Dolphins writer--Miami Herald

It is a great get by today's standards, but it makes me think of something here: Back in the day, stories were broken like this all the time with good detective work and shoe leather. As great as we like to think sports writers are today, they don't do this nearly enough anymore. This was an old-school method that had to make everyone else in the market slap their foreheads and thought "Now, why didn't I do that?" Why, indeed ...

We rely too much on cell phones and the internet.

And if all the other writers are so great in Miami as has been proclaimed on this thread, why couldn't they track down a player on their beat at home? If you're on a beat that long and can't do it, then you're in serious trouble.

 

Yeah, that's a perfect analogy. Because groceries are fake and appeal to children and morons, and bagging them for people makes you look like a wanker. And then when you change profession and become a football player its exactly the same as staying in the same profession and writing under the same byline.

Holy shit, you are profound and strike my opinion dead.

 

Now, if you wanted to use the analogy of a retarded, oft-failed businessman who believes in the rapture getting elected president, that would be appropriate.

 

Wrestling is fake, so what? Harness racing is corrupt and barely a year goes by when race-fixing isn't uncovered somewhere, yet does a reporter lose credibility for covering the sport? Do we take a writer less seriously because he covered boxing? Or steroid-tainted track and field or cycling?

The wrestling column is no worse than those weekly capsule updates many newspapers run about soap operas. No, it's not news. Yes, we know soap operas are fiction. Yes, we assume people who are bright enough to buy and read a daily newspaper can tell the difference between diversion and news.

Your initial point was that the wrestling column somehow decreased Marvez's credibility as a football writer. None of us, including you, can speak for the readers, but it doesn't appear that it's an issue with editors who hire for pretty good newspapers.

 

And when the guy who used to write the soap opera capsules starts covering city hall, people don't remember what he used to do? Keep trying.

Here is a better analogy: The guy who came out with the book that first accused Bush of cocaine usage had written books before ... most of them about Star Trek trivia. The Bush book, regardless how well researched and how relaible the sources, was discounted once that came to light. And rightly so.

I'm sure Marvez is a fine journalist. I'm sure Stone Cold Steve Austin is a fine athlete.

 

So Bush never used cocaine? I didn't get that memo.

 

You're either missing the point or don't remember when that story broke. The book was the first to report Bush's coacine use. The guy wrote about Star Trek in the past, so his claims were discounted and he was ridiculed. Others came along later to report the coacine again.

And since you're Mr. Literal, let me give you a taste of your own witty retorts:

Hey, I didn't know people on message boards received memos regarding presidential coacine use. Where do I sign up for those?

Ho ho! :

 

So then why was the book "rightly" dismissed?

 

Because the guy had zero credibility. I think a claim of presidential cocaine use would be rightly dismissed if it appeared in a church bulletin. The reporter's credentials are integral to a story that big.

 

But he was (apparently) right.

Does that mean a girl of "questionable" character can't ever accuse anyone of rape?

 

That is really absurd reasoning, Bomber. There are New York Post alumni at The New York Times. There are former sports journalists who now run entire newsrooms at large newspapers. There are former lifestyles reporters who are now serious investigative journalists. There are former agate clerks and former employees of horseshit weeklies and trade magazines working in key jobs at some of the nation's best papers.

Hell, in one state they even elected a former pro wrestler as governor.

 

Can we please get back to how fun it would be to cover a Nick Saban team?