Gainesville Columnist hits a new low

[SEC Guy]

http://www.marknagi.com/archive/2011-01/pat-dooleys-questionable-judgment

Makes fun of Beamer for burns he had as a child.

 

[Point of Order]

http://www.marknagi.com/archive/2011-01/pat-dooleys-questionable-judgment

Makes fun of Beamer for burns he had as a child.

Don't drink and tweet, people.

 

[Point of Order]

Also, pretty douchey move and bad "journalism" for Mark Nagi, whoever that is, to call a journalist out for an inappropriate tweet without giving them the opportunity to comment.

 

[dixiehack]

Apparently works TV in Knoxville. I'm sure he has no incentive to take shots at a guy in Gainesville. No sirree.

 

[Point of Order]

Also, pretty douchey move and bad "journalism" for Mark Nagi, whoever that is, to call a journalist out for an inappropriate tweet without giving them the opportunity to comment.

How can you defend making fun of someone who was burned as a child?

In what world is that a defense of making someone who was burned as a child?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

For those that don't know, Frank Beamer is the head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. At the age of 7, a gasoline explosion caught his clothes on fire. He lived, but for the next three years he underwent roughly 30 operations. Scarring is still visible on his face and neck.

 

[Double Down]

Also, pretty douchey move and bad "journalism" for Mark Nagi, whoever that is, to call a journalist out for an inappropriate tweet without giving them the opportunity to comment.

Um, isn't Dooley quoted in that blog? Didn't he respond to Nagi sending it to him? Wasn't that a request for comment?

 

[Point of Order]

For those that don't know, Frank Beamer is the head coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies. At the age of 7, a gasoline explosion caught his clothes on fire. He lived, but for the next three years he underwent roughly 30 operations. Scarring is still visible on his face and neck.

Yeah, I already knew that. I thought you'd be better at reading comprehension with as worldly as you claim to be.

 

[Point of Order]

Also, pretty douchey move and bad "journalism" for Mark Nagi, whoever that is, to call a journalist out for an inappropriate tweet without giving them the opportunity to comment.

Um, isn't Dooley quoted in that blog? Didn't he respond to Nagi sending it to him? Wasn't that a request for comment?

No, he blogs, then says "I'm emailing this blog posting to Pat, and while I don't expect a response, I will post it at marknagi.com if I get one." then Pat responds. I don't know Pat Dooley and, as I've already said, it looks like he drunk tweeted or otherwise showed a serious lapse of judgment. That notwithstanding, if you claim to be a professional journalist and you're about to blast someone on your blog it is only fair to give them the opportunity to explain themselves BEFORE you blast them. A simple tweet and e-mail to Pat, wait half an hour to see if he responds, and I've got no problem with it.

 

[Moderator1]

There's a current SID in the ACC who is a good guy and a friend - and he lurks here. Whenever I post something positive about Beamer, I get an e-mail that says something like, "Why don't you pull your head out of Beamer's ass?" or something like that. Mostly meant light-hearted but there's some seriousness to it.

I'll risk my pal's wrath here.

Anyone who has spent any kind of extended time around Beamer will tell you he's a very good guy. When I was working on a biography of him for now-defunct Sports Publishing (crossthread), I talked to a woman who flew in from California every year for his women's football clinic. Every year. She kept calling him Frank. It wasn't out of disrespect. That's how he made people feel around him. He was Frank, no different from you except he coached a football team.

His mom died on a Thursday night when VT played Maryland. At the urging of his three older siblings, he coached that night. Tech won big so most stories were about done but still, it was a Thursday night. We had deadlines. Yet when his PC was done, the entire media throng lined up as he came off the podum and shook his hand, some even gave him a bit of a man hug.

Shameless homers? Call us that if you want, I'll live with it like I'll live with the e-mail that is coming. I prefer to think it was a group of humans and professionals paying respects to another human and professional who treated us with respect and our professions with respect, even when we drove him crazy (which was fairly often).

Beamer has always been very self-concious about the scar, often positioning himself during on-camera interviews to obscure it as best he could. You had an easier time getting him to talk politics than you did about the fire, the scar, the whole deal.

After his mom died, he was very open about how much she meant to him and her strong influence in his life. She was a teacher and Beamer and his wife now collect books under the charity name Herma's Readers. He also had a freshman that same year she died, Macho Harris (now with the Redskins), who was burned in a fire at his home on the night Beamer was scheduled to make a home visit. After that, Beamer was a little more willing to talk about the fire and the aftermath. ESPN did an excellent feature (yes, I said that) on Harris and Beamer.

I don't know Pat Dooley and I don't know the guy who blogged about it. Dooley fessed up to his mistake, so there's that. But, Lord, how can you even think to ridicule a guy - a public figure or not - for something like that?

 

[Point of Order]

Moddy,

I agree 100%. Terrible judgment shown in tweeting that, no doubt. My only point was if the blogger gave Pat the opportunity before he posted his blog he might have tripped over himself apologizing and trying to retract.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

And Dooley's not only proved the columnist's point, he managed to make himself look like a bigger asshole with his response.

Had he just tweeted, "Yeah, I ****ed up,", I'd have a little more respect for the guy, and figured he just made a mistake. Instead, he gets all snarky because he got called out. Suck it up and be a man.

 

[Double Down]

Moddy,

I agree 100%. Terrible judgment shown in tweeting that, no doubt. My only point was if the blogger gave Pat the opportunity before he posted his blog he might have tripped over himself apologizing and trying to retract.

Unless the response from Dooley was "Someone hacked my Twitter account, I did not say that" I'm not sure what would have compelled Nagi to retract anything. What explanation could have justified it other than that? None.

So if your point is he should have waited to see if it was really Pat Dooley, I agree. Other than that, I think giving him opportunity to comment after the fact was fine.

 

[playthrough]

Dooley's been around a while. No excuse. Step away from the Twitter, Pat.

 

[Peytons place]

I'm just surprised by Dooley's response. You'd think being a journalist might prepare someone on the proper way to respond to criticism. I think if he'd said he made a bad joke, and knowing what he does now, he regrets it and will be more cautious in the future, it wouldn't have been a big deal, and may have even made Nagi's blog seem like an overreaction.

 

[What Deadline]

Dooley was wrong, and Nagi's blog was an overreaction.

Knowing Dooley, I have no doubt he meant no harm. It was a bad joke and very distasteful. I'm sure he'd take it back if he could. That's the danger of Twitter.

Nagi making this out to be a huge deal actually made it a bigger deal than it was. And I'm sure Knoxville's hatred of Gainesville played no part in the blog.

 

[hondo]

There's a current SID in the ACC who is a good guy and a friend - and he lurks here. Whenever I post something positive about Beamer, I get an e-mail that says something like, "Why don't you pull your head out of Beamer's ass?" or something like that. Mostly meant light-hearted but there's some seriousness to it.

I'll risk my pal's wrath here.

Anyone who has spent any kind of extended time about Beamer will tell you he's a very good guy. When I was working on a biography of him for now-defunct Sports Publishing (crossthread), I talked to a woman who flew in from California every year for his women's football clinic. Every year. She kept calling him Frank. It wasn't out of disrespect. That's how he made people feel around him. He was Frank, no different from you except he coached a football team.

His mom died on a Thursday night when VT played Maryland. At the urging of his three older siblings, he coached that night. Tech won big so most stories were about done but still, it was a Thursday night. We had deadlines. Yet when his PC was done, the entire media throng lined up as he came off the podum and shook his hand, some even gave him a bit of a man hug.

Shameless homers? Call us that if you want, I'll live with it like I'll live with the e-mail that is coming. I prefer to think it was a group of humans and professionals paying respects to another human and professional who treated us with respect and our professions with respect, even when we drove him crazy (which was fairly often).

Beamer has always been very self-concious about the scar, often positioning himself during on-camera interviews to obscure it as best he could. You had an easier time getting him to talk politics than you did about the fire, the scar, the whole deal.

After his mom died, he was very open about how much she meant to him and her strong influence in his life. She was a teacher and Beamer and his wife now collect books under the charity name Herma's Readers. He also had a freshman that same year she died, Macho Harris (now with the Redskins), who was burned in a fire at his home on the night Beamer was scheduled to make a home visit. After that, Beamer was a little more willing to talk about the fire and the aftermath. ESPN did an excellent feature (yes, I said that) on Harris and Beamer.

I don't know Pat Dooley and I don't know the guy who blogged about it. Dooley fessed up to his mistake, so there's that. But, Lord, how can you even think to ridicule a guy - a public figure or not - for something like that?

Tremendous post by Moddy. As someone who also has had many dealings with Frank Beamer, it's very easy to like the guy. With Bowden gone, he's the college coach who is the absolute best with the media. His assistants stay for years. His players love him. While his teams might tend to under-achieve a bit, the Virginia Tech fans would have him forever if they could. Can anyone name any NCAA rules issues at Tech? With the exception of Michael and Marcus Vick, I don't know of a whole lot of character issues with his players. And look at the ones who make the NFL: almost to a man, they're blue-collar guys with a tremendous sense of team.

Maybe Pat didn't know the full background about Beamer's injury. Hope that's the case. But there might be a lot of fallout for him like this because of how people feel about Beamer.

 

[writingump]

As someone who's covered Beamer for a decade, I'd have to second Moddy's feelings about him. Best coach to deal with, year-in and year-out, and a class guy through and through. Showed up at a spring practice one day back in 2005 after giving sports information a couple of days notice and had a photog with me who'd never been there before. First thing I know, Frank is greeting us, asking how I've been and then welcoming our shooter to campus. I wouldn't know Pat Dooley from Bill Dooley, nor do I know Mark Nagi, nor did I read what either had to say, but anyone who makes fun of someone's childhood burns is a scumbag -- pure and simple.

 

[Tarheel316]

I've never heard a bad word about Beamer. There's no excuse for what Dooley did.

 

[Point of Order]

Anyone who is saying there's an excuse for what Dooley did please stand up. No one? Thanks.