Orlando Sent does a piece on ESPN... worth discussing?

Interesting this article comes out right after George Solomon announces he's leaving as the completely pointless and totally ignored ombud.

 

Nice conceptual editing. Impressive.

I don't know if this is true, not being a magazine guy, but I've read that when general-interest, mass-market mags try to "get" a celeb for a cover, publicists exert veto power over who will write it and also set ground rules for lines of questioning, etc.

 

In a second.

Many journalists never have the opportunity to do stories with impact. many journalists never have the opportunity to make what you call a competitive salary, and what I call a more than competitive salary.

I have found that if you do the stories the boss wants every once in a while, you get a lot more leeway on your enterprise pieces as they relate to your beats. This would be no different. Oh, wait, yes it would. It would be with a much higher potential number of readers, and with a much higher salary.

An amazing opportunity.

Sports, ultimately, are entertainment. I wouldn't want to just write fluff, but we need to get over ourselves. Sports are entertainment, Bread and Circuses, etc. Yes, there are people to whom sports are very important and their be-all, end-all, but we poke fun at those people here.

EDIT: you later posted that certain writers' features for ESPN haven't been as hard-hitting as those at SI. Guess you don't read Karl Taro Greenfeld, Michael Silver, Peter King, etc. Because they do just as much shameless fawning in their stories, at Sports Illustrated. Sometimes, that's what the magazine world is all about. I forget who wrote the Jason Kidd feature of a few years ago, the one with the tub family photo.

 

This was all second-hand info. I kept reading to the third page for two reasons: 1. figure out why Whitlock posted it (aha, there he is on Page 3) and 2. figure out who and why Ken Lietch (the former magazine writer listed on page 2 ... I may have got the name wrong but I don't care) was even in the story ... no context at all ... just piling on quotes at that point.

 

Thoroughly underwhelmed by the piece and I had high expectations considering who wrote it...

 

you mean like this?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2790076&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

note: I got to this part and just stopped...
"Even though he hasn't been charged, Jones hired an attorney, Manny Arora, from the same Atlanta-based law firm that defended Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis on charges of murder and aggravated assault in 2000. Misfortune is something that has touched Jones early, and often. His father, Adam, was shot in the back of the head and died when Pacman was 5. His mother, Deborah, spent three years in prison. An uncle died from a knife wound. He's seen some of his peers die. He was raised chiefly by his grandmother, Christine Jones, and she died of cancer after he graduated from high school.

Maybe that's why he could never walk away from a confrontation. Maybe that's why he calls himself "The Chosen One." His is the face of defiance: head held high, angled slightly back, framed by shoulder-length dreadlocks, a strong nose, a modest moustache and dark, smoldering eyes.

"Everywhere he's been, good people have covered up for him," sports agent Gary Wichard says of Jones.
At 23 -- the age of some college seniors -- Jones lives two very different lives. Today, say some who know him well, he must choose: the thug life in Atlanta, The A-T-L, or the more mundane rich-and-famous lifestyle of an established NFL star in Nashville."

 

the article didn't make it very clear, but Will Leitch is the creator of deadspin.com. that's why he was quoted.

 

Thanks. That's been bothering me.