1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Rob Parker controversy

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Pulitzer Wannabe, Dec 22, 2008.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Who's asleep at the wheel in Detroit that they let this stuff continue?

    Given the economy, I refrain from calling for another man's firing. But this guy's demoting -- wait, I won't even call it that, I'll call it a reassigning -- would seem to be a natural and fair consequence of his recent and not-so-recent missteps.

    Maybe it's time for Rob Parker to pound a beat again, to get his hands dirty with reporting on small-colleges or something, so that he doesn't feel he has to be the one to inject (ha ha) humor at a Detroit Lions press conference and so that he doesn't misread his buddy-buddy relationship with coaches of major sports teams in that market.

    Maybe doing some of the heavy lifting for his paper, in a humbler role, would keep him off TV and radio, since there wouldn't be as much bang for whatever bucks the stations would give him, if he were covering Wayne State or something.

    Maybe it would be a good lesson for a lot of folks in this business to be reminded that a primo job like sports columnist is something that can be earned AND something that can be lost. They are not civil service jobs and they are not tenured like college professors. Shoot, rotating people through a column slot after X number of years might make more sense than just playing musical chairs with beats. (And no, you don't have to pay everyone more -- what are they going to do, say no to the opportunity?)

    Why oh why would editors at a major metro be hesitant to take the power tool out of a knucklehead's hands (i.e., a column and access to other media for embarrassment from a repeat transgressor like Parker apparently is)? Do they really think that he draws readers in, as opposed to, say, repelling them?

    Or are they afraid that the market has some gnarly precedent, in terms of a different sports columnist who hasn't been disciplined or, again, just managed properly and professionally when he has screwed up big-time and broken industry ethics and rules?

    I'm not sure which is at play -- too dense to act or too scared of lawyers -- and I think they're both equally unacceptable as excuses.
     
  2. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    Rocker was merely a redneck athlete, Rob is an educated journalist who earns a living through his choice of words
     
  3. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    As I said before, I think you've seen the last of Parker at the News.
     
  4. Guy_Incognito

    Guy_Incognito Well-Known Member

    I just hope he doesn't end up back on NY radio. They tried that for a few weeks a couple of minths ago, and the results were predictably dreadful. Now that Russ Salzberg is doing Giants pre/post-game, it's as though all of the worst sports radio failures in history get recycled to NY. Can Lupica be far behind?
     
  5. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    If you look it up on youtube, the interview with ESPN has him identified with the talking head as the News, but the graphic as ESPN radio in New York
     
  6. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Slappy, why do you continue to mount a one-person crusade against Rob Parker?
     
  7. markvid

    markvid Guest

    One person?
    You can't be serious.
     
  8. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    You figured me out. I have all these aliases with thousands of posts and just change my name as I see fit.

    And I didn't see that post as a crusade but an identifier.

    Of course, I might ask you why you see fit to continue to be a one-person apologist for Rob Parker. I think that's a little closer to the mark.
     
  9. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    Well, no one could know more than you. You're a legend in your own mind.
     
  10. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    I don't apologize for Rob Parker. He's a grown assed man who can more than apologize for himself.
    I just notice that when it seems that thread should die, you seem to get off on coming up with stuff you find on the internet. I think everyone gets the point that you don't like him as a writer or a journalist but there is such a thing as carrying it on further than it has to. This thing happened last week yet you provide daily stuff to keep it going. I'm just curious as to why. Nothing more. Nothing less.
     
  11. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Ok Hank, you made your point, whatever its worth to you.
     
  12. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Since I forgot that with you being the sole arbiter here of when threads should remain alive or die -- even though others disagree -- because it irks you to no end... and yup, I'm the only one who feels that way... the others are just variations of my screen names...
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page