Mark Whicker, what were you thinking?

He's got to totally be on the defensive based on those e-mails. I think he had no idea how poorly that column was going to be received.

 

Woody had only one that bad?

 

I'm not sure which is more disturbing: the column or his response.

 

Perhaps, just perhaps, Mark doesn't see what other see about the column.

 

Not even the worst in SoCal in recent years. But you did say "MAJOR metro."

Maybe Whicker heard the next buyout session will be lucrative, and he's trying to get on the list?

Seriously, just no explanation for this. Major gaffe by an excellent columnist.

 

Whicker is one of the best sports columnists on the Left Coast and beyond, but this was unfathomable. I know Whicker's better than this. MUCH better.

 

Yeah, I can see what he was trying to accomplish. The execution is so horrendous, though.

And that last line ... unbelievable.

 

The mission should've been aborted. But does he take the hit because he wrote it. I would like to think that the SE or whomever was in charge of the page should also take the hit. They were the last line of defense and they let a big one go through.

 

Paige sometimes intentionally goes for a reaction and can go too far.

I don't think Whicker had any clue what he was doing with that column.

I'll say it again, I'd bet any amount of money that somebody on that desk read it and thought it shouldn't run but didn't want the hassle of calling Whicker. That happens a lot of times at a lot of papers.

His response is a bit troubling, but if he insists it was a celebration of her release, than that may keep him from being suspended.

 

Not to mention - from what I've read, it doesn't sound as if Dugard was "locked down" without access to TV or radio.

 

E&P reports he's surprised by negative reaction ... http://is.gd/35Gz0

He's got a blindspot the size of a semi if he can't see why people are negative about that.

 

Orange County Register sports columnist Mark Whicker says his widely criticized piece was meant to celebrate the release of Jaycee Dugard, but "obviously I mis-read the emotional component of this story because the reaction really has been quite extreme. I think the intent of the column was still valid. I could have changed some ways of expressing it to make it more palatable, I suppose."
You think? How about canning the story in the first place. Tragedy and sports go together like oil and vinegar.