Kornheiser Takes Buyout

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2008/05/kornheiser_takes_buyout.html

 

This was kind of a no-brainer, no? Dude already has three or four other jobs.

 

Damn. Tony was one of the people I read when I was a kid who helped inspire me to get into this field. As much as I was sometimes was annoyed by his schlock, he often made salient points within the schlock. And ... he put my name in the paper back in 1992, so he can't be all bad, right?

And when he turned serious (columns about the death of Arthur Ashe and Dan Jansen winning gold in his last Olympic race come to mind), he could do so with the best of them.

 

I hope my first post on this thread didn't come off as callous or anti-Kornheiser. Oddly enough, it was his radio show that finally convinced me I wanted to be a sports writer. I had kicked around the idea in my head, but listening to his wit and wisdom on the radio every day prompted me to read more of his work, and that was a big factor in my taking the plunge into this business.

So as newspapers go in the toilet, and TK flushes his newspaper career, thanks a million for luring me into this business, Tony!

 

Tony's not the only one from Sports Dept.

My Post friend says a full-time editor is taking the buyout and getting a USA Today desk opening, and the night deputy chief and two part-time copy editors took it too.

 

He made vague references to this on PTI the last week or so.

I think he mentioned to Wilbon about not typing anymore or somnething like that.

 

This is fine. I didn't know him in his heyday, but to me, there is nothing more annoying than a sports writer who constantly brags about not knowing anything about sports. I know it's part schtick, but I'm just not into that. I think a lot of it is drudgery, too, as do most of us. But there is nothing cute about not being informed.

 

I know he plays it up, but to think that a person can be all knowing about football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, olympic sports, boxing, soccer and whatever else is out there is unreasonable.

 

Tremendous talent and terrific radio host. I love him on PTI, too, because when he's there, it reduces the likelihood of seeing DLB or Ryan as sub. But TK was being paid a ton to do virtually nothing for the Post anyway, so this just formalizes it.

Sorry, but the image of TK hitching up his britches, sniffing and calling himself a "newspaper guy" is, at this point, like Barney Fife standing tall and proclaiming himself a "lawman." It does a disservice to every sportswriter who actually gets on airplanes, attends practices, cultivates sources and busts a gut writing compelling stuff for his readers.

Did anyone catch the reference Tuesday when TK, during the Sorenstam segment, said something about men learning to go out and earn a living for their families? The way this guy was triple- or quadruple-dipping, without giving any one of his bosses more than four hours a day, you'd think he was the Lead Hunter & Gatherer in the cave.

My biggest regret re: TK is that he gravitated to the quick and easy broadcast bucks, rather than rededicate himself to writing a four-days-a-week general interest column, magazine pieces or even books. He sold out his writing talents.

 

Total bullshit, Tony.