Chris Jones on Jason Whitlock

And brilliant, besides...

 

Magary's faux Whitlock column was brilliant.

 

Boom. Jones was correct in including Wiley to point out Whitlock's weak link: he may think and act like Wiley, but Wiley didn't bullshit when it came to telling a story. Whitlock has spent too much of his efforts pontificating a view that his own and not telling the story.

 

Jones is very guilty of that same thing. Read any story by Jones and there's a 90% chance that he will not only pontificate a view that is his own but will also insert himself into the nexus of the story as if he was the story.

 

I thought that was quite well done, the most thoughtful words I've seen written on the whole Cutler thing. Wonder what Jones thought of it.

 

That was a very good column.

This especially caught my eye:

Where we, the media, erred is in failing to lift the Cutler discussion to its highest level.

We left it right where we found it — on 140-character Twitter. ESPN beamed its worldwide-leading lights on the Twitter comments of Cutler’s NFL peers. Talk-radio shows across the country followed suit. And so did most sportswriters and bloggers.

Bingo. Irresponsible, lazy journalism.

 

This is so untrue as to be humorous and yet another example of your inability to let a personal beef go. But I sorta think you realize that but can't help yourself.

Yeah, some stories. Sure. Any story? Ridiculously untrue.

 

Jonesy has a good story in this months Esquire - Back To The Studs. He writes about the trials and tribulations he goes through in renovating an old house he bought.

His picture of the demolition is so vivid you can almost breath the plaster dust.

 

Was Aaron the only other to see this as a big dig at Jones by Whitlock?

 

I did, and I think it's ridiculous. But, again, that trope is alive and well at SportsJournalists.com, too, i.e. that long-form takeout writers somehow are less than real journalists, and that anyone could do their work if given the time to do it.

Were F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway frauds, as well, because they didn't Twitter their fiction?

 

Hemingway was a journalist and his writings hold up very well after all these years.



We're not comparing Jones to F Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway now though - are we?