Mariotti wrote:
It's a good thing Chicago's two sports radio stations, WMVP and WSCR, are bottom feeders in the quarterly ratings.
As one who has worked five-plus years for ESPN, does a daily TV program seen globally and respects the network's solid on-air standards, I'm stunned at what is tolerated at WMVP. Dan McNeil is a talented afternoon-drive host, but he narrows his audience and demeans his reputation with high-maintenance madness.
North is a crude, rude product of the streets who is stuck in the 1970s. . . {snip} So why is North still on the air? Oh, because he successfully curried the favor of White Sox and Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who sees himself as a similar rags-to-riches story and placed North in his trusted circle many years ago. . . {snip} Shouldn't he detach himself from North to preserve his own public image?
Radio is a dirty, unscrupulous business in most cities, but Chicago sinks into the gutter with alarming regularity. .. {snip}
Yes, I've had two radio whirls in Chicago, both at WMVP, which qualifies me to address this topic. Believe me when I say there is no bitterness.
{
As the “Church lady” would say:} Isn’t that special.
Chicago’s “best columnist” weighs in with his unique brand of opinion, this time it’s on the subject of radio. And guess what? Surprise, surprise, it’s all beneath him. A self-qualified expert with his
three unsuccessful whirls on air, his love-hate relationship with Mike North, and his ongoing feud with all things Reinsdorf compels him to expound upon a story broken (and covered far more extensively) by the rival (better?) newspaper.
What can be seen as Mariotti’s primary strength has now become his sole strength, his propensity for words. He can fill columns, blogs, and now video segments with his words. With his constant stream of opinions, vacillating like a windsock while being shrilly proclaimed, he’s the undisputed chicken-little and chicken-shit of sports journalism. If sports columnists were judged on the number of words employed, Mariotti would deserve to be considered amongst the best world-wide, but for any thinking person with an attention span longer than that of a butterfly and cognitive reasoning above a 10 year-old Mariotti is the running joke that Chicago sports fans have had to endure for more than 15 years.
While there’s no argument that sports radio isn’t Top Ten stuff in the Chicago market, criticism coming from a guy who also had shows on stations that couldn’t register a rating shouldn’t be taken too seriously (Sporting News Radio). For a “journalist” with ethics and integrity, a clause restricting what he could say would be inappropriate if he wanted to host a radio show, but Mariotti has neither of those traits and thus makes Reinsdorf a sympathetic figure in what can be a dirty business.
He’s regularly taken shots at Mike North, some deserved and some accurate, yet when he was on the short-end of popular sentiment for “phag-gate” it was on North’s show that he went to try to get a voice in the matter. His own newspaper wouldn’t back him up on the matter, and much of the journalism community also turned their backs on him. About the only entity that I’ve heard come out in support of Mariotti is from gays in other towns, people who only got one side of the story.
And of course Mariotti’s fixation with Reinsdorf prevents him from going three columns without invoking his name. In some form or fashion a jab at Reinsdorf has become
de rigeur, to the point that some now reflexively defend Reinsdorf while others see it as the point at which to dismiss whatever was previously written.
No bitterness? How about no credibility.
Mac, in the past whenever you’ve mentioned Mariotti as Chicago’s best I couldn’t help but roll my eyes while reaching to punch the button. What he just wrote about you isn’t anything new from him, maybe now you’ll keep this in mind before the next time you reach for his column to move your meters. Quoting from a bitter asshole that doesn’t like you just doesn’t reflect that well upon you.
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It's old and tired just like him.
Not you too BD! I've been over this and over this; freedom of speech has exactly zero bearing on private suspensions. None. ESPN is not bound by the First Amendment. Neither is WSCR. Nor is Bigfan, for that matter.
