Kornheiser Takes Buyout

Well, according to a link on Romenesko, David Broder's taking the buyout. too. And at the same time becoming a contract writer for the Post. So he not only gets the buyout, he gets to keep his office at the Post and write his column. If the Post doesn't have a problem with this kind of thing, I don't see why we should.

 

Don't feel I was disrespectful, Guy. Gave him his props for when he really worked at this stuff. But when somebody is out front telling us how little he works at something and how little he follows sports and how little he flies anywhere and how little he actually talks to athletes, etc., don't blame us if we start to believe him.

 

I've said parts of Tony's schtick irritate the hell out of me. They always have and probably always will. Some of the things Michael Wilbon does bug the daylights out of me, but after meeting him in person, I can separate the persona from the person.

You don't have to like his schlocky stuff, but at his best, Tony was always a compelling writer. I can still quote parts of his more serious work verbatim. I can still recall his Dan Jansen column and relive the joy I felt when Jansen finally got a gold medal in his final Olympic event. In fact, it's a little dusty just writing that.

I remember his touching tribute to Arthur Ashe, who was every bit as dignified as some of us in this business are bombastic. I can feel the grief he must have felt for Ashe as I remember how he led us through the journey into appreciating the man's life and also his career as a tennis player.

Tony may not be my favorite columnist of all time. He may not be the funniest. But let's balance our feelings about his quadruple-dipping with a body of work that includes some damn good writing. It's a shame that writing will no longer grace The Washington Post's pages.

 

Superb post.
Well said.

 

Can someone tell me a little bit about what kind of columnist/writer Kornheiser was when he was on top of his game?

Like I said, all I know is the guy who brags about being uninformed and not paying attention to sports. I'm too young to recall the other incarnation of Kornheiser.

I'm not trying to dog him. I seriously am curious.

 

Decline his buyout check? Last week people here were bitching about the Boston Globe denying a buyout to someone who already had another job lined up. So there's no winning.

I don't think it's Kornheiser's responsibility to take care of Post employees -- it's the Post's responsibility. The company makes a hell of a lot more money than Kornheiser does.

 

I have absolutely no problem with somebody quadruple-dipping. I mean, you do good work for a couple decades and when you've reached a point where you can reap the financial rewards for your good work, you're supposed to turn it down? For what? Some noble sense of obligation to an industry that doesn't value its employees? I don't have any problem with guys making a big name for themselves in newspapers, then shifting primarily into other lines of media, and finally punting newspapers to the curb altogether. The only issue I would have is when the writer's new careers demand his time to the point where he can no longer do his newspaper job adequately; but even then, the fault lies more with the newspaper for putting up with it than with the writer for getting away with it. As much as newspapers screw over their employees, I'm not exactly sorry to see a few newspaper employees get to screw newspapers back.

 

I'll let him do the honors for you.

Here.

Here.

Here.

 

OK, that's tremendous stuff.

Why does he like to act like a dumbass buffoon who doesn't care about anything?