Phawker: Stephen A. Smith loses Inquirer column

Maybe Graham's shop should cut the cord w/Tony? Or maybe, as seems to be the case, Graham's shop is satisfied with the arrangement.

 

I read somewhere, maybe it was in one of those lovely alternative weekly magazines that TK's total deal with the WP, ESPN and I think one other company (radio maybe?) was pushing $3 million. I think it's been written that he's getting $1.8 mil to do MNF and PTI and $500K from the WP...

 

And that's a fucking ethical problem, and I love Kornheiser and Wilbon.

$500k for a guy who doesn't write while jobs go unfilled around the country.

Yeah, our business makes sense...

 

The Grahams begged Tony -- begged! -- to take the show on their radio station in Washington.

They are not cutting the cord anytime soon.

 

I don't know Fenian. I think location matters.

 

Apparently, The Denver Post might not have had to buy out so many employees last time if they hadn't just paid what was believed to be $500K a year to get Woody Paige back...

I love Paige, but that just sucks for the guys who put out the section on a daily basis...

 

So somebody explain why Tony shouldn't take the Post's money.

 

Exactly. If they want to give it to him, more power to the guy...

 

Oh, it isn't a problem for the guy getting the money, but it's a problem for the industry, for sure.

 

No question...

 

It is not a problem for the industry that these guys get paid.

It is a problem for the industry that it continues to kill itself by slashing and burning.

 

I talked recently with a friend who works in Denver who said that two people had accepted buyouts in sports...

My reaction: "Only two?"

He said, "Yeah, it's no big deal except we lost the person who runs the department and our best copy chief."