Columnist opening in Orlando

Maybe some of us feel it's not good when mediocrity is rewarded and buzz is more important than talent, that's all. It's not always about jealousy.

 

Then focus your anger on the people who make those decisions. Bashing on Jemele Hill isn't going to change the culture where "mediocrity is rewarded and buzz is more important than talent." It's not her fault someone offered her six figures to write for their Web site. That's a societal issue.

We do a damn good job bringing down the people who take advantage of that culture and those decisions -- it's not A-Rod's fault that someone wanted to pay him $252M to play baseball -- without holding accountable the people who make those decisions and ourselves (society) for helping facilitate that culture.

Blame ESPN for lowering the standards, if you want. Blame them for allowing Bill Simmons to become the most popular Internet columnist in the world. Blame them for giving a podium to Scoop Jackson.

And blame millions of consumers for continuing to eat it up. Because this "problem" has nothing to do with Jemele Hill -- this is far bigger than a young African-American female columnist who once wrote about oral sex on a blog.

So bash Jemele's hiring editors if you don't like the decision. It's not her fault someone offered her that job, and it's not her fault that she took it.

 

I've focused my anger at ESPN's various products many times on these boards, trust me. I've bashed the worldwide leader on too numerous occasions to mention. I don't bother with their site and don't intend to start now.

I don't blame her for taking the money and I never said I did.

 

I had never heard of Jemele Hill. So I read some of her work.

Most of it was standard, fine. I will probably never read her again. No knock on her, it's just that James Baldwin happens to be on my desk and I'd rather finish every book he's ever written before I invest any time in Willis McGahee's supposed money-grubbing whore of a child's mother.

What's the big deal? Sometimes I wonder what fellow journalists want. A new Book of Revelations? Joyce Carol Oates? Mike Royko? David Mamet? What?

 

Which is why under the date registered section of your profile it reads, "October 25, 2006, 11:15:13 AM." Yeah.

 

Mike Royko's dead. Just thought I'd mention that.

And in regard to criticizing hiring editors: So what are you waiting for? Just start. Start naming them. Start listing their bad decisions.

That's all it would take. Compile a list. Cite examples. Back them up with proof.

Get enough of the evidence out there, and things might change.

 

Many of the people who advocate blaming hiring editors (and hiring editors are often a huge part of the problem) are the same ones who agree with the very hiring practices they tell others to condemn. So I don't think you're gonna get what you're looking for DP.

 

I know some of the people supporting Ms. Hill, and some of those dissing her. That said, I am drunk and picking my keystrokes carefully.
I read some of Ms. Hill's columns before going out tonight.... they are average. Not good, not bad. If she can snag ESPN Page 2K salaries, good for her. I just don't think her average talent is worth it. Then again, her ESPN.com talent is bettter than stuff I've read here.
Whatever that means.....

 

Lynn disease?

 

Rick Pitino chimes in.

 

The worst part about Bayless is when he does his "contrarian to be contrarian" BS. When he stays in his wheelhouse (a few columns from last year come to mind: Irvin belonging in the Hall of Fame; an eviscerating, indirect rebuke of a previous pro - Kobe, anti - Nash column by Simmons during the playoffs, and another NFL column which escapes me), he's outstanding. But when he goes into his "I'm Skip Bayless and I can write whatever I want" zone, he's god - awful.

Great call. In this regard, Hill is an excellent hire. She is anything but a wallflower. The other female writer (Mary ___ ) is too passive for my tastes, although I am admittedly not in her target demographic.

Jg, my apologies for the caps. Point taken. Gotta express my emotions more effectively through the tools of trade rather than font size. Always open to criticism, constructive or otherwise.

 

I read this and thought it might apply here.

Romeo Crennel: (On it being unfair to wait so long for his first head coaching job unlike Eric Mangini)- “Things like that happen all the time in life. There are young guys who are on the fast track whereas there are guys who work for 35 years before they get their job. It happens and it’s part of life. Like I said, I saw that he was able to have the opportunity. You don’t know when that’s going to come along, but for him, it came along early.”