What all writers want (but won't admit they want)

As said by Mr. Big Lead:

 

From one former SJ regular to another, it looks like at least one tiger hasn't changed his star-fucking stripes.

 

I would estimate the number of writers who really want to be on TV well South of 50 percent. Columnists? Maybe.

 

I thought, seriously, this was one of the most peculiar things I've ever read. I mean, we're talking spectacularly not true for some writers.

I'd find what Wilbon does exhausting as hell and not very life-giving.

 

We went through a phase when the writers first started appearing on TV, and most of them were horrible and hated it. I would number the writers I have worked with in my career who could appear on ESPN (a few have already) in the single digits.

 

It is an insult to Michael to state that anybody could follow the career path he did. He was a very good, if not great, (no rip there, it's how I rate myself, too) columnist. Television is both difficult and insecure. It was Will McDonough who told me, "the great thing about TV is they hire you for no reason. The bad thing is that's how you get fired, too."
I could no more have been on a show like Pardon the Interruption than I could have swum the Atlantic. I mean it, I wouldn't have lasted the first appearance. It's not to my taste, but it's goddamn harder than it looks.
If McIntyre's tweet is accurate and that's what today's writers want, God help them. But it sure smells of projection to me.

 

There are stories I've read, columns that I've read in my youth that have stayed with me - I couldn't tell you what the hot take of the day is.
Now maybe the money of Hot Takes Guy would be nice, but writing something that has impact? Something that is remembered, that makes a mark? I think that's kind of the thing.

 

I'm guessing it's more like when you get offered TV the money is too good to say no.

 

I read that tweet as though Wilbon said that to McIntyre, and McIntyre was relaying the thought. I don't think the timing is coincidental that McIntyre tweeted it, given that he's apparently in talks to join Whitlock's show and probably trying to convince himself (or critics) that he's just doing what anybody else would do.

I've seen writers give former writers shit when they start doing TV, like it's selling out the tribe somehow. I don't believe it is. Do what makes you happy. Do what makes you money. I tell journalism students all the time—if you want to be that person with a microphone on the red carpet, go for it. Fuck what anybody else thinks. It's your career.

But the idea that we all want to be on TV is pretty obviously nuts. My greatest single life accomplishment is that I haven't shaved with a blade since my wedding day, back in 2002. Like hell I'd break that streak.

 

It's a cliché but true, I think: Making career decisions just because of money is a pretty good way to end up sunk.

 

I endorse this, but I also think, given what I know of this particular person's SJ history, he's just as shallow as he's always been.

The star-fuckery I referred to above has nothing to do necessarily with Wilbon and only partly to do with star-fucking others. That Hot Take Heaven he describes is about star-fuckery of oneself. Being a celebrity. With zero substance. Like Bayless.

Of course he thinks that's the end all, be all, because that's essentially what he did.

I mean, good for McIntyre for making his nut mostly aggregating what others do. Hot takes are part of his game, but the idea that they're everyone's game is typical shallow thinking on his part.

 

Wait, am I misreading that tweet? I read it as though Wilbon had said "That's the career progression..." But is McIntyre using Wilbon as an example of the path and then saying "That's the career progression..." himself?

If the second is the case, then I'd be pissed if I were Wilbon. Because I read it that Wilbon said all of that, and I was surprised that Wilbon would say that all writers want to be on TV. He has to know that's not true.