LeBatard column on the media

You HAVE to get aggravated.

How can you NOT get aggravated, when you're essentially being asked: "So, you have a problem with my judging all those little ol' South Florida jocks by a different standard than you judge anyone else on earth?"

You're not alone in being sawed off.

What a crock.

Cash those checks, DLB.

Just don't expect the bulk of the population to take this cockeyed act seriously, as it's got more holes than a Dick Cheney hunting partner.

 

Because Rolle has known Taylor since they were six, grew up together, knew the same people, went to the same schools, and both his and Taylor's fathers are cops.

 

Simon, as always, your criticisms amuse me. First, don't presume where I've been, or how I've lived. I'm not about to compare ghettos with you because that's no badge of honor. If you think I have no cred as far as that's concern, well you just do. Doesn't bother me a bit.

Sean Taylor's murder could be random. Or, pre-meditated. It could have been the past coming back on him. It could have been none of the above. I don't know. And I don't think it's any great shame in saying that. My position throughout has been, let's provide context, not sensationalism, not some contrived Boyz In The Hood script...let's be reporters. I've covered enough athletes/crimes to know that the truth is never what we think it is. I just don't want to see the same mistakes, the same conjecture, the same wild leaps to conclusions that were made during the Duke lacrosse case. That's why it's funny to me that some of the same people who were screaming at the media for its irresponsibility are now perfectly fine taking those same leaps all over again.

The cutting the phone lines/kitchen knife story/did the girlfriend set him up? stuff reminded me of all the wild things heard about the Duke lacrosse players in the first few weeks. Remember, the one lacrosse player had a sketchy past, too -- the assault case -- which people took to mean he just had to be a rapist. And by the way, my first column on the subject was for ESPN.com, after it had been established as a hoax. I admitted in that column I took those leaps of conclusions in my mind -- not in print -- which is why I've learned to just wait.

 

Heck if you want to take a shot at a thug program, Penn State has had its share of problems lately and no one is suggesting JoPa has lost control of his players or that Central PA has a culture problem.

 

Central PA does have a culture problem -- it doesn't have any!

 

Very good point.

 

There's no way to know that, but its not hard to imagine how going away to school, in a different environment, around different people, separating himself at an earlier age from the dangerous influences he grew up with in Miami, might've altered his fate. Who knows.

 

But, at Penn State, its a relatively new trend beginning only in the last year or two. At UM these incidents have been happening at a disproportionate rate compared to everyone else for more than 20 years now.

 

I agree with you, Jemele. But there's a difference in believing that and writing this:

I don't know how anyone could lack so much compassion that they would somehow blame a city or school or culture to this awfulness, as if a city or school or culture could possibly deserve something that brings this kind of sobbing and wailing.

Unless he's privy to some police information that the rest of the media isn't, LeBatard doesn't really know what role "the city or school or culture" played in all of this, if it did play any role. He's just pandering, and I believe he does quite a bit of that.

 

Jemele could not be more correct. Speaking as a former opinionist, while jumping to conclusions and speculating without adequate knowledge may well be an involuntary human reflex, putting those thoughts in print or online is taking a very real chance of looking stupid, and a lesser but still unpleasant chance of doing actual harm to someone. Take it from me, it's no fun to get bit on the ass by your own teeth. Mike Wilbon, whom I know and respect to the max, and Jason, whom I do not know but respect, both wrote excellent columns that should never have seen the light of day. They could be right, but they are assuming facts not in evidence.

 

All this "Brett Favre wouldn't be remembered this way" stuff is assuming just as many facts not in evidence though, and both LeBatard and Hill are guilty of that. It's impossible to say how Brett Favre would be eulogized because, well, he didn't crash his car and die while hopped up on vic or get beaten in an alley while buying a bag of codine. He's alive. It's asking people to disprove a hypothetical. It's impossible. We'll see how Brett is eulogized when he's eulogized. Everything else is just the same dumb assumptions you're mad about.

I think, at least right now, Taylor wasn't killed by some unsavory character from his past, but by some dumb criminal. Urban America is violent as hell, far more than most people realize. And know what? It's easier for us to say it has to be somehow partially his fault, someone he couldn't divorce himself from because it helps us sleep better at night. Because if it's just some random burglary gone wrong, then the next time, it could be me, thug life or no. And nobody wants to think about that. They just want to buy big screen TVs and blame rap music for the decline of morals in this country. Schools are failing? No money for drug treatment? Community centers disappearing? Sorry, I'm busy watching L.C. try to make her boyfriend jealous on The Hills.

NEXT UP ON ROME IS BURNING: We have a guy who calls himself Emperor Nero -- WHAT?! -- who is going to tell us why HE thinks Sean Taylor was killed by his girlfriend and that if HE were in charge, how he'd get the guys from CSI: Miami to investigate!

Pick up a phone! Have a take! Don't suck!

 

Actually, I think I've seen more than a few versions of that column in the past few years.