Mississippi State beat writers vs Louisiana-Lafayette

When you get to some point in life, usually by the time you reach the working world, you should have an idea what is acceptable and what isn't acceptable for you to say as you are representing your employer in public. It's not rocket science.

Even aside from the employer angle, I'm sure I could go to a crowded Chuck E. Cheese and find someone who thinks it's funny if I go on a loud diatribe about how great blowjobs are. There's no clear-cut line there, and no one has ever said not to do that. Does that mean it's OK?

Where's the line? Don't do something that will give your employer an excuse to fire you.

 

Kornheiser has gotten into a lot of trouble over the years for things he said on his radio show or on TV etc...

But let's be honest here, if you get to the level of the people you mentioned, you can probably get away with a few jokes that would get you fired if you're a college baseball beat writer.

I think a columnist might even have a longer leash, but I'm not buying that here...

 

MGrad - it's more about their act becoming all about the bad jokes and not the storytelling or incisive commentary.
Woody Paige is another that comes to mind.
Solid print columnist who wound up wearing clown shoes for ESPN money.
A sellout, some folks call it.

 

I'll be interested to see where Stevens lands.

 

Probably preps at a small daily or weekly in the Midwest. And I say that without the least bit of snark. Kid made a mistake, and it cost him his job at Columbus, but it doesn't have to be a career-ender.

 

Change of venue might help. ... My advice, based on some experience in waking up one day without a job, is "Keep your head down and work hard and work on your craft. Rinse, repeat."

 

Hell, Rick Reilly just tweeted something about Nazis in comparison to Martin Kaymer. Some people might find that offensive.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/rick-reilly-catching-heat-ill-advised-tweet-martin-kaymer-article-1.1829187

 

Some call it a sellout, some call it making money.

Some of the columnists who were once considered serious journalists and are now all over the place at ESPN would be the first to admit they're playing a role in order for the fame and riches that come with being on ESPN.

I remember having dinner with a columnist shortly after ATH broke and he said, "I went from being recognized occasionally around town to people stopping me in airports for autographs."

I think I would have looked at it differently when I was younger and still in the business. I don't blame any of those guys, whether it's Bayless, Paige, SAS, TK... any of them. They're cashing in. Given the state of the newspaper business, I can't blame anyone who takes advantage of this. There are a few columnists who were pretty prominent a few years ago who have barely been heard from since because of layoffs.

 

Among all that has been said/written, this is probably the most important: "as a representative of his employer"

If you are representing your employer in any way at any time, then your words, actions, what you write, what you say on electronic media, what you post on social media, how you dress and your reactions to others are pretty damned important. That shouldn't even have to be considered or discussed. Grow the hell up and act like a professional.

You can separate yourself, to a degree. If you're hanging with the guys at a bar and say something about Louisiana being backwoods then yeah, you may be able to shrug it off as joking bar talk. Go on a podcast or radio show or television or write a column or tweet something, and you're not just hanging with the bros. You're almost 100 percent of the time being there as Jimmy BeatWriter representing your company.

Act like it. These kinds of "situations" shouldn't even be considered such. Act and dress professionally.

 

That's funny, because the most trouble I got in during my journalism career was for a private conversation I had with other writers over beers in a private booth at a bar that was overheard by a fan and relayed back to my publisher.

I was very lucky I wasn't fired. It also almost got one of my co-workers fired because when they asked him about it, he lied for me.

 

That Mississippi State beat job has been filled. Not really my place to say by who, but it has.