Willybuns blasts "jealous" Style writers

hondo · Aug 31, 2006

21 said:

hondo said:

10. We could do their job....they couldn't do ours.
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Not to digress or point at Hondo, because a lot of sports folks think this...but I hate that notion.

Sports is a specialty, politics is a specialty, news is a specialty...there's nothing easy about any of it.
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Let's put it this way...at our newspaper, it's true.

Perry White · Aug 31, 2006

Other Posties blast Wilbon: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlDC/newspapers/its_official_no_one_at_the_post_likes_each_other_43016.asp?c=rss

Michael Powell:

Re: Mike Wilbon's on line chat today

GAWWWWD I feel good that Mikey W. makes a lot & a lot & a lot of money (I sure hope he pays his union dues) and talks to a lot of really important Washington DC lawyers -- a SENIOR partner, no less! -- a pols of NOTE! (Can you imagine?) And it's great that he's managed to give his fellow power-brokers the lo-down on these mangy mutts in style and news who keep woofing at his pleated trousers. Not to mention poor Anthony Kornheiser, with his rarefied and Soprano-like sense of humor.

I mean, Mikey W. almost sounds like an athlete, conflating bling and dough with brains. Almost.

Here's hoping that between television and radio and meeting with his financial advisor, Mikey can find time to tutor the rest of us about writing on deadline, and talking stupid, too.

Shout out to you, Mikey & Tony.

Jennifer Frey:

Gotta back up Powell on this one. I've spent a lot of time in locker rooms, and it sure sounds like Wilbon has been drinking the Kool Aid. One valuable lesson I did learn in those locker rooms: no amount of money can hide ignorance.

And I have to say, I can't remember the last time I hung around listening to my Style colleagues talk about who makes how much money--but I can relate for you about 2 billion of those conversations heard in sports press boxes over the years. Talk about a hotbed of insecurity complexes.

BTW, that deadline thing? Hey, I'll give you the enormous demand for copy, the brutal travel, the jerks you have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Sportswriting is HARD. But I have to say, filing a deadline story on a live night event is the EASIEST part of my job these days.

Neely Tucker:

...can we send wilbon and kornheiser into iraq, afghanistan, gaza, sudan, et al, for a week so they can (a) have a sense of what difficult reporting actually is (mr. tony's mnf football bus was delayed for TWO whole hours last night, he informs us today. goodness! did the ice in the mini-bar melt?? how DO we pay him enough?) and (b) understand that a "hostile" reaction to a story is not a review of your work that fails to mention your undeniable brilliance but, you know, gunfire into your vehicle.
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auggie_ben_doggie · Aug 31, 2006

hondo said:

Top-10 reasons Features and metro hate us!

3. They know we get computer bags and golf shirts and other stuff.
5. We're better on deadline than they are, and in many cases, better writers. Simply the way the industry has evolved. They know it. They hate it.
6. They know we scoff at their balls to the wall frenzy on primary election nights, when they've got a small army in the office and spread out at campaign headquarters, and 40 pizzas waiting for them, when it reality it's less work than an average prep football night, which we handle with half the manpower, in the office and out in the field.
10. We could do their job....they couldn't do ours.
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3. The free schwag features gets compared to sports is like comparing Christmas morning to Valentine's Day.

5. I'll agree with the deadline thing -- it's a mandatory part of being good in the gig -- but there are great writers in every section of every newspaper. And with the amount of shitty ledes posted here every week, I wouldn't be so quick to fit that crown.

6. Election night is a bitch because results can push a deadline waaaay back, but you're on point with the fact that it really isn't the frenzy they make it out to be. Pretty funny comparison, actually -- hadn't thought of it.

10. Yes, I can't begin to count how many news reporters working in Gaza got their start covering preps field-hockey. Let's not kid ourselves here: we're very good at what we do, and they're good at what they do. Armchair quarterbacks may not write sports very well, and armchair critics may not write entertainment all that well.

hondo · Aug 31, 2006

auggie_ben_doggie said:

hondo said:

Top-10 reasons Features and metro hate us!

3. They know we get computer bags and golf shirts and other stuff.
5. We're better on deadline than they are, and in many cases, better writers. Simply the way the industry has evolved. They know it. They hate it.
6. They know we scoff at their balls to the wall frenzy on primary election nights, when they've got a small army in the office and spread out at campaign headquarters, and 40 pizzas waiting for them, when it reality it's less work than an average prep football night, which we handle with half the manpower, in the office and out in the field.
10. We could do their job....they couldn't do ours.
Click to expand...

3. The free schwag features gets compared to sports is like comparing Christmas morning to Valentine's Day.

5. I'll agree with the deadline thing -- it's a mandatory part of being good in the gig -- but there are great writers in every section of every newspaper. And with the amount of shitty ledes posted here every week, I wouldn't be so quick to fit that crown.

6. Election night is a bitch because results can push a deadline waaaay back, but you're on point with the fact that it really isn't the frenzy they make it out to be. Pretty funny comparison, actually -- hadn't thought of it.

10. Yes, I can't begin to count how many news reporters working in Gaza got their start covering preps field-hockey. Let's not kid ourselves here: we're very good at what we do, and they're good at what they do. Armchair quarterbacks may not write sports very well, and armchair critics may not write entertainment all that well.
Click to expand...

Good point on the foreign correspondent thing. I probably couldn't make an easy transition from covering a D1 college football beat into being embedded with the 301st Mechanized Division and filing a story while under enemy fire.

I'm talking mainly about the lazy features writers and the drone-like metro guys who wouldn't know news unless it happened at a meeting.

auggie_ben_doggie · Aug 31, 2006

hondo said:

I'm talking mainly about the lazy features writers and the drone-like metro guys who wouldn't know news unless it happened at a meeting.
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Then we're in agreement. But you should also include those numbnuts who regurgitate press releases for a byline.

Fenian_Bastard · Aug 31, 2006

hondo said:

auggie_ben_doggie said:

hondo said:

Top-10 reasons Features and metro hate us!

3. They know we get computer bags and golf shirts and other stuff.
5. We're better on deadline than they are, and in many cases, better writers. Simply the way the industry has evolved. They know it. They hate it.
6. They know we scoff at their balls to the wall frenzy on primary election nights, when they've got a small army in the office and spread out at campaign headquarters, and 40 pizzas waiting for them, when it reality it's less work than an average prep football night, which we handle with half the manpower, in the office and out in the field.
10. We could do their job....they couldn't do ours.
Click to expand...

3. The free schwag features gets compared to sports is like comparing Christmas morning to Valentine's Day.

5. I'll agree with the deadline thing -- it's a mandatory part of being good in the gig -- but there are great writers in every section of every newspaper. And with the amount of shitty ledes posted here every week, I wouldn't be so quick to fit that crown.

6. Election night is a bitch because results can push a deadline waaaay back, but you're on point with the fact that it really isn't the frenzy they make it out to be. Pretty funny comparison, actually -- hadn't thought of it.

10. Yes, I can't begin to count how many news reporters working in Gaza got their start covering preps field-hockey. Let's not kid ourselves here: we're very good at what we do, and they're good at what they do. Armchair quarterbacks may not write sports very well, and armchair critics may not write entertainment all that well.
Click to expand...

Good point on the foreign correspondent thing. I probably couldn't make an easy transition from covering a D1 college football beat into being embedded with the 301st Mechanized Division and filing a story while under enemy fire.

I'm talking mainly about the lazy features writers and the drone-like metro guys who wouldn't know news unless it happened at a meeting.
Click to expand...

In other words, you're talking about all the people you're talking about, except the people you're not talking about.

And Jennifer Frey?
Give me a big old freaking break there.

Clerk Typist · Sep 7, 2006

I'll take a sportswriter covering breaking general news -- fire, murder, Electon Night -- on deadline over a general news reporter covering a sports event on deadline every night of the week. And twice on Saturday night, when the deadline for that fat Sunday paper is that much earlier.

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Willybuns blasts "jealous" Style writers

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