Mariotti vs. the Sun-Times sports staff

His (sustained!) blindness to what the White Sox were in 2005, in large part because he had a hardon for various pivotal Chisox leadership personnel, was pathetic.

But, what did you expect? . . .

 

I repeat: "If I were Cooke, I wouldn't allow such a war of words between members of my staff to play out in my paper."

Nearly 15 years ago, I was a vice president of a student group at my community college. Two members of said group were screaming at each other in the student center, making complete spectacles of themselves. I called them into an unoccupied room and told them point blank, "I don't know what the problem is between the two of you and I don't care. But the two of you have to work together. If you can't, I'll find two people who can."

I have zero tolerance for unprofessionalism. And I especially don't want to see unprofessionalism played out in the pages of my newspaper.

 

so how did that work out then?

 

They STFU and didn't repeat the spectacle.

 

Good for you. Step two was replacing the blanks with a live cartridge, right?

 

Had they gone farther, I would have. Even though at the time I didn't have the authority to fire people.

 

Jay Mariotti as a "wordsmith." Hilarious.

 

I think all of this in-house sniping only worsens our reputation among readers. Yes, Jay is wrong for not venturing into locker rooms to give athletes or coaches a chance to respond to him. As a fellow columnist, it is the No. 1 responsibility I have once a column is printed. He's also wrong to call out his colleagues in print.
But that's Jay. Rick Telander shouldn't lower himself by trying to play in Jay's playground. He's better than that. Far better. And the editor or sports editor of the Sun-Times needs to call everyone into a room and tell them that while they don't have to like each other, any more name-calling in print will have severe consequences.

 

I don't disagree, but where was the SE when Mariotti was getting in his shots? If he's going to demand a truce, then he should also demand an apology from Mariotti to give a chunk of the sports staff some measure of reassurance that someone (besides Telander) has their back.

 

This isn't something that should be hashed out in print.

Obviously, Telander is 100 percent right, but that doesn't matter.

 

So Jay gets a complete and utter pass on this, from management?

Gaaaag.

 

Some papers do this playfully. DLB and Greg Cote did that very well, but it was clear it was all in fun.

No paper should allow any employee to take a shot at another employee in the paper or online ever.