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Le Batard opines on sports journalism

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by GuessWho, Aug 8, 2010.

Page 5 of 7
  1. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    Big Brown lost the Belmont when Dutrow stoked him up to the extent that he was able to win the Derby from the 20 hole. . . and a number of people here know I projected this the night before the Belmont, saying he'd probably be off the board. He was a hell of a horse, and Dickie got his
    Derby, but by putting so many of his chips on that spot of the table, he made
    the Belmont problematic.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Aug 10, 2010
    #49
  2. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Can only thank a higher being that they don't look or think anything like that self-stroking yahoo.

    Unbefarkinglievable.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Aug 10, 2010
    #50
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I'm curious about what "don't look like" him is supposed to mean?

    Is that a race reference?

    A body shape reference?

    And why the fuck should it matter?
     
    Dick Whitman, Aug 10, 2010
    #51
  4. Kid Presentable

    Kid Presentable Member

    DLB spent a nice chunk of the show yesterday talking about his column, and how anyone in the media who didn't like it is thin-skinned and intellectually devoid.
     
    Kid Presentable, Aug 10, 2010
    #52
  5. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The media bashing doesn't bother me 1/10th as much as the bald hero worship of athletes by a grown ass man.
     
    Dick Whitman, Aug 10, 2010
    #53
  6. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member


    How convenient for him that his so-called "position" legitimizes his prevailing
    (prone) posture.
     
    Ben_Hecht, Aug 10, 2010
    #54
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Anyone who liked LeBatard's column needs to imagine someone like David Brooks writing the same column about Congressmen.
     
    Dick Whitman, Aug 10, 2010
    #55
  8. Elliotte Friedman

    Elliotte Friedman Moderator Staff Member

    That's funny, Kid Presentable, because I spent some time yesterday between tennis matches wondering if, in responding to this topic, I had been thin-skinned. (But not "intellectually devoid." I gave up on that years ago.)

    Aside from the Van Gundy point, that column is so full of shit it's incredible. And it starts with the lede. For LeBatard to say that reporters don't get questioned/roasted about their work is so incredibly wrong, I honestly can't find the words to describe it. Maybe we don't have microphones stuck in our faces, but look at the online comments below any of our articles/blogs, whatever. Is he going to seriously claim SOME of the things written there are are easier to put up with than the five-minute post-game scrum an athlete must do with reporters? Give me a break.

    Aside from Van Gundy, you know what most of the people in that article are complaining about? They don't like to be questioned. And, even more importantly, they not used to being questioned. How many people in their lives are honest/tough enough to stand up to Mark Cuban or Chad Johnson or Terrell Owens or Isiah Thomas? (I admit I like Isiah personally because of how well he treated me as a stupid rookie radio reporter in 1995.) The answer is: almost nobody. So, some reporters question their failings, and they can't deal with it. That's what this is all about.

    What LeBatard misses is that accountability is a great thing. And that goes both ways. Very early in my career, one of my mentors, Dave Perkins of The Toronto Star, just destroyed Tony Fernandez in a column when the Blue Jays re-acquired him in 1993. The day it appeared in print, he showed up in the team's clubhouse, stuck has tape recorder in Fernandez's face, and basically said, "What do you have to say for yourself?" The other players totally respected that. I haven't forgotten it. During the Beijing Olympics, I asked the worst question of my career during a live interview, and was ripped in print across the country. You know what? I deserved it.

    If you do something wrong, you get called on it. What's wrong with that?
     
    Elliotte Friedman, Aug 10, 2010
    #56
  9. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    "The result is more reckless, and less credible, than anything we've ever seen."

    Less credible than the days of reporting that Babe Ruth had a stomachache??

    Anyhoo...Van Gundy does indeed have a good point. Otherwise, it's LeBastard licking jock taint.
     
    dooley_womack1, Aug 10, 2010
    #57
  10. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Bottom line: LeBatard doesn't think the cool kids should be questioned. Because he wants the cool kids to like him.

    It's like junior high.
     
    Dick Whitman, Aug 10, 2010
    #58
  11. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    And less credible than the days when the story of Wilt's 100-point game was sent to the wire services and to The Philadelphia Inquirer by . . . the 76ers' PR director? At least the Inquirer hid it by making the byline "Special to the Inquirer" instead of "By Harvey Pollack."
     
    BTExpress, Aug 10, 2010
    #59
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    For the record, not all the commenters after LeBatard's column are media-bashing. Plenty are LeBatard bashing:


    Emmanuel_Samington wrote on 08/09/2010 09:17:36 PM:

    This is what I got out of this column: Dan LeBatard poses no discernable life skills. Either that or he has become extremely lazy and is wasting his talent at this point. Try harder, Dan, pretty please. No more quotes pulled from your radio show. No more imbecilic perspectives conceived by your underdeveloped mind. No more writing about yourself because you are not interesting. In a word, go live a life and report back to me. Here is what you fail to realize: Dumb athletes should be treated as such. To put them on a pedestal even more than they already are is doing a disservice to our society. If an athlete is dumb, you call him dumb. It doesn't get any "realer" than that.

    Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/08/v-fullstory/1766393/being-real-just-isnt-worth-the.html#ixzz0wDcmTaOE
     
    Dick Whitman, Aug 10, 2010
    #60
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