Jay Mariotti resigns

"It's been a tremendous experience, but I'm going to be honest with you, the profession is dying,'' Mariotti said, "I don't think either paper [Sun-Times or Chicago Tribune] is going to survive.

Yet after saying that, he immediately was in negotiations with the Trib.

You think that word didn't reach the ST offices? I'd lay money some (not all) of the blasting of Mariotti by the ST was because they knew he was a duplicitous asshole who couldn't even tell the truth on the way out the door.

 

He deserves all the shit he gets -- from readers, here and management. You're right, Mizzou, that no employee should get from the S-T what Marriotti did. OTOH, no paper and no co-worker should take the public shit that Mariotti gave out...

 

Show me another example of a paper humiliating a writer like that after they leave.

I don't even think the NY Post has ever stooped that low.

I'm sure Mariotti was a colossal pain in the ass. But he did his job and brought a lot of readers to that paper and under no circumstances did he deserve the humiliation that the S-T dumped on him.

 

Show me another writer who publicly humiliated his co-workers the way Mariotti did.

 

Unfortunately, feuding columnists, even publuicly or in print, is not at all uncommon. What Mariotti did to the beat writer earlier this year cannot be defended, but there is no person in this business who has ever merited the treatment that the S-T gave Mariotti after he quit.

 

First time for everything.

 

Well, now, let's not overstate this. Jayson Blair earned his company's and his profession's full wrath.

But your point is well-taken. And the NYT never got as cheap and sleazy in its handling of Blair's ouster as the Sun-Times did with Mariotti's departure -- a guy who did produce much content and chatter, at least, while never veering into Blair-like (or even Albom-like) fabrications.

Mariotti spouting off like a jerk as he left meant the jerk was leaving the building. The Sun-Times personnel reveling and wallowing in it meant that those jerks still were staying in the building. Bad message to send to skeptical readership and shaky customer base.

 

It takes a prick to defend a prick.

 

The whole sordid mess makes the Chicago Tribune, with its instant interest in hiring Mariotti, look stupider than any of them.

It's like some loser looking at Amy Winehouse or Britney Spears or the Whitney Houston marriage and saying, "Oh yeah. She's for me!"

 

I wasn't defending Mariotti. I was condemning the Sun-Times for acting so childish.

The Sun-Times has been one of my favorite papers for decades. I expected more from them.

 

Hey, you can't talk about my fiancee like that!