Mariotti's latest.... wow

I thought the column was weak.
Part of dishing it out, is taking it and it seems like, in this one example, Mariotti is trying to have it both ways.
That being said, I find it hard to question his work ethic. He'll go places that the Trib wouldn't dare. Maybe he was just trying to laugh it up with the yokels, but he's done a ton of work on the road. I bet half the board couldn't find Zebulon, N.C. on the map, but Mariotti has written from there.
Maybe it keeps him out of the major-league clubhouse, but it's better than what the Trib has done.

 

Hardly impressive. Most of the Tribune people probably have never been south of I-80 or west of I-355.

 

Agreed. You've got to face the subject and stand up for what you've stated. That's conviction.

I haven't had a chance to scroll back through the entire thread, but has Jay Mariotti gone face-to-face with Guillen yet? If so before the column was run, that gives this a different twist.

 

You can be that specific as to the many reasons NOT to watch Around the Horn? A show where annoying and obnoxious are desired traits? There are hundreds of reasons not to watch ATH: every "guest" times about 50. And the media makes fun of reality shows and losers?

 

Fag might be offensive, but Mariotti is definitely a pussy. I was embarrassed for him with every sentence I read.

 

as did dane grubber with his last column/outing at kauffman.

 

Go ahead, take a guess

 

Just like nothing good happens at 2:00 a.m., nothing good happens when a reporter insists on being part of the story.

Ozzie is wrong in a number of ways but Jay is just so over-the-top that noboy takes the Ozzie comments seriously.

You can't go on TV and say the ridiculous things that he says and then write columns like he does without having to stand up and defend your stance at some point. To avoid the locker room is ridiculous.

I respect the beat writer who criticizes his subject one day but is back to work the next. It is what good journalism is about. . . the willingness to stand up and defend your work. I have worked with all too many who have been forced to defend the columnist that is nowhere to be found after dropping the bomb in the Sunday edition.

WHITLOCK: I think that you are entertaining when you are on TV and your columns are pretty good, but if it were up to me, I would make you pick one. Journalists on TV (or radio for that matter) is just a bad idea. You are supposed to be reporting the story. . . not being the story. Shows like The Sports Reporters (which started the trend), ATH and PTI are centered on the journalist being the story (look at famous writer ripping people. . . after all, it's not called a parting shot for nothing).

 

SID

I hear ya. But you can do both. I think there's a huge difference between The Sports Reporters and Around the Horn. And I think it's possible to continue to work as a print journalists and as a TV entertainer. It's two different disciplines. Mariotti compared his column to being a radio talk-show host. I never thought of my column as talk radio when I was a radio host.

 

re the Guillen story: It's been four days now, and I'd really like to know why this remains bigger news than Brett Myers. Hell, in some corners of this country, you had to look hard for the Myers story.

Is this what the country has become: We're more concerned with somebody using a bad word than we are about spousal abuse?

Unfortunately, we know the answer to that.

 

Jason --
The difference between the two shows is that you're on one and not on the other.
Oh, and the buzzer.

 

What gets me is not that Mariotti doesn't go into the locker room. I can't throw stones much at that glass house, because most of my work doesn't involve that, nor is it expected. What gets me is that he REFUSES to go. You've got a bunch of BLOGGERS! who really are trying to get access, and yet this yutz takes up a press box seat and refuses to do things even BLOGGERS! say they would do, such as darken the door of a locker room. I could never see myself saying, under any circumstance, that I refuse to do a certain part of the job that is expected.

Also, I don't read Mariotti's work often, but does he even get people on the phone? How much reporting and research does he do? He strikes me as writing only in the specific moment he's writing about, with no real eye on the past or future. I'd like to think those of us who are paid pontificators who don't go into the locker room on a regular basis are least trying to bring some perspective, rather than just blowing columns out of our bile-filed ass.

One more thing -- should the Sun-Times at some point put out their own statement about this? Should the Sun-Times say what it's done to ensure Mariotti is "protected" in the Sox locker room? Anybody have a birdie inside the S-T who can tell us what the higher-ups are thinking about all of this? (Other than being thrilled over the temporary publicity bump.)