Famous Newspeople Who Are Really Bad at Their Jobs

Doug is a most competent wire service beat guy whose tenure has just happened to coincide with his beat containing a super famous crossover celebrity. I am not going to go back and check, but I'd bet anything AP golf stories from 1960-to, oh, 1969 had as much focus on Arnold Palmer as Ferguson has had on Woods.

 

It's my recollection that when Bob Greene covered golf for AP in the '70s and '80s, his stories invariably called Jack Nicklaus "the greatest of all time" or something like that and were quite Nicklaus-focused. And Greene was considered pretty solid. So it's not just Ferguson.

 

Erin Andrews asks short questions because she is woefully unprepared for every interview she does. She's isn't really good; she's really bad.

 

Erin Andrews’ voice grates on my nerves. She has a face for TV and a voice for print.

 

I used to mock his Tiger Woods fixation. Then again, I used to do a lot of things on here that were stupid.

 

How about we pivot this discussion away from Ferguson-bashing to a top 25 (or at least a top 10) of the best AP sportswriters?

On my top 10, off the top of my head:
Steven Wine, Miami
Bob Baum, Phoenix
Ginsburg(?), D.C.
Greg Beacham, somewhere out west

 

King never prepared questions before hand. He believed it was better to have a spontaneous conversation rather than following a format.

There are two problems with that approach. The first is you are trying to think up and remember the next question and are not listening. The second is that you get mentally stuck and don't have a question.

I have never understood why an interviewer does not have a prepared list of questions. That way when you get stuck you have something to bail your self out with.

 

Baum retired earlier this year, Beacham is in LA and David Ginsburg is in Baltimore.
I'll add Janie McCauley in San Francisco, Paul Newberry in Atlanta and Tim Dahlberg in Las Vegas.

 

I forgot she existed.

 

Wine is terrific. And so is Tim Reynolds, also based in Miami.