Nats beat writer asks blog readers to send him to spring training

Then there is no argument, Luggie, because the points that you and Smasher make are not mutually exclusive.

Again, Smasher merely responded with disgust to an incredibly stupid post by Mizzou. And this, by the way, is a pretty tacky response to a 100 percent legitimate post.

How would you have felt if someone suggested you were some type of poser with a sense of moral superiority for having extolled the role of organized religion in charity earlier in the thread?

And just so it doesn't get confused, here's his initial post on the topic.:

 

Some points here.

--Calling smasher and cran trolls is just plain stupid. They have been here for years, and tho you may not agree with their take, it usually doesn't suck.
--The "give to Haiti or give to a sports writer" dichotomy is not a true dichotomy. The amount required to fulfill the minimum of giving is such that most of us could do both, or do one or neither, and it wouldn't be a huge deal in any event. If it were a case of somebody having $250,000 he could spare, and the decision is whether to buy a Lamborghini or donate to Haiti, then you'd have a true case of somebody's moral compass being rightfully gauged.
--The sports writer seeking money for start-up costs reminds me of two things: (whimsically) Oral Roberts seeking money so God would not "call him home" and (seriously) if a McDonald's sent out e-mails and direct mail saying "we'd love to serve you tasty food fast, but we need money from you to build the building, pave the parking lot, buy a grill, hire employees, etc." Businesses just don't ask for contributions for start-up costs; they find the money themselves, then keep the business going by selling product.

 

CC Sabathia bought a full-page ad in The Plain Dealer after he was traded from the Indians a couple years ago. It cost $12,870. Guess they are shills for him since they accepted the ad.

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080730&content_id=3226612&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle

 

Not close to being comparable.

 

Wrong.

 

Moddy, do you know if it was posted "for free" on his blog or sent out in his email? Or, a combo of both?

 

Cran, I'm sorry if it came off in a tacky way - I was actually just trying to tease out the nut of Smash's argument.

It's cool, though. I think this has been a really interesting thread.

Somebody should obvioiusly hire this guy back in a fulltime, major-media position. Not only does it seem he's a damn fine reporter, but he's got a real handle on 'new media,' something 'old media' is struggling mightily with.

 

I figured out a way to make you stop bitching. Mark can take all this money and donate it to a Haitian, on the condition that said Haitian agrees to live in Florida and cover the Nationals for six weeks. Everybody wins!

 

And TSP, you know better than to think that giving ad money to a corporation is equivalent to paying a reporter who is supposedly covering you. People who are nowhere near the news-ed process take ads.

 

I've never suggested anyone is a "bad person" if they give money to the Nats writer and I'm baffled by your attempts to frame this as a morality issue.