Wilbon at Wrigley: Yes or no?

But mostly true.

 

Sing,

Let us agree to disagree. I'm not gonna chastise this guy, just think he may have made a bad decision. If I were in his situation, I would have respectfully declined.

 

I'd say very. But who really cares? My opinion isn't going to change your mind.

 

True in this case.

 

I can see where ESPN would have no misgivings about this. I can't imagine the powers that be at WaPo were at all amused.

There is the thought that the vast majority of us started out as sports fans, and it'd be unrealistic to expect us to completely turn our backs on that, but I really have to question the decision Wilbon made to do it.

 

Always considered Wilbon to be one of the hardest-working columnists, too. That's why his PTI gig seemed cool, since he didn't immediately start shortcutting his day job. (Not sure if that's true these days.)

My biggest concern with the Wrigley stuff is not how it compromises Wilbon -- compromise away, at those price tags, I'm sure he feels. And any compromise is up to the WaPo to police. No, my concern is how people see Wilbon and other "celeb" sports "journalists" and assume that every one of us should be acting that way. In other words, why are we such grumps that we don't openly wear our favorite teams' jerseys or refer to them as "my" Cubs or whatever? They wonder why an adversarial relationship with the folks we cover is warranted. They figure we all should be buddy-buddy with the players, coaches, managers, execs and owners. Or that we should openly feud with some of them, rather than striving for professional detachment.

Wilbon and others completely blur the lines most of us have drilled into us and strive to uphold. That makes our jobs tougher.

Probably no one, including the blurrers, gives a damn about that.

 

Spot on.

The reality is that there is a small percentage of average viewers or readers who care about this. By small, a couple of hundred nationally at best outside of the industry who really care about ethics.

How many average readers cared that Mike Barnicle lacked ethics while working at the Boston Globe? After all, he was a beloved columnist.

This type of stuff only matters to us. Which is fine, since upholding ethical standards should be about living up to a code and risk being shamed by your peers if one violates that code.

 

Agreed that it's a gray area, but he's a total Cubbies homer on the air. If that's OK, then so is this.

 

I'm fine with this as long as Wilbon didn't touch Soriano's biceps suggestively.

 

He’s more of a TV personality, and he doesnt cover the Cubs. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Other ESPN guys and broadcasters have done it, I think.

 

I don't consider it a conflict of interest in the most literal sense of the
word.

However, we're supposed to steer clear of both real and perceived
conflicts of interest. This might fall under the latter category.

That said, I don't have a huge with it being in Wilbon's primary market.
He's a Cubs fanboi looser like I'm a Nats fanboi looser.

 

Also, thanks for the unsaid mental picture of Wilbon in a sundress...