Comments on: Why Don’t Journalists Call Out Their Own?

By: Wednesday Morning Starting Five: 5 Years to Yell and Black | The Starting Five

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:44:22 +0000

[...] I will never understand why sports writers fail to call out their peers. [...]

By: Friday Fire: What is the Responsibility of the Media? | The Starting Five

Friday Fire: What is the Responsibility of the Media? | The Starting Five — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:47:02 +0000

[...] You all know, we’ve done many posts on the subject (what I can find): here, here (digging the snow), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and last but not least, here. [...]

By: Ball in Europe – European Basketball Blog » Blog Archive » Best of the (basketball) net: Week of July 18

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:39:35 +0000

[...] this week – i mean, even for them. Check out “If you have a weight problem, face it” and “Why don’t journalists call out their own?” to warm up, before soberly contemplating Starting Five’s take on the nasty little incident [...]

By: MODI

MODI — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:39:51 +0000

I didn’t see TSR but I can only imagine… my own Mount Rushmore of worst reporters are Albom, Lupica, Rick reilly, Mariotti, and Whitlock…

I don’t put Jim rome with the others because Rome is really just putting on a show, and doesn’t even take himself seriously like the other dudes. He is just going for a laugh.

now Albom just can’t contain his disgust, especially when talking about black athletes. It just drips off him. If I see that dude in an alley, I;m going to kick his ass. Tell it Miz.

By: Kirk Mitchell

Kirk Mitchell — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:10:28 +0000

It’s a mixture of envy and ego. All of us want to be famous athletes, but sports writers maybe more so, so what happens ESPN is created and eventually sports writers became “onscreen personalities” and you get guys who go out of the way to become the story, instead of telling it, and they become the Jim Romes, Colin Cowherds, Mike Lupicas, Mitch Alboms, etc… they all become caricatures of themselves much the way the athletes they criticize do. The envy comes from the huge changes that have happened in sports. Old white sports writers can’t connect with young black athletes that are now making millions, while young, and old black and even young white sports writers can. You damn right Lupica, and Albom are pissed and will do anything to satisfy their egos.

By: Tony McClean

Tony McClean — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:14:50 +0000

It’s a reminder of that old bumper sticker, “The Moral Majority is neither”…..

By: OffMainMedia

OffMainMedia — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:06:49 +0000

The unofficial “Fourth Branch” thinks this is a monarchy and that the people must look to them on how to react to news stories. I became interested in the media because I liked the responsibility of delivering objective news and information to the masses. I feel that many journalist either found law school too challenging or they were in too much of a hurry to serve 15 years as a lawyer before being appointed to the bench. They find it easier to be a journalist and become a judge from day one.

By: Matthew Fudge

Matthew Fudge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:29:29 +0000

Miz, these guys run in the same circles. Not too many of them will channel their inner Cosell and put their peers on blast when necessary.

By: Matthew Fudge

Matthew Fudge — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:28:02 +0000

I might be wrong, but newspapaers as we know it will be dead within five years. People want informed, smart, objective reporting (and not just in sports). Newspapers, by and large, don’t supply that. They don’t call out politicians when they mess up (still don’t know Bush ran amok for eight years). And they’ve been arrogant to think that the internet wouldn’t be a difference-maker the way it is now.

By: Okori

Okori — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:55:20 +0000

@ AWB: it was the drugs and the concussions that did it.

By: Mizzo

Mizzo — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:43:43 +0000

AWB, perfect example. It’s in their voice inflection and the subtle violence (hate) surrounding their words.

By: awb

awb — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:00:10 +0000

Oh and am I remembering wrong or did Chris Benoit get more sympathy or at the very least much less scorn heaped upon his corpse after he killed his family? Y’know, “The drugs did it!”

By: awb

awb — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:58:49 +0000

A**holes like Albom and Lupica are especially galling because they can barely contain their envy of these players. They detest them. But what is funny is that if one of these athletes let them into their inner cirlcle, they would jump at the chance tail wagging and tongues hanging. It’s like some weird highschool dynamic on an adult scale. These guys are scum bags. Albom particularly shouldn’t have sh*t to say about anyone.

By: Temple3

Temple3 — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:53:01 +0000

I can’t say whether I enjoyed the rant or the cartoon the most.

Frankly, I’m glad that men of this caliber are losing their institutional grip on sports. The final piece of the puzzle is wresting control of sports Halls of Fame from writers. The economic supports have all but fallen away. Newspaper budgets will continue to shrink and the options are truly limited. The internet generation has no intention of paying for the type of content that sports writers produce.

At some point, some entity is going to figure out that there is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more money to be made by dispatching with these old, middle-aged, unattractive men and replacing them with knowledgable and attractive women. When this happens, the justification will be purely economic. These men have come to believe they should command a certain salary for the work they do — not so in the real world. Would you REALLY(??) rather get your Sunday Morning fix from Albom and Lupica? Really??

All that is needed now is for some SMART producer to test the bounds of DEMOGRAPHIC LOYALTY. Watch how fast “the base” votes with its collective phallus. Hello unemployment line!

As such, this group has one ace in the hole — their role in Hall of Fame voting. Rodney Harrison went on record about his concerns with the voting process and the role of the media. Admittedly, he’ll face a stiff challenge, but it will not be because of his numbers. It will be because of his reputation. I’m sure Harry Carson had similar concerns

If sports leagues can realize that the bread that used to be buttered by newspapers is no longer the case; and veterans can cobble together a concerted effort to demonstrate the media impact in excluding certain players, the final nail will be driven into the coffin.

We now live in a world where technology is a better communicator for athletes than any sportswriter.

By: Miranda

Miranda — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:28:28 +0000

They’re bottom feeders. Roaches. These cowards are less than a flesh-eating bacteria. The self-righteous who spit on McNair’s grave are too arrogant to realize their diatribes say more about them than it ever will about McNair. Its a reflection of who they are, which ain’t much. Its a reflection of the people that raised them, what does that say? Its a reflection of their spirituality and/or morals, or rather lack thereof. They think its about McNair, but its not. Its really about them.