Bill Simmons smites Scoop about the head...

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS:

http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/jason_whitlock_had_a_great_tim.php

Whitlock wrote two separate articles on the same event with two entirely different tones that led readers down two entirely different paths. If the weekend was a "walk in the yard at a maximum security prison," as he wrote for AOL, was it appropriate for Whitlock to be writing a "humorous diary" for the Star that made no mention of the mayhem? The comments his column received on the Star's Web site, by readers who had apparently seen both pieces, reveal a level of anger and distrust. How, some readers wondered, could Whitlock's take on the All-Star weekend have changed so dramatically from Monday to Wednesday? Even after asking him directly, their answer is still unclear.

THE COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW NAILED YOU TO A CROSS!

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

And three days later....

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

ya know, sportsbruh, when you lose the shtick, your posts aren't bad.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

Just consider the argument you're making. If you want to attack crime statistics because they're often fraudulent lies by police departments - many districts purposely defound and unfound crime to make the crime rate look better - by all means do so.

But your argument assumes the truth of the stats, and then rationalizes those stats by saying "well they're poor, the country used to be pretty racist, so there you go."

Where is it written that poor people have to be bad? Where is it written that the discriminated must turn to crime? I'm not suggesting that we hold blacks to a higher standard. I'm suggesting we hold everybody to a higher standard.

No, you don't get to hurt other people because people hurt you. No, you don't get to abondon your children because you were abandoned. No, you don't get to sell drugs because some lucky people were born with money and all you want is their possessions. You don't do things because of your experiences or circumstances or the possibility (or lack thereof) of consequences. You don't do things because you think you're better than others. Or because you think you've suffered enough, and deserve a little for yourself. Or because you're a Good Person who associates with Good People.

It has very little to do with race. It's a human problem. And a particularly big one in America.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

My main point, and I'll stick to it, is that if you identify the poor neighborhoods/areas in any country (USA, France, England, Liechtenstein, whatever) you're almost always going to find a higher crime rate. It's a generational, cyclical problem.

A disproportionately large number of blacks live in poverty. That's just a fact.

As far as all this stuff:

You're right, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Simply saying it shouldn't doesn't make it go away or untrue.

EDIT: And I know we can come off as sounding condescending and glib when we talk about these massive problems that other people have written volumes of books about and we try to sum everything up in one neat and tidy post. That's the nature of message boards.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

The second I read that AOL garbage, I said to myself that he had the intentions of writing that garbage before all star weekend took place.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

It's the same song over and over. People like you would rather look at the symptoms of the problem rather than dealing with the root or causes of the problem. No, poor people shoulld not resort to crime and allow themselves to become products of their piss poor environments, but guess what? America should not be an institutionalized racist country, but it is. Seems as if people like you could not care less about that.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

Whitlock planned to write about the violence at ASW before the violence even happened?

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

If Mr. Whitlock feels the thread has gone far enough, he should delete it or ask a moderator to lock it.

Of course, if it were to be deleted, a lot of people are gonna see their posts-per-day averages get halved.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

Only Mitch Albom has the talent to do something like that.

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

Violence taking place in Vegas.

Wow. None of us saw that coming until All Star weekend!!

Do you hear yourself?

I plan to write a piece on violence in hockey. I wonder when's a good time to do it.

LOL

 

Re: Please quit posting in this thread! Thank you.

I've spent quite a bit of time in Vegas. I've never felt unsafe. The only violence I've ever witnessed in Vegas happened in a ring, not on the Strip.

Your premise just doesn't fly.