No respect for the dead

I know there is already a Carl Pohlad thread in Sports and News, however, I hoped this topic would be worthy of it's own thread.

Scott Miller, in his blog on CBS Sportsline, just ripped Pohlad for being a miserable human being.

Thoughts on whether this is overboard? Well-deserved? Way out of line?

http://www.sportsline.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270335/12742055

And I'll let you read the rest...

 

A lot of the Chicago writers, after Bill Wirtz died, faced the same dilemma. I think, ultimately, they framed it as he was a good man who the business had long since passed by.

 

I don't believe the dead deserve any more respect than the living. In this life and the next, you get the respect you earn.

(Not a comment on Pohlad. I have no idea if he was a dick or not.)

 

Why should I have respect for the dead? What have they ever done for me?

 

The Bob Jelenic thread applauds.

 

I miss the hell out of Jerry.

 

I know the tendencies to be nice to people in death whether they deserve it in life or not. However, I generally take it on a case by case basis.

If you're a good person or even neutral, I'll be respectful. Someone who's ruined lives as wantonly as Bob Jelenic has? I don't think he deserves the kind of deference in death he never provided to people who were paid for their toil, their blood, their sweat and their tears with pink slips.

If that means I'm out of line, so be it.

 

When Richard Nixon died, a lot of people were trying to stay respectful. One columnist in Orange County CA led his piece with "Ding, Dong Dick is dead" and ended it with"good riddance."
He got death threats in the heavy GOP community and worried about keeping his job.
Two weeks later, everyone was writing the same thing.
Is the standard to be nice for a short period, then rip the dead?

 

"Ding, Dong Dick is dead" is a terrible, cliche lead and good riddance is a poor ending.

He deserved death threats, methinks.

If you're going to rip a dead guy, bring something to the table.

 

That's not really an issue of a grace period for the dead, or anything...just a great example of the reliable pattern of conventional wisdom, followed by backlash (sometimes, if writers are really lucky, followed by counter-backlash.) Much easier than coming up with new ideas, you know.

 

You need to be fair.
Obits.... they can say what they want. So too can columnists.
A good columnists can call the guy a insufferable SOB in polite way.
It should be treated as someone pointed out on the preps thread last week; You can write about the guy being a mean, crude, piece of shit and you can do it without going out your way to embarrass the man's family or yourself.

Me,
I take the If you can't say something nice ... approach.
If others are stepping up to the plate to talk about what a great guy someone like Hitler - Hell of a motivational speaker and really organized, that guy - then I think you get to say "Hey, wait a minute!"
Do it with a little bit of class.