Do You Want To Be Like Jason?

i hope not. that would be a bigger mistake than this kid deciding to write the column.
seriously, i wonder if he asked them about doing this or if his editors approached him about it.
regardless, it was a huge mistake.

 

This thread is enjoyable.

 

Admirable compassion, Jason, but I can't help but wonder if you'd be quite so protective if he'd had an alternative opening sentence along the lines of "I want to be Scoop Jackson."

 

I was thinking the same thing. That wasn't even like a cover letter, it was like a bad college essay. Why would any newspaper print that?

 

I see both sides of this.

One one hand, it was a really bad column. Really bad. His editors didn't do him any favors, and the TO stuff is really poorly thought out. I really cringe when I see young kids -- of any color -- write about how they basically want to be apologists for athletes. I spoke at a journalism class once and had a kid complain about the media's "witch hunt" for TO and steroid users in baseball. Matt Teague, who I'm pretty sure is white, wrote a really good feature about TO for Philadelphia Magazine a few years ago when all the McNabb stuff blew up, that was both sympathetic and fair. What helps writers understand athletes is more reporting, more time, critical thinking and fair analysis of their character and the situation. Not skin color. And I totally understand how Jason would prefer that we not spend 20 pages slamming this kid for his naievete. I kind of agree.

On the other hand, when Krystal Grow wrote a similar column full of ridiculous 24-year-old foolishness, we unloaded on her for quite a few days. And so did the rest of the journalism world. I don't remember too many people saying, "She's young and didn't know better, so let's back off."

Jason, what I think would be really good is if you emailed this kid and offered him some advice and offered to help him work on his writing and his career. Encourage him, but also help him understand how naive he sounds. Then tell him to work hard and dream big. Could be the best thing that ever happened to him. Just a suggestion.

 

Do you mean to say if this kid IS handed an Affirmative Action position on the legs of this, we are to sit here and politely applaud?

Your head's up your ass a bit on this one, sir.

I don't see anyone claiming to have walked a mile in your shoes ... don't act like you've walked a mile in ours, either.

 

All I can say is that somehow this kid is going to find out about this thread and I have to give him this advice: Unless you're far more well-spoken than you came across in this column, stay away. Stay far away. I know you may want to defend yourself but just let it pass and don't come on here guns blazing because that will not end well at all.

 

If the kid comes on here guns blazing, he better have better ammo than the blanks he fired off in his column/feature.

 

I dug up some of his previous articles. They aren't bad. Not Earth-changing great. But solid.

 

OK, why is the AP sending out someone's very poorly written and egocentric cover letter?

 

Hey, the kid is a go-getter. Raftery would call it "ONIONS!" to be able to get a resume sent out over the AP wire.

 

Hey barsuk, feel free to pull down that post anytime now. I deleted mine.