Let me ask this Mariotti question....Updated by Moddy.

I'm glad that you were willing to stick up for the people that you represent, even the ones you think act like idiots. You are a credit to the profession.

Mariotti may be acting like an idiot, too, but no one is denying him access to locker rooms, etc. He is apparently declining it and making excuses.

The board jumped to the defense of the two radio hosts who were denied Royals credentials and I think if Mariotti were banned from the Sox locker room, people would defend his right to be there.

But his excuses are weak and his conduct demeans his co-workers and our profession. He should have fought for his right to access withou harassment if that was an issue instead of slinking away.

 

The Naked Ozzie Assault story is a complete red herring in this story...if it had been such a trauma to Jay when it happened, don't you think you would have heard about once or twice, or five times or 110 times? The guy isn't exactly shy about sharing his indignities. I have no doubt that if this (along with other verbal threats) was such a major event as to prevent him from returning to the Sox locker room, he would have made the entire world aware of it.

This is the job. If you scream in print, or on the air, someone is going to scream back.  

The bottom line is, no one in the media would have commented on Jay's stance regarding the 'fag' story...until he said he didn't and wouldn't go to the stadium. That is an affront to how true professional do their jobs, and that is what his colleagues responded to.

 

Jay Marriotti's a cry-ass and a prima donna - he's getting everything he deserves. I have no time for anyone who takes pot shots and then hides behind their computers and never faces the music.

 

The fact of the matter is, aside from using the word he used, Guillen was spot on.

It's kind of funny, because he probably knows nothing about our jobs, or the protocol, ethics, or propriety a journalist is taught to employ.

But in this rare situation, being a good journalist means also means being a good man and facing the fire.

Being a man means ripping someone and then facing him in person, not hiding behind the weak-ass excuse of personal security (has anyone stopped to consider how laughable it is that Mariotti might actually be AFRAID to go into a clubhouse??).

Being a good journalist -- at least a good sports columnist -- means the same.

Guillen was right. Should he have used the word "fag?" No. But that is a separate issue. Ironically, nobody would even be talking about Mariotti's absence from the White Sox locker room if Guillen had simply ripped him without using the word "Fag."

 

As I've noted on this board, I was once grabbed by an NFL linebacker (who outweighed me by about 120 pounds) and held upside down over a trash can in a locker room. I did what should have been done -- reported the assault to the coach and the PR guy. The next day, the LB apologized and it was over. I didn't curl up in a corner and say I was never going back in the locker room again because I feared for my safety. I'm not big enough to challenge a professional athlete to a fight, but I was never afraid to go back in there and face players after writing something unflattering about them. It's your job.

 

You da man!

 

Da man -- I completely agree. That is the job. And I think Mariotti is wrong to think he can do the job the way it ought to be done without being there. Again, I am not defending him. Maybe he is a "cry baby" and a "wuss" and all of the other nasty things he's been called on this board. It is absolutely right that these issues should have been addressed long before it reached this point.
All of that having been said, I still stand by my original point that we should be careful in giving even tacit approval to the idea that it's OK for a journalist to be threatened or intimidated because we think he or she "deserves" it because we don't like him or her.

 

I think it's clear that "ganging up" is not the intention, here. Jay has handled this miserably, while trying to spin it entirely His Way,
in the process. He's dead-wrong, and deserving of a full flogging.

 

David is right, though. If this stuff had just happened to Mariotti, and he felt unsafe or intimidated by players/managers, I'd be on his side.

But his examples all happened years and years ago. For me, if it really was a problem, he should have dealt with it promptly like a journalist would have done.

 

David--I don't see anyone giving tacit approval to a writer being threatened...i think anyone would agree that it's sometimes an unpleasant reality of the business.  The concensus you see here is the agreement that there are ways to handle such incidents, and Mariotti's way was not one of them.

I would venture to add that had this happened to a different guy, the industry outcry may have been different.  For example, a few years ago, when Bob Ryan suggested on air that Mrs. Jason Kidd deserved to be slapped, he was suspended and embarrassed....and most of his friends and colleagues came to his defense. "Great guy,' everyone said, including me...'a gentleman who made a mistake.'  You will not find such support for Jay. Most people seem to be saying: what goes around comes around.

 

I've known Jay for years and I like the guy, but I've stopped feeling sorry for him in all of this...

Our job is to not be part of the story. I don't agree with anything Guillen said, but Jay is making sure this story stays out there...

Most of us in this business have been called names at some point in our careers. Unless it gets ridiculously personal, you just let it go...

 

While Mariotti's paper has done itself dirt through all this, I have to wonder about the agenda of the corner office, from the SE on up. Looks like they're giving Mariotti enough rope -- make that an industrial-size spool -- to hang himself. But if they wanted him gone, why couldn't they just show him the door before this embarrassing episode?