point -- to a point. Anyone is free to express an opinion, whether or not he or she has been in the business. But at times, I am compelled to see it another way. Imagine a group of pro baseball players getting together regularly at a tavern to talk about hitting. Now imagine a fan grabbing a seat at the next table and becoming involved in the conversation. I'd expect a few eye rolls. I'd expect the players to eventually move the meeting after it happened again and again.

Sometimes, and not always, it's like that.

 

YF's head would explode if he ever got anywhere near covering auto racing.

I was at a NASCAR presser the other day where the race sponsor had a media gift of a nice soft sided cooler with its logo on it. There were about 20 media members there from print, radio and TV. Not a one -- not a single one -- left there without a cooler. I get bags, jackets, shirts, caps, pens, etc. mailed to me all the time from the NHRA and NASCAR people ... some of it even comes with my name embroidered/engraved on it.

 

I'm not sure why you think the ethical questions someone in one industry faces can't be understood by people in another industry.

Don't we all think we know how politicians and Wall St. traders should behave? Don't we know when they've crossed a line?

Do sportswriters cover ethical issues like steroids, and other PEDs? What about a corked bat, or a scuffed ball. Have any of you written about these issues?

I'll tell you what the biggest issue in my business is. It's repair guys that "hang parts". They see a machine that has problems and they either just throw parts at it, hoping it will fix the machine, or they intentionally replace good parts to increase their bill.

It gives everyone a bad name. I spend a lot of time making sure my customers know what is wrong with their machine, what caused it, what I've done to repair it, and what they can do to prevent the problem from reoccurring.

I'll give you a couple of recent examples where I fucked something up. Let me know if you can identify my ethical responsibility.

In the first case, I repaired an espresso machine on a Sunday afternoon. On Monday, they called back, and said they had a blocked grinder. Now, when I got out there, I discoverer the grinder was blocked because I had accidentally dropped a screw into the bean hopper, that worked it's way down into the grinder.

So, tell me what you think I needed to do.

In the second instance, I had an espresso machine that was not powering up. Now, I should have done a better job of diagnosing the problem. I thought it needed a new board, a $900 part. And, that's what I told them.

So, I replaced the board, and it still didn't work.

Then, I replaced the voltage regulator, about a $350 part. The machine worked perfectly.

What do you think I should have done in this situation?

 

We're having our ethics and objectivity called into question by a guy who declares that someone he met for five minutes at a charity function is a wonderful guy and any declarations to the contrary, by people who have dealt with this guy for years in a locker room setting, are simply wrong. Irony on line one.

 

I guess Tom Verducci should never have written about umpiring a spring training game. It was an opportunity given to him only because he's a journalist and since he's not a pro, it certainly didn't give him any insight into what it's like to be an MLB umpire. He provided no service to his readers by writing about this opportunity, and he should have paid for it as people who wish to attend the MLB Umpire Camp would have to. :

 

Joe Girardi was mean to me once! Lol.

What the hell does that have to do with ethics.

It's interesting how few of the people who are telling me I'm wrong are actually defending the free round at Augusta.

 

Yeah, that's a perk people are clamoring for.

He must have been real lucky to win that lottery.

 

Verducci isn't a golf writer trying to justify a free round of golf at one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. A more apt comparison is a golf writer playing the Tour.

Politicians constantly justify gifts and privelages they get. Junkets are needed for "fact finding" and that huge VIP mortgage was nothing special.

I still say take the free round and just give up on ethics guidelines, as they are just resin to hold panels and keep poor reporter fom cashing in like executives do.

 

There is nothing unethical about taking a free round of golf at Augusta if there is transparency about it and you are promising nothing in return.