Me-first journalism: Jameis Winston style

I think the reason I'm fine with what Matt wrote, and don't consider it as annoying as you do, is that I think we get desensitized to this kind of stuff when we're in the bubble. I had people threaten to punch me in the face if they ever saw me around town after the Ray Rice stuff, and I kind of shrugged it off, because that's what lunatics do. But I do think there are a lot of people out there who don't follow sports, who don't have any idea what a rabid college football fanbase is like, who would be interested in this peeling back the curtain. I'm not sure, just because this kind of thing eventually feels normal to people like us who have been in the fire, that it's not still important to point out how awful it is. I feel this way about the Penn State stuff too. Perlman wrote about dealing with John Zeigler a few weeks ago for a Matt Sandusky story, and I thought it was quite interesting, even though I've dealt with conspiracy loons before too.

On Matt Sandusky and the worst guy I’ve ever dealt with | Jeff Pearlman

Sports makes people act truly awful sometimes, and if the general public is going to continue to be asked to pony up their tax dollars to build stadiums, or be asked to look the other way when a police force is in the pocket of the football coach and they have to decide if it's worth sending their daughters to that public university anyway knowing that there may be no justice for them if they're sexually assaulted, then I think it's a good thing to show that side of the looney bin. There are a lot of people who don't read the TB Times sports page, but might still be horrified to learn who went into reporting something like this. If FSU fans want to threaten and bully people who shine a light on their corner of the craziest state in the union, fine. But by all means, let's not let them do it in the dark.

 

Yeah... My issue with it was that it happens so often, especially down south. Doesn't make it OK, but it is that common.

 

I have no issue with the piece being written. I've contended for a long time people care more about the inside baseball of the media than we think they do. I've seen 200-comment Facebook wars over some guy explaining why he home-schools his kid. Picayune matters. This is much broader than that.

 

If someone doesn't write about getting death threats are they doing their readers a disservice?

Blog - Predicted Alabama would beat Auburn in Iron Bowl, emailer named Cletus said I should check under my car before I start it.

I know a writer who was out on a date at a very fancy restaurant when a patron walked over to his table and said to his girlfriend, "You seem like a nice young girl. Why would you hang around with a piece of shit like (writer) who would write such awful things about (the football coach)."

 

The restaurant story, yes.

And not every crazy call but if you get a threat that warrants police involvement, a maybe yes.

The fear would be copycat threats but, I guess, if a local politician or coach were getting death threats, then you'd write about it and write about it without any hesitation but since the news can't be the news, you won't write about it when it happens to you?

 

I know the restaurant story was never written about. The writer it happened to is one of my best friends who was on the same beat as me at the time and I don't think he told anybody other than me about it for years.

 

As Dick said pages back, I never wanted anyone to know I was rattled or that they got to me. We're human. That kind of stuff has an impact on everybody, or probably almost anybody. It honestly never crossed my mind to write about what happened to me, for the exact reason you mentioned, fear of copycat threats.

Here's a funny one. I'm at the grocery store paying with a check and on my check I only have my initials for my first and middle name. Kid working check out said, "You're not related to that asshole who works for the paper are you?" I had facial hair at the time and my column mug did not, so I truly don't think he knew it was me. I had to laugh that one off...

 

Seems kind of brain dead to ask such a question, opening yourself up to the customer walking over to the manager's office and saying, "Your employee just called me an asshole for no reason."

 

I also am glad the distinction was made that this was part of the theme of the Sunday Floridian feature section, and I think that takes a lot of the heat off Matt. Undoubtedly, it was an editorial choice to have him write this. I don't think the execution was what it could have been, and it came off as a bit whiny and the headline was dreadful. I think the editors could have helped him out a bit on this one. If you want to see solid execution on a personal story, read Andrew Meachum's story in the same section on finding his lost friend. Of course, as a longtime obit writer, he has a lot more experience with this type of story.

Finding Fletcher: A man's search for what became of his troubled childhood best friend | Tampa Bay Times

 

Baker did good work. Maybe the girls lawyer was his mouthpiece but you going to turn down a source that close to the situation? However, I think complaints that he's too whiny about the fallout are valid. This is not a job for the faint of heart. I've heard worse stuff on email, phone messages, messages boards, social media and reader responses to online stories for my vote on the AP poll in a given week than he's enumerated. So has anyone else covering a major beat, especially college ball in the south. And above all, an earlier poster was right: fans don't give a crap, even the ones who are classy enough not to react in such a way.