From the new MMQB

[Captain_Kirk]

I used my influence to get my son some interviews, an internship and eventually a (low-paying) fullt-time PR job. I don't apologize for that.

Nor should you.

Just doing what any good father would do.

 

[mustangj17]

Along with the conflict of interest/nepotism issues, here's another issue about how jobs in sports media get filled -- you have to be rich to get your foot in the door. Forget for a second that she's Peter King's daughter. How does a kid from New Jersey who just graduated from college in New York have the financial wherewithal to pursue an unpaid, or extremely low-paying, internship on the other side of the country in one of the nation's more expensive cities?

Because her parents are rich. The same goes for kids trying to get their foot in the door with a summer internship at a newspaper. Not only do you have to be able to forego income during the summer, in most cases your parents have to be able to set up to live in a city for 12 weeks. I just wish that gaining a foothold at so many highly competitive jobs weren't the exclusive province of young people who can afford it.

you have to be rich to:
1) get an unpaid internship
2) get decent seats
3) buy food at the concession stands
4) park your car

5) put gas in your car to drive you to the game.

I've never been a big fan of the internships/foot-in-the-door approach, only because -- yeah, I'll admit, it's a personal bias -- I couldn't afford to give up a decent-paying summer job. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to attend college. So there is something to this pre-selecting that goes on, and for it to happen in a business that will then be paying people pretty crappy wages anyway, I think it stinks.

When Mommy and/or Daddy don't bankroll you to tuition and room & board, they sure as heck aren't going to bankroll you to travel to a distant city and live, virtually without income, through a summer or a semester where you ought to be earning some college money.

Papers I'm familiar with seem to use these intern programs to get cheap, cheap labor in the summer for when the regulars are taking vacation, and to boost their diversity profiles (one place I worked bent over backwards to have no more than 1 out of 9 interns be a white male. Summer after summer after summer.) They're welcome to that agenda, I suppose. But it always reminded me that I wouldn't have had a glimmer of a sliver of a chance, if that's what it took to get a decent post-graduation job, and it would have had absolutely nothing to do with my skills or clips or attitude or aptitude.

Is that a paper in the Midwest in a city where the Mayor is under fire and things look Grimm?

Slappy, possibly the most clever line I have read on this message board.

 

[Diabeetus]

My favorite of the comments:

Delerious Ramblings Caused By A Gravy-Induced Stroke

 

[clever_username]

Back to the original point...do we think that Mary Beth is going to have conversations with anyone at Seahawks' HQ that the gosh darn pater familias couldn't just pick up the phone and have himself?

Depends on how good the popcorn is in Seattle, though.

 

[beardpuller]

Peter's unfamiliarity with basic technology, not to mention current trends, astounds me:

“Inside, Hasselbeck has been using one of the neatest inventions in rehab history -- a real, honest-to-goodness underwater treadmill -- to stay in shape while resting and strengthening his back. "I weigh 235,'' he said, "but when I'm running on the underwater treadmill, my body's 135. It takes so much pressure off the back.''
An underwater treadmill. What will they think of next?”

The underwater treadmill has been around for god knows how many years. Second, wasn’t Dennis Dixon pictured in SI in April running on an underwater treadmill?! Didn’t SI run a feature on Carson Palmer rehabbing in 2006, also using one?

That's why Kissing Suzy Kolber loves him. He's the gift that keeps on giving.

http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/07/peter-king-wants-you-to-make-his-column-even-longer-and-more-pointless.html

This really is the root of his problem -- it isn't that he doesn't have decent insights or ideas, I think he often does, but as a blogger, he comes off like a guy with his pants waistband pulled up around his chest, wearing white socks with sandals. He's got a little Michael Scott in him -- maybe we all do, but Peter more than most ... he's always just seen, like, "Forrest Gump" or something for the first time and wants to talk about it, under the assumption that other people are just "discovering" this as well.
As I get older, I always try to be conscious of the fact that I am really not cool anymore. I don't even need my 19-year-old son to tell me this, though he's more than happy to perform that function. With Peter, I kind of think he's just oblivious to how clueless he really is. It's like he thinks "Starbucks" is a happenin' place, hey!
Of course, I'm really glad that I'm not famous enough for those "Kissing Suzy Kolber" whippersnappers to jump on my aged ass ...

 

[RossLT]

Along with the conflict of interest/nepotism issues, here's another issue about how jobs in sports media get filled -- you have to be rich to get your foot in the door. Forget for a second that she's Peter King's daughter. How does a kid from New Jersey who just graduated from college in New York have the financial wherewithal to pursue an unpaid, or extremely low-paying, internship on the other side of the country in one of the nation's more expensive cities?

Because her parents are rich. The same goes for kids trying to get their foot in the door with a summer internship at a newspaper. Not only do you have to be able to forego income during the summer, in most cases your parents have to be able to set up to live in a city for 12 weeks. I just wish that gaining a foothold at so many highly competitive jobs weren't the exclusive province of young people who can afford it.

you have to be rich to:
1) get an unpaid internship
2) get decent seats
3) buy food at the concession stands
4) park your car

Number 4 especially here in Seattle

 

[Gold]

Along with the conflict of interest/nepotism issues, here's another issue about how jobs in sports media get filled -- you have to be rich to get your foot in the door. Forget for a second that she's Peter King's daughter. How does a kid from New Jersey who just graduated from college in New York have the financial wherewithal to pursue an unpaid, or extremely low-paying, internship on the other side of the country in one of the nation's more expensive cities?

Because her parents are rich. The same goes for kids trying to get their foot in the door with a summer internship at a newspaper. Not only do you have to be able to forego income during the summer, in most cases your parents have to be able to set up to live in a city for 12 weeks. I just wish that gaining a foothold at so many highly competitive jobs weren't the exclusive province of young people who can afford it.

AAAAAAAAAAAAmmennnnnn

How did this happen where you NEED an internship, especially with newspapers, where it will most likely lead to a low-paying job anyway? I think corporate American is pulling a scam on people over the last 15 years.

 

[Gold]

As for Mary Beth...

OK, maybe she didn't tell her father. I suppose if you couldn't use your mother's maiden name because that would be lying on your application.

But she should have tried to apply for an internship in another sport. Showed some ethics and a willingness to try to do things on her own.

 

[deviljets7]

As for Mary Beth...

OK, maybe she didn't tell her father. I suppose if you couldn't use your mother's maiden name because that would be lying on your application.

But she should have tried to apply for an internship in another sport. Showed some ethics and a willingness to try to do things on her own.

I'm sorry in a corporate world (it's not just newspapers) that is completely cutthroat and exploits internships for all they're worth, I can't fault any recent grad to use every (legal) advantage at his or her disposal.