Mark Whicker, what were you thinking?

There are also times when people can read a column, think nothing of it and then for whatever reason, a huge response comes that people weren't anticipating.

This was not one of those cases.

 

The Poynter interview pretty much cancels out whatever good he did with the written apology. When he says, "I vehemently believe I wasn't insensitive about the fact that she was kidnapped," and blames most of the outrage on the blogosphere, it's pretty apparent that he still doesn't get it. He should probably stop talking before he makes it any worse.

 

I agree.

 

His comments in the Poynter article make me think he doesn't get it at all. A child was raped and bore the children of her rapist. How someone - anyone - thinks that's fodder for a sports column is beyond me.

 

I don't think you can compare Simers or Paige here, or other guys whose columns regularly come with the implied warning, 'Yeah, I'm an asshole sometimes, whaddaya gonna do about it.'

That's just not Whicker, who clearly wasn't going for edgy or controversial or let-me-piss-you-off; he was going for warm/clever/funny and never got close.

 

Yep. Agree completely. Both those things are exactly what happened here. I'd bet everything on it.

 

Drip,

1) I've always liked your stances and posts on this board.

2) If you're going to say that comparing Mark to Jemele and Rob is an outrage, you should probably have at least the courtesy of spelling Jemele's name right.

3) It's apparent that you're a pretty good friend of Mark's and will defend him to the end. However, what he wrote was indefensible and he honestly doesn't think what he wrote was wrong. That's evident by his poynter interview. That, to me, is the scariest part of the entire incident.

 

I'm not so sure about the first part only because Whicker doesn't seem like the kind of big ego guy who would bitch a desk guy out for daring to question his copy. The second part, about being so good and reliable that he gets the benefit of the doubt, is probably true.

But even if a copy editor was hesitant to touch the story, for whatever reason, wouldn't he have at least asked somebody else on the desk what they thought? Wouldn't he say, "hey, is it just me or does this seem kind of over the line?" Several sets of eyes had to see this before it ran. Didn't anyone feel strongly enough to put the brakes on it?

 

Whicker should be canned. I don't care anymore. There is so much talent out there than to have this guy be lazy and incredibly mean-spirited.

Terry Anderson was different, it could have been a welcome home Terry here is what you missed.

Jayce Dugard? She was kidnapped at 11, forcibly raped and born two children out of violence and in captivity for 18 years and this is what this guy comes up with?

---
And ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate.
Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard.
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Are you kidding me? He isn't the only sportswriter in the world. It's lazy, mean, not funny and pathetic. And the fact he used the gimmick before is even worse. Awful.

 

Here's a very interesting, telling piece, with some of Whicker's thinking and reaction, as well as a few other good links on the subject also included.

It's a firestorm, indeed.

http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2009/09/09/author-of-column-ripped-as-worst-ever-quite-surprised-by-react/

 

And the "One-Time Mistake" excuse gets invalidated:

http://deadspin.com/5356595/mark-whicker-has-left-the-yard-before

 

So Michael David Smith's main thought was wondering if an editor had assigned the column to Whicker.

Uh, Mr. Smith, you just don't know how it works for newspaper columnists, do you?

News flash: If you are a columnist at a major metro, you pretty much decide what you write. You may agree to be at certain events and you may agree to write on certain topics, but I can't imagine a scenario where even J. Jonah Jameson would say, "Hey, how about a column merging a kidnap victim and all the sports she missed? And be sure to make deadline."