More fun in Chicago

Some people don't like it when columnists and rival papers -- or, God forbid, columnists at the same paper -- take shots at each other.

Me, I love it.

Latest out of Chicago, where the Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti and Rick Telander have been known to go at it, is a print dustup between the Tribune's Rick Morrissey and Telander.

Morrissey doesn't like the fact that the Sun-Times has replaced the 'o' in Chicago in its nameplate with a Bears helmet and palm tree (the unbeaten Bears are trying to get to Miami for the Super Bowl, get it?)

Telander doesn't like the fact that Morrissey doesn't like the fact.

Some pretty good sniping. Of course, Tribune Co.'s ownership of the Cubs doesn't come up at all.

Oregonian hires somebody to investigate -- itself

The Oregonian has hired former Mercury News sports editor Craig Lancaster to investigate its relationship with the Trail Blazers. He's going to report it independently, and it will be edited by somebody outside of sports (maybe the paper), and they'll print it and let the chips fall where they may. Read all about it here at truehoop.com.

Paper protests UT ban of reporter

The Dave Hooker saga continues. Tennessee banned the Knoxville News-Sentinel reporter until Oct. 23 for doing an unauthorized interview with a player. Today, the paper formally protested. As you might expect, there's quite a lively thread about this on SJ.com.

Baseball and steroids, again

And now the self-flagellation has begun. In this piece by Joe Strupp of Editor & Publisher, a number of baseball writers and sports editors said they should have explored and presumably uncovered the use of steroids in baseball much sooner.

OK. But I'm going to continue to be of the opinion that unless they physically saw steroids being used or, as in the BALCO/Bonds case, got ahold of some kind of legal document (like grand jury testimony) or got people on the record saying that they knew of steroid use (or had used themselves) or ran the risk (ethical and otherwise) of using unnamed sources, that it wasn't going to be that easy of a story to write.

Yeah, they could have tried harder, I suppose. But I think it's possible all it would have meant is that they'd feel better about the effort in hindsight, not that things would have come to light sooner.

Slate on Albom

Bryan Curtis of Slate writes about the Freep's Mitch Albom here. It's really more about his novel writing, but it does touch on his sports writing, too -- actually, this article connects the two.

T.O a day later

Lots of looking back at the T.O.-Story-That-Apparently-Wasn't yesterday. Jay Hart in the Allentown Morning Call basically says it was mostly the media's fault. Gregg Doyel on CBS SportsLine says there's no way that was the case, that you had a famous athlete and a police report saying a suicide attempt was involved.

In the Miami Herald, Dan Le Batard leans in the "blame the media" direction, but he says he's "explaining" not "condemning." I read the column twice, and Dan never mentions from what I can see that he does a radio show with T.O.

In the Boston Globe, Dan Shaughnessy is in the "media made it a circus" camp as well.

And this is Jason Whitlock in the Kansas City Star, saying that when you've been a look-at-me guy for as long as T.O. has been, you've got to expect this sort of thing.

Interesting new site

Steve Marantz sent me a link to an interesting new site, which is called Sports Media Guide. From home page intro: "SMG is a website for fans, media professionals and media students. SMG's mission is to humanize sports media while exploring the art and craft of sports coverage. SMG is a teaching resource for high school, college and graduate school curricula."

It's a series of interviews with people in the business, and the firstwas Aug. 17. Helene Elliott was the latest.

Important note on press freedom

Something extremely important to all of us in the business is happening Thursday in San Francisco. Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams will find out of they will be doing jail time for refusing to name their source(s) in the BALCO grand jury testimony case.

I'm going to cheat and let sj.com do the compilation for me, but want to cross-link it. There's a growing thread on the whole thing here. A show of solidarity is scheduled for those who can make it at 1:30 p.m. PT on Thurday. All the details are on the thread.

Whitlock on Kornheiser

Jason Whitlock writes column about Tony Kornheiser in today's Kansas City Star. It's a nice read and I have no problems with it -- but I note nonjudgmentally how much this business has changed in 20 years. It might have happened after a death or a retirement, but can you imagine, in the regular course of things, Jimmy Cannon writing a column about Red Smith, for example?

Simers on Simers

T.J. Simers does a Q&A with a blogger on this, The Big Lead.

Not surprisingly, given the reactions he usually provokes, this led to not one but two threads on sj.com.

On the second, Simers himself speaks, through Jason Whitlock.

Visser to the Hall

In yesterday's Sun-Sentinel, Patrick Dorsey did a really nice story on CBS' Leslie Visser, who's entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend. Visser comes across in the feature as exactly as she has always been thought of -- a class act.

Whitlock on diversity

Jason Whitlock writes an interesting column on who's responsible for the lack of diversity in newspaper sports sections in today's Kansas City Star. He says that would-be minority sports writers have to shoulder part of the blame.

As you'd expect, this prompted a thread and debate on the sj.com board, and a good point was made: Just because a prominent black sportswriter says that the lack of diversity isn't all newspapers' fault, that doesn't mean they should assume they can be comfortable with their makeup. There has to be a strong commitment to diversity from all sides.

L.A. Times scales back hockey coverage

Randy Harvey confirms for LA Observed that the Los Angeles Times will cease to travel with the Kings and Ducks for the most part, and that Hockey Hall of Famer Helene Elliott will no longer write a weekly NHL column, becoming a general columnist who sometimes writes about hockey.

I know times (lowercase) are tough, and Harvey is obviously facing tough decisions. But when the major metro of record in a city like Los Angeles isn't granted the resources that allow it to travel with all of its pro sports franchises -- at least early in the season when they remain in contention -- something is really wrong.

We've seen it coming in increments, but this news, coupled with the expected vast cutbacks at the Dallas Morning News, is extremely depressing for anybody who saw how good sports sections were not that long ago.

A golden age is ending, if it hasn't ended already.

Chad on diversity

Norman Chad weighs in, predictably irreverently, on the lack of diversity in the leadership of newspaper sports departments.

Wilstein and steroids

Steve Wilstein, the AP reporter who found the bottle of andro in Mark McGwire's locker and subsequently ended up writing "hundreds" of steroid stories as they became an integral part of the sports scene, discusses his retirement at 57 with Joe Strupp of E&P. Wilstein says one reason for his retirement was his father's ongoing fight with cancer, but he says the fact that he simply tired of writing about the abuse of performance enhancing drugs was a major factor, too.

'To hell with them'

I'm running out of energy/interest on the Mariotti front, but he talks about all the heat and criticism he's taking, so I pass the Chicago Reader story on to you with little comment beyond that.

More on ... you guessed it ...

Well, this Guillen/Mariotti thing isn't going away anytime soon, obviously.

Rick Telander weighs in on his Sun-Times colleague in this column, which Jason Whitlock describes on sj.com as "Telander knocks out Mariotti." As you'd expect, a lively debate is ensuing on several threads on that site.

Meanwhile, Mariotti's father rather eloquently comes to his defense in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review -- whether you agree or not is another matter, particularly since he never addresses the key point about whether Jay should at least show up at the ballpark now and then.

After vacation and then not generally having much to post about for most of June, things have certainly livened up.

By the way, with DSL/cable finally going to go into my condo sometime soon, I'm hoping to keep this site more relevant on a daily basis. We shall see, of course.

Morrissey on Mariotti/Guillen

Rick Morrissey writes in the Chicago Tribune about the Jay Mariotti-Ozzie Guillen business. He correctly notes that if you're going to rip somebody, you have a professional obligation to show up in that clubhouse or locker room now and then, preferably sooner than later.

One man's view

'Sports journalism critic' and Ball State journalism professor Scott Reinardy discusses the state of the business in this Minneapolis Star-Tribune Q&A. Not a lot new, really -- not enough reporting, sports writers should be good news reporters first, those in our business 'ignored' the steroids-in-baseball issue for a long time. I've said enough about the latter.

Ozzie vs. Mariotti

Ozzie Guillen apologizes, kind of, for calling columnist Jay Mariotti a "fag," in this Sun-Times story. This is Mariotti's take on the whole thing. Neither Guillen nor Mariotti is backing down -- and Mariotti shouldn't, although I'm not sure I agree completely with his stance on not having to visit the locker rooms of those you criticize (but he makes the point that he's subject to excess abuse when he does).