I had a post last week about how I'm amazed that a writer who no one seems to like continues to write articles on Ozzie Guillen that don't speak for the fans. Everyone chimed in and said that he speaks for no one in Chicago. Well today you can add Jay Mariotti's colleagues to the list of people that can't stand the guy. Via Teddy Greenstein at the Trib....Now Mariotti is taking body blows from his own colleagues at the Sun-Times. The situation heated up to the point that Editor-in-Chief Michael Cooke stepped in last week to symbolically separate Mariotti from fellow sports columnist Rick Telander, after Sun-Times editors refused to run columns Telander filed for the Wednesday and Friday papers.This whole situation continues to amaze me. NO ONE likes anything this guy does. Not a single person enjoys his writing or his nonsense on television. I know controversy sells more papers, but you can reach a point of diminishing returns. In this case someone from at a rival city paper is writing about the dysfunction at your paper. That should be a hint that there's a Cancer in the midst.
The conflict started after Mariotti wrote last week of Guillen: "As you may have noticed through the years, I am the Blizzard's only critic in the Chicago media, mostly because my soft colleagues either fear Guillen's wrath, enjoy how he rips me, work for one of the Reinsdorf-controlled broadcast outlets or are afraid of getting on the chairman's bad side."
The next day, Sun-Times national baseball writer Chris De Luca led his column this way: "The same critics who avoid ever stepping into the White Sox's clubhouse are calling the Chicago media soft for not skewering manager Ozzie Guillen. They want Guillen fired yesterday. Sounds tough, but the rhetoric comes up a little, well, soft."
Telander also believed Mariotti had unfairly impugned his reputation and fired back in a Wednesday column that got spiked, according to media insiders. The paper explained to its readers in a box that Telander was taking the day off.
"I'm a big boy and I can handle this," he said. "The people I feel sorry for are the hard-working, talented journalists at the Sun-Times like Chris De Luca, Joe Cowley, Toni Ginnetti, Gordon Wittenmyer, Carol Slezak and Greg Couch."
Mariotti is no Terrell Owens, Pacman Jones, or Jeremy Shockey. This would be like the Matt Gutierrez knocking out Tom Brady in the locker room seven times and still keeping his job. Unbelievable.
Sun-Times colleagues go after Jay Mariotti (Chicago Tribune)
Even Jay Mariotti's Co-Workers Hate Him (Fanhouse)
And he looks like a nerdier version of Patton Oswalt.
ReplyDeleteIt's like Lupica or his height-challenged colleague Raissman at the New York Daily News.
ReplyDeleteOr even more pathetic, Mike Francesa on WFAN-AM.
Mariotti is truly the one Chicago writer I can't stand.
ReplyDeleteMariotti is simply a hater with a typewriter that doesn't have the courage to face the people who he rips.
You can only cry wolf so often.
When is his contract up anyway?
Most journalism watchers are predicting funeral bells for what's known as the Sun-Times Media Group, so it would be interesting to see what would happen to the paper if it had to fold/toss dead weight.
ReplyDeleteChip, he actually reupped for 2009. Sun-Times Media are throwing away money at this point.
ReplyDeleteDid Mariotti get jaythejoke.com taken down, just like his wikipedia badmouthing? Because I can't access it.
not to defend Jay - but there is no such thing as bad publicity. controversy sells papers and increases ad impression on the site. why wouldn't you reup him?
ReplyDeleteThe Sun-Times is a borderline tabloid publication anyways. The fact that it makes the Tribune look like a beacon of journalistic responsibility alone makes it unreadable. I think the only reason it has a readership is because it's more readable for commuters on the Metra and CTA trains.
ReplyDeleteRick Telander could kick Jay's ass from both a journalistic standpoint as well as physically, though that is not saying much. Telander has done nothing but follow what is right in getting recognized while the same cannot be said for his one colleague who is a coward, fugazi, lazy ass gasbag.
ReplyDeleteI actually like Mariotti's writing and his contributions to Around the Horn. I'll give him credit in that he has the guts to actually rip players and managers. Too many media members kiss up to the athletes and coaches and it's unfair that Mariotti is getting ripped for this Guillen incident. Regardless of this, Mariotti is a good journalist and I enjoy his work.
ReplyDelete6:36, how gutsy is it really to rip managers and players when you do not even walk within 50 yards of the locker room and proceed to rip other colleagues, a cardinal sin actually in journalism, who go to those locker rooms and have a much better perspective of what is really going on? Saying the White Sox brass should fire Ozzie Guillen for the nth time is completely redundant.
ReplyDelete