Kindred on Albom receiving this year's Red Smith Award

Ah, but it was a Sunday pre-run section. It went to bed Friday - likely during the day, when the higher-ups were there, not a skeleton weekend crew. You can bet your bottom dollar that the higher-ups knew exactly what was on the op-ed section's front page - and what Mr. Albom had written. He didn't pull off this lie himself.

 

Sam couldn't agree with you more. Jim - sorry to disagree with you, old friend, but I must this time.

 

I think your second graph jumped the shark. Big time.

 

Was the shark drunk?

 

Jim, have you changed your mind on that? Or do you think someone who deserved to be fired a few years ago also should have won the award? (And with just the brief "given annually by the APSE to a person who has made 'major contributions to sports journalism' " explanation, I think it's reasonable Albom deserved the honor.)

But he was willing to chance deceiving readers to ensure he had a better story. That's a far worse crime than deceiving a boss or potential future boss.

Ideally, we're not writing stories editors will find worthwhile. We're writing stories readers will find worthwhile.

I don't think it's fair to criticize his editors. It's easy to sit from afar and say how you'd handle it. But if push came to shove, would you really reel in Albom if you were his editor?

His editors are in an unbelievably difficult position. Albom generates a huge amount of revenue for the Free Press. If they fired him and it hurt the bottom line, that could lead to someone else being laid off. Obviously, that would be far from ideal.

There's no perfect way to handle the situation.

 

No, Dan, I still think he probably should have been fired.

I don't even think he should have won the award ... now. I wouldn't have voted for him ... now. But on the whole, he's one of the greatest sportswriters of this generation. Just like athletes make mistakes and are eventually still honored for their contributions on the field, I think Albom deserves - eventually - to be evaluated on more than one mistake. Because regardless of how you view that mistake, it was one moment, and not a moment in which he drunkenly killed a family of six, no matter how folks around here seem to lose perspective.

But all that aside, Kindred's column was bad, a passive aggressive piece of nonsense in which he never really says what he wants you to think he believes. It reads like it was half-heartedly mailed in to gin up web traffic (mission accomplished, I guess).

The only reason folks like the column is because they like the general idea. I get that.

I just think anyone who appreciates good column writing should be able to take a step back and see why Kindred fails here, even if you think Albom is the devil. It's a bad column, plain and simple, starting with the decision not to say anything before he voted, continuing with an awful first four five graphs, the decision not to tell us how he voted, and the lack of courage to ever come out and say Albom doesn't deserve the award.

 

Congrats. You're the first guy who ever thought Dave Kindred wrote a "bad" column on anything.

 

Oh, Hondo, come on, anyone who's spent 5 minutes in this business knows every columnist has written plenty of bad columns. Heck, I'd imagine Dave Kindred probably won't have a problem admitting that. The world isn't black-and-white. Some days, your bad guys disappoint you by doing something good, and some days your good guys aren't quite as good as you'd like them to be.

At least since, you know, I was 12 and grew out of hero-worshipping selected athletes, sportswriters, politicians, etc.

 

mortal sin? typical sportswriter hyperbole.

a little perspective: albom's transgression was nowhere near the worst. that would be corruption and conflict of interest - taking money or favors to write something.

people in this business get overwrought about mid-level mistakes. save it for the real shit. like when a few years ago The Sporting News gave preferred advertisers control over editorial content.

 

I don't agree with the poster who said he made all of us look bad. He made himself look bad which and because of his place in the writing world has to take a lot more shit than most people. I'm sure he doesn't enjoy dealing with that every day.

 

Grave mistakes usually involve someone dying.

Hence, the word grave.

For a bunch of people wrapping themselves around the flag of journalism, we sure do exaggerate around here a lot.

 

This Albom column was actually one of Kindred's better - and more timely - efforts for the NSJC.