Comments on: Does Anyone Have the Balls to Be Different From ESPN? A Q&A With Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports

By: jasonwhitlock

jasonwhitlock — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 01:07:22 +0000

PanAm, I’d seriously love to meet you. This is the most bizarre, fascinating thing I’ve ever read. You dumped your heart into this defense of Posnanski. And your defense seems to be that “everyone knows Posnanski doesn’t have the chops to do serious journalism. He’s a well-researched blogger.”

As for your criticisms of me… Well, I’m not a stats guy and I’m definitely not a stenographer of cliche quotes. I explore original ideas, develop legit sources and follow my journalistic instincts. That’s what allows me to consistently call bullshit on ESPN’s Bernie Fine story, the Duke lacrosse lynching, the Jena Six case, Scott Egoli, Billy Hunter-Derek Fisher and on and on.

PanAm, you sound like someone who loves storytellers. I’m a columnist, entertainer and journalist. I’m not your cup of tea. Please send me an email. I’d love to meet you. I know the good-old-boy network has a lot invested in the myth of Posnanski as a journalist. He’s a great storyteller. Celebrate that. If you’re looking for a sports writer to celebrate as a journalist, Dan Wetzel would be a great place to start. I can provide you a more extensive list if you need one.

By: scripty

scripty — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:06:30 +0000

Whitlock hasn’t written a book, hence he is unable to critique JoePos according to Panno Ammo. Whatever. That bunch sucked, he had unprecedented access to JoePa, then given the wild events, turned in a shitty book. There were a lot of mitigating factors. People will judge JoePos on his body of work but saying that book is above reproach is dumb as shit. Get over it.

By: Black Douglas

Black Douglas — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:08:39 +0000

JINX!!

By: Black Douglas

Black Douglas — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:08:09 +0000

PanAm8080, you forgot to tag that /JMorris’d

By: A.P.

A.P. — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 18:05:57 +0000

/jmorris’d

By: PanAm8080

PanAm8080 — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:43:32 +0000

I definitely miss Jason in KC, and think the guy they brought in after him is a talentless wannabe hack.
If we’re just offering general opinions here, I have to say I actually find Whitlock’s response to Posnanski’s Paterno book the most interesting thing about him recently. The Joe Po book was definitely a missed opportunity and a disappointment. But I don’t know how much it can really be criticized. By all accounts, it was the exact same Posnanski we’ve been reading and hearing from for years. He offered up exactly what anyone who was familiar with his body of work would have expected from him. The general public and his peers might not like the product, but it met any reasonable expectation.
However, Whitlock tore into Posnanski with a bunch of sensational gotcha paragraphs. He, like, tried to talk to some dude that wouldn’t talk to him. And, because of that, shame on Posnanski for not talking to him either. Whitlock threw a fit about what he thought were empty characterizations and commentary, when again…that’s more or less been a staple of Posnanski his whole career. He drew a line and categorized readers as either for or against Posnanski by taking a latent shot at his “sycophants” (honestly, is there such a thing?). The best, though, was a typical ex-jock attack at Posnanski’s “nerdy” stories.
In no way do I think Posnanski should be lauded for the Paterno book. I think about anyone could see what it was going to be the minute thousands of PSU students were holding a “we love you!!!” vigil outside Joe Pa’s house whatever day that was Nov 2011. It was the worst match for anything ever, and we all knew it. Yet Whitlock acted like everyone was caught off guard by the product and that Posnanski should summarily be steamrolled.
I’d offer that Whitlock had waited for years for such an attack. He probably had the column 1/2 written back in 2003. While Posnanski was a little too schmaltzy and gooey for some readers, there was never any doubt that he put tremendous effort into whatever he did. He annotated. He researched. Countless times, one would find themselves thinking “huh, I never thought of this that way” after he would link together a general premise with a series of detailed examples and statistics.
However, that approach seems to be a little too “nerdy” for Jason. While Jason’s columns were often thought provoking, entertaining and well put together, they very often lacked much research. “I’m going to tell you how I think and how it is!” was often substituted for “I’m going to exhaustively look up everything or talk to everyone I can on this topic.” Yeah, he’d often reference different perspectives. But they seldom seemed to fall outside the Ball State/Indiana/Jeff George tree line. Once, he made the effort to visit the alleged stabber of a Kansas basketball player and offered a different/more conclusive account of a controversial incident. I think that was probably his finest hour, but unfortunately such exertions of energy were few and far between when he was at the Star. So many columns…so many…you could tell were just mailed in. Many times he was sent to cover a basketball regional or football game, and there was zero additional insight from what someone would watch on TV. With Posnanski, you’d at least get anecdotes of “I ran into so and so before the game, and….” With Whitlock, it was all you could do to not visualize him dozing off at the game, lumbering towards his hotel room, and then sighing repeatedly over ½ a Dominos pizza as it took everything he had to type 4, maybe 5, paragraphs of copy to email to his editor.
Now, just because I think a lot of his efforts were lazy, it doesn’t mean I think he’s lazy. You don’t get to where he’s at without working hard. However, I just find his near visceral attack of Posnanski interesting. Whitlock bragged that he read and took notes about the book for a period of 4 days. 4 days! Great. I would expect that type of research for such a column. But, to my knowledge, despite having been a writer for 20 years or whatever Whitlock has never actually written a book. He has a “best of” of re-packaged old columns, but that’s it. Paterno was Posnanski’s third book. While he was writing Paterno, he was still putting out regular blogs/columns/etc. As far as I know, he was during the other books too.
Honestly, I don’t know if Whitlock had the credentials to attack Posnanski the way he did. Or at least I don’t know if he had the credentials to label under “Hey, I’m just calling it the way I see it!!” I would offer that it was at least partially based off of jealousness and bitterness (as much as he denied it). That it bothered him a “nerdy” peer of his was given a $300K (or whatever it was) book advance on a topic that pre-Sandusky he found to be loathsome and boring. After the Sandusky scandal broke, it gave him an opening to attack.
It would have been funny to see Posnanski say “Great, criticism and points accepted. For future reference, please pass along examples from some of your books that I can channel when I write my next one. Thanks!” I’m not saying that Whitlock has to have detailed experience in everything he comments on. I’m not saying that he can’t criticize Posnanski unless he’s written a book himself. He’s a columnist. It’s his job to comment on whatever wherever. But I thought the Posnanski criticism was over the top. Akin to overzealous basketball and football fans that played the sport at some level and now yell manically at players and coaches from their couches. But more so, a little disingenuous. Which for Whitlock, is the biggest sin of all.

By: otis sistrunk

otis sistrunk — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 04:58:54 +0000

I don’t fit into a box. That makes the power structure uncomfortable. The establishment favors black guys who fit into a box. Angry liberal or assimilated conservative and I would be easier for management to digest and embrace.that's what i was referring to jason. made me think you regarded blacks in media as one of those two types. my bad

By: Jesus

Jesus — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 00:38:29 +0000

I miss Jesus, Tar Baby and Jay the Most Hated.

I miss you, too. I miss all of you. No, really, I do. Dad says hi.

By: BodieBroadus

BodieBroadus — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 20:35:24 +0000

Look, the man gave the word, so we either step up or we step the fuck off. That’s the game, yo.

By: jasonwhitlock

jasonwhitlock — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 18:00:41 +0000

Otis, I did not criticize a bunch of black media types. I criticized Rob Parker. I criticized Richard Deitsch. You could argue I criticized Mark Schwarz, Joe Posnanski and Bill O’Reilly. I praised Bomani Jones, Stephen A. Smith, Roger Ailes, Rick Jaffe, Reid Forgrave, Greg Couch, AJ Daulerio and Bob Costas.

What interview did you read?

There are a lot of media folks — black, white, brown and yellow — doing the media right. List is too long and boring. I make no secret of the people I admire the most — Mike Royko, Ralph Wiley and David Simon.

By: otis sistrunk

otis sistrunk — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:08:06 +0000

i had a question for you way up top. you criticized a bunch o black media types, saying you don’t fit into a box that networks are comfy with

what black folks are doing media right iyo?

By: otis sistrunk

otis sistrunk — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:06:46 +0000

and humble

By: jasonwhitlock

jasonwhitlock — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:04:58 +0000

Whitlock is sexy as hell.

By: jasonwhitlock

jasonwhitlock — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:04:27 +0000

This is a good interview.

By: Ty Duffy

Ty Duffy — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 02:24:22 +0000

Well, to Duffy’s credit, he did propose something, but it was a 16-team shitfest that would be absurd. He did in fact propose something though.

Woah. No. I proposed eight teams with six auto-bids for conference winners.

By: Black Douglas

Black Douglas — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:32:38 +0000

I remember reading that first Whitlock interview here years ago. I always thought he was a great interview and enjoyed it when he was on The Sports Reporters. That said, I didn’t realize FoxSports.com was even still around. There was a time when I would go to it and espn.com daily. I haven’t done that in years.

/JMorris’d

By: sarahlerange

sarahlerange — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 23:36:41 +0000

Great read.

By: Eric T0upal aka BrawnyTom

Eric T0upal aka BrawnyTom — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:17:49 +0000

I had no idea that was what Deitsch does. I thought his job was trying to hit on Crissy Teigen.

Where do we apply for that job?

By: Nada

Nada — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:06:57 +0000

Whitlock demeans O’Reilly as an “entertainer”

Calling Bill Oh Really an “entertainer” is like calling Goebbels a “performance artist.”

/ Yeah, I went there, now book me on First Take

By: Blue Horseshoe Loves Anacott Steel

Blue Horseshoe Loves Anacott Steel — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:05:27 +0000

Whitlock demeans O’Reilly as an “entertainer” but isn’t he also an entertainer?

Are you not entertained?