So Jemele Hill got suspended from ESPN

Fractious is probably the wrong word to describe what it would take me to bypass a writer.

There are a couple of HOF assholes I have dealt with who are simply not worth calling. Period.

 

Supervisor probably would have said that, you're right. But there's edgy and there's careless. Hitler references that aren't historical, like someone else mentioned, have no business in columns like that. And as a columnist who spends just as much time writing about race issues (real or imagined) in sports as the actual sports themselves, she had to know what she was in for.

She's not a racist or an anti-Semite, she's an idiot who used a lousy comparison and got nailed for her hypocrisy. And the fact that she had the gall to get indignant about it made it worse.

 

hondo, I don't read the Kos. Life's too short.

 

Hitler references are tacky. When I get tempted to use one, I try to be more contemporary and cite Saddam Hussein instead.

 

The grossest thing in this entire episode? Some at ESPN, maybe even lots of people, maybe think this is a good thing. "Hey, they're talking about her. It gets us hits."

I will never understand that mentality as long as I am in this business.

Gratuity is the purveyance of pornographers and charlatans, not sports columnists. We often use satire or hyperbole in making our points, but disingenuous opinions for outrage's sake (or stupidity's sake; bad either way), do not belong in mainstream discussion of a topic.

Jemele Hill and those who pull this trick are fools. If we, as journalists, learn anything, we must learn that you must stay true to yourself and write what you believe. Do not bend to the will of selling newspapers or gathering hits. If that means you staying at a smaller newspaper or media outlet, so be it. At least you get to sleep at night.

 

If they bring to light controversial topics, and pick a side after careful observation and research, no problem. It's when columnists are flippant and irresponsible and create controversy in places where it doesn't exist (i.e. the NBA finals and the Celtics.)

I don't want to paint with a broad brush, but columns for the primary purpose of instigating, well, that's not where I want to be. Even if it means a job at ESPN.

 

Fantastic! A CentralIllinoisan message board post is worth 20 hits! [/bristol insiders]

 

Could not agree more with CI. Sensationalism over substance. Sad but true.

 

It was a shitty turn of a phrase anyways. Who the fuck has ever claimed that Hitler was a victim?

It doesn't even make sense.

 

who the fuck ever claimed JH could write a column?

 

Would you like to blame Javon Walker for Darrent Williams being gunned down?

I laughed when I saw this sentence:

Reflect on what? Are you kidding me? I have to agree with Mizzou on the fact that ESPN wants (or demands) their writers to sensationalize stories, rather than report or offer salient observations. I had a hard time understanding her columns when she first started with ESPN, but she's probably the only one that I can read on Page 2.

ESPN is full of shit for "asking" her to take some time off. Are they going to force her into sensitivity training? What the hell happened to letting writers write and if they write something that pisses people off, they can either apologize or stand by it, without the paper, or fools like ESPN go into the PC mode of "I don't think you should have written that. Our readers would feel bad about that."

Someone made a good point today. He said that it's interesting that if someone uses Hitler as an analogy or in a story, that person gets fucking grilled. Let it be Hussein, Hirohito, or Mussolini, everyone gets a chuckle or understand what was written.

I understood what she wrote. I don't think it was worth all of the bullshit that's being said about her on this board.

And who in the fuck ever thought that he can write a better column that JH anyway? :

 

The columnist's greatest tool (and skill) is perspective ... bringing it to readers who might not have it the way they do. The Hitler reference showed a lack of it that would be hard to swallow from a junior high writer, let alone someone who has risen to the point where she writes for the self-proclaimed "World Wide Leader." I agree, ESPN is as much to blame as is she and I also agree that it's just not that big a deal in the big scheme of the world. But in our little profession she had a very bad day, as did anybody sitting on the desk that let it see the light of day.