Bill Simmons smites Scoop about the head...

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Come on. If I'm somewhere, and I write about it, describing the scene, what I saw, what I know, what it felt like...if I talked to people who filled out my opinion, who gave me their insight....I can write that without 'reporting.' Reporting isn't one thing, like clean AP copy, who what where when why with appropriate number of quotes in the second graf.

Did he lie? Make up facts? As far as I can tell, he wrote a column about how it felt to be in a situation that made him angry and embarrassed and sick. Does he need quotes and stats for that?

To me, the critical issue here--which still hasn't really been addressed--is whether it's possible to write about the same subject for two different entities, without cheating either or both.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Answer to last query first: No.

Second, you need to report out a column that simply broadsweep, deeply rips of something as massive as a city... yes, I believe that.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

bruhman and daemon are nailing this...

except, daemon, you're right and wrong about my columns....but i ain't gonna nitpick you when you're nailing the hip hop culture thing so strong... just preach on.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Freaknik got worse when Atlanta got worse. For the first 10 years of Freaknik's existence, Atlanta was still "The City Too Busy to Hate."

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

how about this question?

why didn't more journalists/newspapers come prepared to write about the nba all-star weekend as a cultural event?

the game is irrelevant. so are the contrived contests.

the event was about david stern's and oscar goodman's attempt to get the league in las vegas. everyone should've been writing about what it was like at all-star weekend in vegas. that was the story.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

If i gotta choose between Whitlock and CJR, I'm choosing Big Sexy.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Bruhman, I think you and Whitlock could do a lot of good if you adhere to the approach of calling out wrong as you see it, regardless of race. The bigots will use it to fuel their bigotry, no doubt, but it would be a unifying thing for the vox populi. The only way to make real progress is for people to hold everyone accountable, regardless of race. People sticking up for "their own,'' by reflex, is so damn divisive.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

So where are we at?
Has there yet been a substantive reply to any of the points raised by the CJR, particularly the question of why the national column was so hot and the KC one much cooler? This passage, for example:
"However, the numbers simply don't bear that out. Two hundred and thirty-nine of the 403 arrests were for vice-related activities. Sure, that's a crime but not exactly "major" -- or atypical -- in Sin City."
You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own numbers, to paraphrase the late Senator Moynihan.

Could it be the former column was hyped for maxinum impact?
And once you've dispatched everyone who questions you as paid liars, no matter what official position they might hold, in favor of your deeply significant conversations with anonymous people, the truth indeed become fluid.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

I think Ellliott's nailed it here.
To see someone's thinking evolve with distance from an event is a very compelling thing, especially since the hotter column -- which you might think would be based on the initial flash of emotion - actually came later, the anger a result of reflection rather than reflex.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

I think the CJR instead of question Whitlock's integrity should be giving him an award for showing the guts to take unpopular positions in his columns. Some of those positions cost him a gig at ESPN

Look at his body of work in past year:

Barry Bonds - Whitlock has held that MLB was trying to run him out of game so he would not pass Babe Ruth. Knowing what we do now theory seems more plausible

Duke Lacrosse - Whitlock tells us that Duke players were being railroaded - turns out he was right

Michael Irvin - Whitlock accuses him of "bojangling "

Mike Lupica- Whitlock would not fall in lockstep with Luppy on steroids in baseball and lost his gig on sports reporters.

Whitlock has proved that he is willing to take unpopular stands because he believes them -that is intellectual honesty.

 

Re: Columbia Journalism Review plans Whitlock attack....

Flying Headbutt, that argument never works. Trust me, I've tried.

None of my ancestors came here until the 1900s. Most of them were in Russia or the Ukraine before that. This is back when the Tsars were in charge. Bad time to be Jewish there. Go look up the word Pogrom on Wikipedia and you'll start to get the picture.