Sun-Times colleagues go after Jay Mariotti

Teddy Greenstein

ON SPORTS MEDIA AND COLLEGES

June 10, 2008
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Columnist Jay Mariotti seems to pride himself on making enemies. He has been called a "pissant" by Jerry Reinsdorf, a "hiney bird" by Hawk Harrelson and much worse by Ozzie Guillen.

A recent poll by the irreverent Deadspin.com Web site tabulated his national approval rating, based on some 8,000 votes, at 6.2 percent. TNT's Charles Barkley, who called Mariotti a "loser" during a March radio appearance, earned a thumbs-up from 95.6 percent of Deadspin voters.

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.

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.

Telander filed an altered version for the Friday paper that, according to sources, mentioned the "bleatings" of "mini-dictators" who are "terrified of accountability."

It also quoted Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski as saying no visitor to the team's clubhouse need fear for his safety.

Cooke, who declined comment Monday via e-mail, stepped in and decided the piece would not run.

Telander also declined comment on his spiked columns but voiced support for his baseball-writing colleagues.

"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."

Sources said Telander also asked for an apology from Mariotti. He has yet to receive one.

Mariotti declined to reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

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Everyday when the sun goes down, I get with my friends, I begin to clown.
Now I don't care what the people are thinkin'. I ain't drunk, I'm jus' drinkin'!
-Albert King

I thought De Luca's column was interesting when I read it. I knew he was taking a shot at Marriotti for ripping "soft media members."

De Luca's column was the day after Jay wrote his column ripping Chicago media.

So the Sun-Times lets Mariotti say whatever he wants, but censors Telander -- TWICE -- when he tries to reply?

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Eliot Spencer: "I don't like any sport where you can't score on defense!"

Jay is a one-trick pony. "I'm the only ask the tough questions, stand up to ownership writer in town". Couch is the only guy I can think of off the top of my head who will criticize, but also admit to being wrong when warranted (re:Kenny Williams).

It seems like there's a double standard at the Sun-Times, where one columnist has the right to bitch & moan, while the other can't. What's up with that?

I'm all for bashing Marriotti, and it's certainly deserved. Now Cooke joins Mariotti as two reasons I'd never buy that paper.

But Teddy G is the wrong guy to be delivering this critique. Why is it his most critical columns have been about the rival newspaper? Criticizing the Sun Times is an easy target when you're writing for the competing paper. When will Teddy become a real media columnist and turn his attention on the lousy sports journalism and the writers and broadcasters in his own house at the Trib and Tribune Broadcasting? Trib employees in the sports media also have had boneheaded performances over the years and Teddy G is always silent about those. Ron Santo at WGN is the worst sports broadcaster in America and Teddy G has never given a detailed critique of his incompetence. So it's hard for me to acknowledge that Teddy G, who is, more accurately, a house shill for the Trib more than he is a media critic. It's easy to be a critic when the target of your columns is your company's principal competitor. You can say what you want about Mariotti (and most of what I would have to say is bad), but at least the guy isn't afraid to criticize members of his own company. If Teddy G wants to be recognized as a real sports media critic, then he needs to be critical, when appropriate, toward all sports media in town, and not just those not owned by the Tribune. When he does that, I'll be more inclined to look upon his work as not being so gratuitous for his employer.

Coast, he is taking the opportunity to take a crack at Jay, but at least it's warranted, not just some little piss match. That's why it's good to have multiple papers, so they can keep each other in check, as long as they have something strong, like this, to back it.

It's become a pissing match between these two, and if you read Mariotti's column's regularly, not only does every article have some reference to Ozzie Guillen, but he almost always points out how the local media are sheep to the local teams.

Oh and what a dignified company it is, what with how they let their columnists defend themselves in print and all to Jay. Mariotti is a joke of a writer and the ST is a joke of a paper. Mariotti is easily one of the most disliked media members around the country. Of course hes not afraid to critcize his own company, he's so damn egomaniacal that he thinks everyone except him sucks at everything they do.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I agree with you. Jay is right. We have a soft media. How many times do you hear them cracking up at something Lou or Ozzie says? They sound so stupid. It's never that funny.

Still, why does the Sun-Times censor it's other columnist when they want to fire back? Let's hear what they have to say.

I think this is the greater point in all of this. I don't care what Jay's job is and I'm not impressed with anything he, or any other "sports journalists" we have write in either paper. Maybe letting all of them throw their litting hissy fits and battle it out in the papers will give us something entertaining to read for once.

Just because beat writers dont criticize Ozzie doesnt mean they are taking it easy on him. Maybe they just dont feel like he deserves to be criticized as often as he is for some of the things he is. Thats how I feel. He's a great manager who is too often criticized for stupid shit.

It is Jay's job to visit the locker room. Yes he is supposed to be opinionated and not objective, but he's one of the only columnists in the country who doesnt go to the events he covers. If all of his colleagues constantly rip him for that, you would think its obvious its part of his job. The fact is he is a little hypocritical bitch who can dish it out but cant take it. I see no honor or respect in that.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You mean like K C Johnson for shit like this:


Or how he had claimed that the Gasol deal was all but done?
Or how he claimed that the Bryant deal was all but done?

honestly sports reporting in Chicago is a JOKE. All rumor and innuendo passed off as actual factual reporting. I don't believe a bloody thing I read from Johnson, that nitwit Sullivan or any of them.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Great catches, Darkside. Those are great examples of horrible Tribune rumor mongering masquerading as reporting. "Let's report some unverified rumor some other newspaper is reporting and we'll call that Journalism Tribune style!". Here is another one. Mark Cuban in his blog has called Sam Smith, (recently let go by the Trib), the "Jayson Blair of the NBA" because Smith would routinely make stuff up. Self-proclaimed sports media critic Teddy G never wrote a word about how one of his fellow Tribsters was reviled by an NBA owner because of his penchant for fiction. Apparently, instead of being a real media critic of all sports media, Teddy G is more worried about how he can suck up to his Trib bosses and find a way to trash the Sun Times (even if it was deserved). Media critic? Teddy Greenstein? A new oxymoron has been born.

Telander also writes Gil Thorp ...just pure Polyanna.

Are you serious? He's regularly criticized by colleagues nationally and locally for not going to the events he covers and writing from home.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Actually he wasnt, and thats why Ozzie called him a burrito. Ozzie called him that because Jay criticizes players and coaches and never contronts them or asks them for their side of the story. He's a coward.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Jay says he's scared to go to the Cell. I don't think he ever goes during the regular season. If he does he doesn't go to the locker room.

He was there for the Sox 2005 playoff.

I am bloody sick and tired of hearing about this in each and every Mariotti column. He even crought it up today, in a piece about DEL NEGRO of all things! How much more unrelated could those things be? Yet, he keeps on going with it.
Sorry but Mariotti is no genius wordsmith like Mac claims he is. Mariotti is a fill in the blanks bullshit artist. It stinks.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

They have the same owner, thats all Marrioti cares about. Taking shots at the Sox and The Chairman.

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Right, but Ozzie and the Sox have absolutly nothing to do with this Bulls situation. he's just got to work that into EVERY column and it's a bit, well, pathetic.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Doesn't matter. He'd link fucking Pizza Hut to the Sox just to take a shot at Ozzie.

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Right, and that's what makes him bullshit.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Exactly. I think he should get the death penalty.

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Hardly ever read Moronoty. Cowley put it pretty well on North's show this morning: "Sun Times needs Marioty like Star Wars needed Darth Vader"

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"It's not exactly a rocket surgery." D.J.

Now we agree.

_________________
"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Bullshit. He never praises Ozzie or JR. Yes the day after the WS he flip flopped like he always does and wrote he's happy for JR. All through that season he wrote multiple times a team coached by JR and managed by Ozzie will not win a WS. Look it up. He wrote those things probably a dozen times during the 2005 season. He's always critical of Ozzie and JR and he even says hes gonna keep writing Fire Ozzie columns till they do(more like cuz he cant do anything other than fill in the blank columns). He's not a good writer and certainly not the only opinionated writer in town or nationally.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

You gotta understand Nas, nobody is saying that jay doesn't bring on an opinion, what his critics complain about is his troolish behavior-- his petty rivalries, his hypocrasy, his "poor little me, i feel threatened" attitude, etc.Every column seems to be the same crap.

If he writes what he thinks, then he is clearly insane. In today's masterpiece, written about the Bulls hiring of a new coach, he still finds a way to bring up the "scorched earth, intelligence-insulting blowup" by Ozzie. The two have nothing to do with each other. Jay's idea of wit is to give nicknames to people: The Blizzard of Oz, Mad Pax, My Cousin Vinny, etc.

Nas, first of all he never praises Ozzie. Please show me the last "Ozzie is good" column he wrote. You agree with him alot, so you think Ozzie should be fired? , and that an Ozzie-managed team will never win a WS championship?

Also a main point you seem to be missing is the guy is a total asshole. It's the person more than the writer that we all despise. He's a hypocrite, a coward, a blowhard, a bitch, acts all holier-than-thou, uninformed whenever he's not writing about baseball or football, constantly flip flops(Phil Jackson articles being the latest), often uses hyperbole to demonstrate basic points. I mean it is tough to find a more dislikable media personality out there right now. Half of his ST colleagues want to punch the guy in the face, that sound like someone you'd wanna work with?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul