Sloppy SI

One thing SI does better than anyone else is having writers insert themselves into their stories and effectivelly pat themselves on the back for being in position to do so.

Classic example was John Garrity at St. Andrews in 2005 just having to be in the right place at the right time when Nicklaus crossed the Swilcan bridge for his last time, writing it as though he were just a fan who happened to stumble onto this bit of history.

Tell me there's a reader in America who doesn't see through that kind of contrived crap.

 

Used to get the golf section after they pulled the bait-and-switch with some other section. It went into the trash, both unread and immediately, if not sooner.

 

I agree with Moddy as well. We should be nitpicky. How else are you going to get better?

And I'm still wondering about "Super Bowl-champion Pittsburgh Steelers" which I saw in the SI NFL preview issue.

 

You are an angry person. I'm not saying I'll shrivel up and die without Golf Plus, but God forbid I like something extra in my $40 a year SI. I also like Fantasy Extra. Line me up in your gun's crosshairs.
And by the way, for those who care, what happened to the cartoon that ran with Golf Plus? Last I saw, Stik was proposing to his caddie....

 

My favorite SI screwup was a few years ago on a Brett Hull story. The next week, Brett's mother had a letter to the editor printed, saying while she appreciated the article, there were some mistakes. They were glaring ones like how many brothers he had.
Don't know if was was amazed more than such screwups find their way into the pages of SI or that SI had the balls to run Mom Hull's letter/correction.
Either way, fact-checking has gone downhill.

 

I started getting the magazine again about two years ago and they had major errors in every issue...ran a photo of an assistant coach at Utah and said it was Urban Meyer (although the guys looked similar), put the Oklahoma State logo in the place of the Oklahoma logo. But, you know, you've got to let some of that dead weight on the copy desk go, so the suits and shareholders can make more money......

 

For those NY Times copy editors on board (you know who you are!) there were some pretty significant errors in a story today, ones I picked up because the player being written about was one of my people, a Canadian junior.

The kid sliced open his left leg falling three stories off a balcony while sleepwalking, in Mexico in mid-April. This is seriously what happened.

But the Times said it was "junior Davis Cup", which it wasn't. He was an alternate on the grownup Davis Cup team.

He didn't cut both his legs to the bone. He cut both legs, but it was the left one that was the issue. He severed the popliteal artery. It's a nasty looking scar, still.

He also didn't win the Canadian Open junior title; he lost in the finals.

He also didn't reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open juniors; he lost first round the last two years.

It also mentions he got a "special exemption" into the tournament, implying it was because of the time missed due to the injury. It wasn't; it was probably because was playing the final at the other tournament the weekend before the Open, which left him unable to travel to New York in time to play the junior qualifying which, ranked No. 69, he would have had to do.


There's more, but all that stuff is pretty easily verifiable. Pretty shoddy. Not familiar with the writer, John Eligon.

 

No, a mathmatical certainty is a mistake on a Friday night at a 25K paper that covers 20+ high schools, has college sophomores answering the phone -- while consumed with their fantasy football rosters -- a reporter who just finished his gamer breezing through the roundups and a lone sports copy editor who's reading, headlining and placing all that shit at 10:30 or 11 p.m. Do we make mistakes? Damn right we do. Do we make excuses? Hell, no; we won't stand for it. We get on our stringers for not asking coaches how to spell John/Jon or Sarah/Sara. Don't make excuses for SI.

 

May 26, 1980 SI: 118 pages, 63 full-page ads.

Sept. 11, 2006 SI: 114 pages, 32 full-page ads.

Massive editorial copy advantage to 2006.

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Nov. 27, 1978 SI (college basketball preview): 130 pages, 71 full-page ads.

Sept. 4, 2006 SI (NFL preview): 206 pages, 98 full-page ads.

Massive editorial copy advantage to 2006.

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Feb. 10, 1986 SI (swimsuit issue): 230 pages, which included the sports news of the week.

2006 SI swimsuit issue: 228 pages . . . not including the 110-page regular SI sent that week with the sports news.

Massive editorial copy advantage to 2006.

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Seems to me the fact checking should begin here.

I know, I know. The good old days were always better.

So let's go back, shall we?



Would just love to see the tantrums thrown on here if an issue like this came out today.

 

In last year's pro football preview, each team had a helmet adjacent to its projected starting lineup. Several weren't, uh, updated.



Dear SI: Next you mix up helmets, please give Bucco Bruce some love.

 

If you like to scoff at misspellings and the like, take a gander at this graph from the Sunday NY Times story on the Mets' rise in popularity. Someone's not reading People...

Sandra van Meek, the director of market development (a job created this year), has a file of clips from celebrity magazines showing notables like Deborah Messing and Rhianna in Mets caps. John Stewart, the host of the “The Daily Show” and a long-time Mets fan, is among those who recorded Mets radio ads free.