I Dread Sports Reporters Today, If Rhoden's On It

In this specific instance?

Yes.

Next case.

 

I still await word on what in the hell you're talking about.

 

Maybe this is what set Ben off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/sports/othersports/04rhoden.html?ref=sports

My other question is do you all watch Sports Reporters just so you can bitch about it?

 

The nickel drops.
Rhoden's not entirely wrong in that column, by the way.
As for your last question, I only watch it for the comedy stylings of John Saunders.

 

Hey spitted --
It would be analogous to why you read and post on threads that you don't like here at SJ.

 

Here's where he could have gone, but didn't, at least that I noticed: Horse racing is carried out by rich white guys. Dog fighting is carried out by not as rich black guys. Hence, horse racing is racist. Or at least, the lack of condemnation of it is racist. Personally, I think he took the high road. Animal abuse is an abomination on its own without extrapolating it into an issue of bigotry.

 

So I'm now to be held accountable for things I do not say on shows on which I do not appear. This business gets tougher and tougher.

And here's Jane Smiley, to the same issue:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/sports/othersports/04smiley.html?ref=sports

 

OK, now what are YOU talking about?

 

Sorry, F_B, the prior post was a hurried mess. Two distinct thoughts.

1) First sentence addresses the thread title, and the idea of judging Mr. Rhoden for a show he wasn't even on.

2) Second sentence simply links Smiley's piece from the NYT this morning, which is a counterpoint to Rhoden's piece.

Poor organization and flawed execution. My fault.

 

The moral: Watch what you don't write.

 

Not surprisingly, Rhoden took the LCR (lazy columnists route):

"On Saturday, it was Eight Belles in Louisville. Two years ago, it was Barbaro in Baltimore, with a misstep at the Preakness. And who knows how many horses die anonymous deaths? Eight Belles, we’ll write, was merely the casualty of a brutal game.
"But one death is too many. The miracle of the sport of kings is that there aren’t more. But how many more do we need?"

Rhoden couldn't be troubled to do any real research on the actual number of horses that have had to be put down at thoroughbred tracks across the country in the last XX number of years, so he resorted to the tried-and-true bit of trite writing that even "one death is too many."

Horses galloping in a meadow can stumble, fall and suffer the same fate that we unfortunately witnessed Saturday. Does that mean that we need to put and end to that as well?

Rhoden would have been better off taking an extra 48 hours to do some actual reporting/research that would have either strengthened his case or dissuaded him from writing the column.

 

I apologize profusely for not linking the column.

Clearly, my subconscious mind (seeking to minimize any pain possibly incurred by threadreaders as a result of being exposed to such twaddle) won out -- this time.