SB Nation pulls Daniel Holtzclaw longform piece

Not implying ultimate responsibility lay elsewhere than with Stout, but does anyone else find it peculiar he's the only editor to have been ousted as a result of this? Greg Howard's report sure made it seem like a few of the SB Nation crew either screwed up royally or lacked the fortitude to challenge Stout.

 

That's fair. I still think it takes some balls to write "in the past year no fewer than six longform stories I have edited have resulted in book contracts" -- when a seventh longform story he edited got him fired and led to his entire unit at SB Nation being shuttered in disgrace.

 

No he doesn't. Christ.

 

Posting a photo on Twitter of manuscripts you casually plan to burn like it's some junior high bonfire is a dick move. Sorry.

 

That's different, though. You said his statement made it sound like it was his choice to go back to freelancing. It didn't.

 

Yeah, he fucked up. Now he's trying to recover. How would you guys write it?

 

Only know Stout from the BASW series and thought his annual essays to open the book often provided some insight on the business and his role in the series. Bottom line, we've seen many people in this business revive their career over much less. But his status as the editor of the nation's premiere anthology in the genre obviously makes him an easy target. The story in question had its issues. But then again, half of what pops up on the Internet daily does compared to the standards most of us on this message board worked under just a few short years ago. It'll be interesting to see if he has a Second Act or if that one story buried him for good.

 

If what I've seen on Twitter and Facebook is any indication, Stout still has plenty of support at fairly high levels in the sports journalism set.

Let's not kid ourselves. It's as much of an old boy network as any other business, probably more, and he will find plenty of cranky white dudes in power who thought he got a raw deal.

 

I don't begrudge Stout getting back on his feet, and I hope he does. I just think this was tone deaf on his part. He has enough connections not to put this self-indulgent shit out there after he was unceremoniously dumped over the egregious errors that led to this story.

 

I'm back to freelancing, any tips or connections would be much-appreciated.

-30-

 

When rejecting a pitch of mine a few years ago he told me I was "not without talent." I was never quite sure how to take that.