Context and sports commentary

I guess my only question in all this is, are any of the reasons offered up for being a "good rip-job artist" or a "print bully" enough to excuse a lack of civility or compassion?

Does being a journalist mean, in some cases, becoming an on-the-job prick? Does it have to, or do some journalists enjoy the fact that they can hide behind their job or their aura to become snipers?

Because I'm looking at this column -- and forget it's Simers, it's a more general issue than just him -- and I picture the nasty fourth-grader shooting spitballs at the heads of his classmates.

Of course, I don't know all these writers in real life, so aren't I doing the same thing that Simers did to Thames?

 

So it's OK for sports writers to write about someone else's writing when, in theory, mostly sports writers are reading it? But when the audience is wider, it crosses a line? What's the huge difference?

And, as far as your point about it being a mistake to write about someone else's writing, does it matter whether the column was written for a Detroit paper? If it had been written in L.A., would that make any difference to you?

 

With very few exceptions, the only people interested in journalist-on-journalist violence, are other journalists.

 

Exactly. If your column involves taking an excerpt from another writer's column and screaming about why they're right or wrong, you're a hack.

Simers is no hack.

 

But it was OK when Joe Pos did it because it's a blog? I'd be pretty shocked if his audience isn't much wider than journalists.