Who are your journalism heroes?

I struggled with using the word "hero" but I didn't want this to be a "who's your favorite..." thread.

 

Steve Coll is the smartest man I've ever met.

 

gosh, do i HATE this point, much like i HATE our debates comparing present-day stars to legends 'back in the day.' all you can do is be the best you can be in the time you're in; the greats, those we admired growing up, were likely HEAD AND SHOULDERS above everyone else in their time period. rice's lede was SPECTACULAR, POETIC, SET THE SCENE DRAMATICALLY, 'cause that's how it was done back then. i'm not sure reporters even left the press box to get quotes for their 'subs' back in the day.

i grew up having my dad school me on the brilliance of jimmy cannon, the definitive n.y. sports columnist of the '40s, '50s and early '60s. lupica fully admits his 'shooting from the lip' column of one-liners was inspired by cannon's crusty old 'nobody asked me but...' columns.'

if rice was around today, i'm sure he'd be gary smith or s.l. price or any of the modern 'stars' we fawn over today. to tell us that the writers we grew up admiring or were inspired by don't see their greatest works hold up well is unfair and also besides the point. in general, i'm a believer that the best of the best back in the day would be the best of the best today, too -- they would've just changed their style.

end of rant, my apologies, dick.

 

Great points. I guess I think that at least some modern sports journalists - and certainly fans who hate the "media" - will tell you that Red Smith and Grantland Rice were actually, objectively, better than today's writers. Not as in better in their time, not as in better OPS+, but that their writing, if occurring today, would put ours to shame. And I don't buy that at all. I can't consider those guys journalistic heroes because I don't really learn anything at all from their work.

 

Dick if you didn't learn anything from Red Smith, I am surprised and saddened. His work isn't dated at all. Jim Murray was my favorite sportswriter as a kid and teenager. Also Larry Merchant when he wrote for the Philly Daily News.

 

Red Smith.

 

merchant was the guy i wanted to become after i began reading his columns in the n.y. post. i may still have a couple of his columns -- browning as they are -- in a cardboard box somewhere. one was before ali-frazier 2, in which he and vic ziegel went over the first brawl, frame by frame, leaving ziegel reconsidering by acknowledging ali may have actually won. merhant was more convinced. his kicker: 'i think he was robbed.' dunno why that's stuck with me; another was a column he did after a game in the '72-'73 finals about how my man earl monroe had stolen the day, as wilt tried all day to shoo him out of the lane as pearl came into the land of the giants, 'shuckin' and jivin', like a horse trying to get the flies off his back 'by wagging his tail.' take my word, it was far more poetic, as merchant quoted wilt and painted the picture of earl straightening his tie after the game.

i just a month shy of 16 and knew right then who i wanted to be when i grew up. about 13 years later, ziegel hired merchant to do a short-lived, once a week column for the n.y. daily news (he was fully entrenched as hbo's boxing analyst by then). those columns were phone-it-in jobs or simply proof that merchant was rusty or had lost his fastball, but it was still great to have his voice back for a while. one night i was in the office and larry stopped by to check his mailbox. it took all the nerve i could muster to approach him, introduce myself and stammer something about how he 'used to be my hero' and how his columns 'inspired me to get into the biz.' he was very kind. just grinned and said, 'used to be, huh?'

 

Nice anecdotes about Larry Merchant. He really is a credit to his profession and the sport of boxing. And, remarkably, still at his best now in his 80s. Shock, I imagine you will appreciate this Biofile I did with Mr. Merchant...

http://thebiofile.com/2011/05/biofile-with-larry-merchant/

 

David Halberstam.

 

Mark Bowden

Tom Wolfe

Bill Lyon

 

Roger Ebert (though his Thor review was so laughable, I wondered if he actually bothered to see the movie), Ted Koppel, Dr. Z.