Len Shapiro raises his pimp hand....

[jason_whitlock]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/24/AR2006102400498.html


good to see others working their corners.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Good to see a man with two agendas -- Hate ESPN and Leave The Thug Life Behind -- finding someone who agrees with one of them.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Very interesting column...

 

[SF_Express]

Pretty much on target from the fellow Badger.

 

[shockey]

len's the man. always has been, always will be. 8) 8) 8)

 

[ondeadline]

Good column. But other than possibly being hip cliche, what the heck does "raises his pimp hand" mean?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Good column. But other than possibly being hip cliche, what the heck does "raises his pimp hand" mean?

That's just Whitlock proving he can write like his idols Scoop and that new female Page 2 columnist...

 

[SF_Express]

Good column. But other than possibly being hip cliche, what the heck does "raises his pimp hand" mean?

That's just Whitlock proving he can write like his idols Scoop and that new female Page 2 columnist...

Mizzou, you've been oddly bitter, for a pretty accomplished guy, on that whole story line.

 

[ballscribe]

Perhaps he was once shot down. ;-)))

 

[Bubbler]

I liked the column a lot until the last graph about drinking. That came off as a reach to tie together the moral indignation in the column to some sort of contrived challenge for ESPN to live up to. The moral inidignation stood just fine on its own.

But other than that, I thought it was spot on.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I'm not bitter on any level... I had a bad run-in with Hill a zillion years ago and I can't stand her... That's my honest answer...

 

[jgmacg]

Let me be the dissenting voice here. I think Mr. Shapiro's scattergun approach in the column grievously weakens it.

- To whom is he raising the ubiquitous pimp hand? ESPN? The writers from other papers who appear on it? Donna Shalala? The NHL? Breweries? Society at large? All are mentioned, but no citation supports the indictment of one over another.

- Is the column about the brawl and its subsequent coverage? Or is it about Mr. Shapiro's obvious distaste for Paige and Bayless and 'Cold Pizza'? His gratuituous and global comments regarding same distract from his pursuit of his own theme.

- The Dartmouth/Holy Cross brawl is mentioned, but with only weak reason - that it wasn't on TV. A more damning rhetorical strategy would have been to ask whether or not the absence of coverage has anything to do with the racial and class make-up of the schools in question.

- The NHL comparison is untenable, except insofar as he limits his mention to the highlights ESPN might show. NHL players are professionals, and are thought to be adults. College players are subject to the supervision of the universities they attend. More important to his point - there is no fighting in college hockey.

- He admits repeatedly that the brawl was pretty bad, and that Pres. Shalala didn't do enough about it. How is that ESPN's fault?

- He asks how ESPN/Paige treated the UC scandal a few years ago. Just as they treated this one - the coverage was a mile wide and an inch deep.

- He asks Mr. Plaschke to provide him some SAT scores. But provides none of his own. 5 minutes work on the internet finds this for USC:

The incoming freshman class for the 2005 fall term had an average unadjusted GPA of 3.8 out of 4.0 and an average SAT score of 1368 out of 1600.

and this for Miami:

Freshmen

* Admission 18,807 applied, 8,679 admitted, 2,277 enrolled
* Test scores SAT verbal scores over 500 95%, SAT math scores over 500 97%, ACT scores over 18 100%, SAT verbal scores over 600 64%, SAT math scores over 600 74%, ACT scores over 24 86%, SAT verbal scores over 700 15%, SAT math scores over 700 22%, ACT scores over 30 32%

And here's a source for the two athletic programs' graduation rates, arguably a more important measure of a school's commitment to its students:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4g3NPUGSYGYxqb6kWhCjhgihqYeCDFfj_zcVH1v_QD9gtzQ0IhyR0UAA4M5xQ!!/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvUUd3QndNQSEvNElVRS82XzBfTFU!?CONTENT_URL=http://www2.ncaa.org/portal/academics_and_athletes/education_and_research/academic_reform/gsr/2006/d1_school_gsr_data.html


I wouldn't call someone out for not doing work you yourself couldn't find five minutes for.

- ESPN's beer advertising lies at the root of this? If so, then the Washington Post is going to have to strip itself of any morally questionable advertising before Mr. Shapiro again ascends his soapbox.

- One arrives at the end of the piece wondering why one bothered. If everyone's to blame, then no one's to blame. A missed opportunity for Mr. Shapiro.