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Simmons Cliff Notes

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by maberger, Oct 2, 2008.

  1. bake1234

    bake1234 Member

    I used to like Simmons a lot. Read every piece of his for a year or two and even bought his book. But as far as I'm concerned, he jumped the shark a while ago. I don't know what event it was...maybe it was him getting more space in The Mag. Maybe it was him trying to do multimedia with his podcast. Whatever it was, I can't read him anymore.

    His schtick got old in my book. He doesn't do any reporting, even though that could make his stuff infinitely better. Most of his pieces end up the same: yay (insert Boston team here) + 80s movie reference x 2,000 words. Maybe I just got tired of his Boston fanboy crap. Either way, he's one step below Stephen A. Smith in my book.
     
  2. MacDaddy

    MacDaddy Active Member

    And he'll never do any reporting, because his whole schtick is his idea that he can get better insight from his couch than, you know, actual reporting.
     
  3. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    This is the V8 moment regarding most bloggers, too, the reality that they cannot gain the insights that access provides and maintain their cheeky, edgy, rip-at-will styles without paying some price on a human level. It's why beat reporters get accused of not being hard enough on the home team (they need to maintain open lines of communication with the folks they cover). It's why columnists become their staff's designated hit man and (the worst of them) filch their beat guys' quotes and stop going into clubhouses (or go in simply to be human pinatas, since there are a certain number of players and coaches who hate that writer). It's why bloggers ultimately have little to say worth reading on a regular basis, IMHO and in terms of what I find interesting, because their opinions are no different or better than a hundred other knuckleheads I'll encounter today.

    Bloggers who rip on mainstream sports journalists act as if they've invented a new way of being all things to all people. They're delusional.
     
  4. bigbadeagle

    bigbadeagle Member

    I guess that's the thing that gets under my skin about Simmons and his ilk the most — they cherish and trumpet the fact that they're not beat writers, yet they take in all their information gathered by writers putting up with petulant players, megalomaniacal (sic - I know it's spelled wrong, but I'm too damn lazy right now to look it up) owners, coaches and executives and agents so sleazy they'd give cheap whores a bad name.
    Anyone looking for insight on the how and why of sports ought not to set foot in Mr. Simmons' ring. All you'll get is some guy's opinion based on his own observations from his couch (not the field, not the locker room, not the batting cage, walk through, morning skate nor shootaround) and one or two calls from his buddies "in the know."
     
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