Sports Journalism Tumblr: A Black self-insert character called Jabaal Abdul-Simmons

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Sports Journalism Tumblr: A Black self-insert character called Jabaal Abdul-Simmons

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the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

I really like grantland so far, even the design. I like that it's minimal and austere and just a little amateur. The worst part about sports journalism on the internet is how loving busy it all is and how much info they try to convey at once.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2011 03:10

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:00

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

ZerodotJander posted:

You give Paterno the benefit of the doubt because it's what you're supposed to do. Our entire justice system is founded on this idea.

This has nothing to do with justice. Joe Paterno is not on trial. It's undeniable he was aware of the 2002 incident and likely the 1998 and 2000 incidents. His response was to take away Sandusky's locker room keys (but not his office or access to the team and other facilities) and to tell Sandusky to keep the kids away from campus. You don't need to prove criminal culpability to write an opinion piece about that complete failure of morals and human decency.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 09:22

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

We can talk about exemplary journalism here too, right? From Jane Leavy, courtesy Grantland:

quote:

It is in the nature of institutions to be conservative in the most old-fashioned sense of the word � acting to conserve a reputation, an infrastructure, a Golden Calf worshipped at the expense of common decency. Thus, settlements in sexual harassment cases are reached with "confidentiality agreements" that shackle the truth. (See the National Restaurant Association.) Thus, the false idol of a football program in Happy Valley trumps the sad, awful facts of the alleged crimes perpetrated on Victims 1-8.

It is in the nature of childhood sexual abuse for victims, perpetrators, and witnesses to want to disassociate themselves from the act. That's why the law requires grown-ups to act like grown-ups. That's why Tim Curley, the Penn State athletic director, took a leave of absence and Gary Schultz, vice president for finance and business, retired last week after being charged with perjury and failure to report charges of serial abuse in athletic facilities on the campus of a publicly financed institution of higher learning.

That's why it was so patently offensive when Joe Paterno, college football's Mr. Clean, took refuge early this week in having fulfilled his legal obligation by informing his superiors. And more offensive, days later, as the full horror of the story emerged, when he belatedly declared his intention to leave at the end of the season on his terms, dignity intact.

That's why less than 12 hours after he announced his resignation, saying that he was "absolutely devastated" by "one of the great sorrows of my life," the board of trustees acted in loco parentis, firing the patron saint of Happy Valley � who was, after all, just a football coach � and the university president with misplaced loyalties effective immediately. The grown-ups finally decided to act like grown-ups.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2011 04:21

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

I only half listened to the interview, but he gave the impression that he was tired of the grind more than anything. He talked about traveling with his wife and putting his time and energy into features and books. I don't think he was bashing twitter and blogs, just the attention it takes to be relevant in that format. The job used to have fairly set hours and convenient breaks for vacations, but now if you want to hold an audience, you have to work 24/7, 365 days a year.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2012 01:55

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

leokitty posted:

The SEO shenanigans from Bleacher Report aren't really pushed by a tech backend, it's editorial. And Google has been cracking down on all their tricks. And a lot of the stuff that is worked into the page templates is pretty bad, they have multiple H1 tags on pages for example.

Multiple H1's are fine as long as they're not nested. Their SEO is like $5 ebook bad though, and if that's why they were acquired there's gonna be some disappointment.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2012 07:08

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Badfinger posted:

The real question here is why the hell is Dan Wilson in a team's Hall of Fame?

I was at a game that went 16 innings and got to watch his hilarious attempts at a change up when he 'pitched'. I think he got the loss. That's hall of fame baby!

# ¿ Aug 4, 2012 03:17

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Capt Murphy posted:

Grantland has had a few good pieces pop up in the last year. The only one I'd really encourage people to read is this piece about an 1810 boxing match. It's fascinating stuff and I think a glimmer of what Grantland could do if Bill Simmons fell into a volcano tomorrow.

I think Bill Simmons deserves a lot of the credit for assembling a really interesting, eclectic, and talented group of writers for Grantland. Very few of them have failed to turn in something really, really good if not great in it's short life. I think Simmons is a bad writer but I don't think you can fault him as an editor in chief quite yet.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2012 05:22

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

chunkles posted:

So ESPN is adding Nate Silver, any thoughts? I'm vaguely familiar with him but have no real opinion.

Rob Neyer 2.0

# ¿ Jul 20, 2013 06:55

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

sepp blatter puts any north american sports figure to shame. not only is he objectively racist and sexist his corruption is both complete and transparent. he paid african delegates $100,000 a piece to vote for him in his 1998 election to the fifa presidency. through an intermediate. the delegate from qatar. where the next world cup is being held. the delegate from qatar who was later suspended for ethics violations.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2013 08:11

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

grantland.com maybe just killed someone

http://www.shakesville.com/2014/01/careless-cruel-and-unaccountable.html

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 05:25

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

i don't think it's possible to assign blame for something as complex as suicide but the author of that piece harasses and humiliates the subject in the pursuit of a total non-story. if the club inventor hadn't been transgender there's no way this is a story and it probably gets dropped soon after he finds out the credentials are inflated. it's also absolutely sickening that it's framed as an eulogy

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 17:22

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

IMB posted:

He had begun the story months before he discovered she was trans, so ... it was a story?

sure but the story he started researching was 'eccentric genius invents crazy new putter'. it turned out only the eccentric part was really true so he instead wrote a piece that outed a woman as trans because it was the only part of the story anyone was going to care about. 'someone makes outrageous unsupported claims about their weird putter' probably doesn't get published anywhere, let alone grantland. violating someone's request for discretion and privacy because you don't want your story to evaporate is terrible enough, pretending like you are performing a public service by going forward is reprehensible

# ¿ Jan 19, 2014 07:19

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

sportsgenius86 posted:

and apparently Bill Simmons is supposed to address it in a column sometime this week

i can't wait for all the crying game references!

it's pretty weird that no one from grantland's roster has commented yet

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 16:32

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

MourningView posted:

Oh Christ, don't let Simmons speak for the site, that's going to make it worse.

they don't really have anyone on the editorial side who can really address this but simmons has some fantastic writers who may be a little more sensitive to the kinds of concerns this piece raises. hopefully he makes use of them

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 18:30

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2014/01/19/3183711/grantland/

this is a pretty good read

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 23:08

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Twin Cinema posted:

Simmons piece is close, but it still misses the mark.

The issue is that this statement is still treating transgender as a story, rather than just being what it is -- a transgender person who is engaged in the same acts as other people are. To be more clear, the story focuses on being transgender to explain her fake credentials, as if she's pulling a long con or something.

i think that while he still doesn't understand that issue he at least admits that he doesn't understand it and that someone who does understand should have been consulted on the editorial side

also i'm surprised that 12-15 grantland employees read it and didn't think it was problematic. emily yoshida, wesley morris, molly lambert and jay caspian kang have all written really thoughtful pieces about comparable situations. you'd think one of them would have been included at least

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 00:05

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Male. Bi. Unix. posted:

As far as to how 13-15 people read the article without realizing something's fucky, I'm going to say a complete and total lack of awareness on how being outed works and its effects on personal and professional lives. Like, if you consider it just a Data Point in this large article, then of course you're not going to be disgusted by the pronoun switching/unnecessary quotes/outing. I bet people would be pretty angry if you told them someone they knew was a liar - and that's what the staff considered it, lying about gender. Instead of, you know, what it actually is.

i bet that if caleb hannan had submitted the same piece except the twist was that essay vanderbilt was a lesbian every single one of those readers would have said, 'woah this is hosed up we can't publish this'. i don't know if that's to their credit or shame though

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 04:50

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

The broken bones posted:

Additionally, dude's gotten pretty hosed up from thinking he indirectly killing someone and receiving death threats for it. We should probably think about his mental health right now, even if he didn't return the favor to Dr. V.

hannan was pretty glib about it on twitter and stopped tweeting at about exactly the time espn was made aware of the problem. i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now but he definitely owes an apology in the near future

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 04:51

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Denis Lemieux posted:

What a smug and presumptuous accusation. Where is there evidence of harassment by the author?

the author admits -- in the piece -- to contacting various family members, acquaintances and business associates of essay vanderbilt and exposing her past to them. whether or not you consider this harassment it's definitely something

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 05:36

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Denis Lemieux posted:

But there's no indication the past family members - many of whom the subject abandoned - or the past coworkers were receiving information so much as providing it.

In fact, the only guy who knew less than the journalist was the one she defrauded of $60,000.

no harm no foul? really?

caleb hannan intended to out essay vanderbilt and expressed surprise when no one was shocked and outraged. maybe he thought he had a journalistic imperative to 'chase down leads' or whatever and he did so only reluctantly but he certainly thought he was outing essay vanderbilt going into those interviews

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 05:52

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

enuma elish posted:

I agree with you on everything else but I'm not sure that clickbait was purely Grantland's motivation here? I think it's at least possible they thought it was legitimately a good, serious piece. I mean, they don't need to have had mercenary motivations to have hosed up majorly.

Maybe I'm being too generous here to Simmons/Grantland, though.

there's a lot of problems at grantland but clickbait definitely isn't one of them. the blog content is largely inconsequential and trivial (although they've given voice to some pretty idiosyncratic writers mostly for the good) but the features almost without exception aim for critical acclaim over popular acclaim. i am 100% sure simmons and the rest of the editorial team thought they were putting out a really insightful look into a world no one knew existed

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 08:08

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Male. Bi. Unix. posted:

Grantland (and you) actually don't know what you're talking about, is the problem here. You're treating gender identity as the equivalent of lying about your SAT scores or something, when: it's actually not. People don't get murdered over lying about their credentials. If coworkers find out you lied about your credentials, they probably get upset for a bit and then move on because hey - the product works.

i think if essay vanderbilt had been a woman who changed her identity for her own protection (from an abusive family or something equally sympathetic) there wouldn't be any sort of question that the article was flat out wrong for publicizing her previous identity. that so many people are unable to see that the identity change wasn't any kind of fraud or deception speaks poorly

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 08:11

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

i know this is for like bad and crazy poo poo, but this is the funniest thing i have ever read about sports (in a good way):

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/the-new-york-knicks-its-the-hope-that-kills-you-in-the-end/

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 07:47

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

morestuff posted:

How do this many people actually listen to sports radio?

i can't sleep unless there's some kind of white noise going on. sports radio is the only radio i'm guaranteed not to get distracted by

# ¿ Jul 28, 2014 05:19

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Rembert Browne is a staff writer, he's probably under contract to give Grantland first look at anything he writes on spec. It's a good piece about an important event and they want to support their writers. Of course they're going to publish it rather than see it on Gawker or the awl.

# ¿ Aug 15, 2014 15:02

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

WayAbvPar posted:

I honestly hope he dies in the ring tonight. He is such a loving piece of poo poo.

it'll be more fun to watch him bankrupt himself in five years and have everyone abandon him as he realizes everyone hates him and he's going to die alone and unremembered

martin rogers from usa today has written pieces critical of mayweather (this is a pretty great one) and was also denied credentials. so were deadspin but that's probably because no one wants to sit next to anyone they send

the talent deficit fucked around with this message at 00:56 on May 3, 2015

# ¿ May 3, 2015 00:51

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

FlamingLiberal posted:

I think Nichols is freelance now, so she had no chance without someone backing her up.

she was there for CNN

# ¿ May 3, 2015 03:42

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

i bet it's jacoby, rembert, fennessey and pappademas or chris ryan. no way are lowe or keri leaving espn for bill's new vanity project and i think pierce, lambert, greenwald and hyden have better options open to them career wise than hbo

# ¿ Oct 10, 2015 06:02

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

i forgot jacoby just got a radio show with jalen rose, so not him. make it ryan and pappademas or maybe shea serrano

# ¿ Oct 10, 2015 06:19

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

they're all editors not writers. i guess simmons is getting a website along with his show. chris ryan and juliet litman do a lot of behind the scenes stuff with their video and podcasts, and litman put together grantland quarterly

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 04:43

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

two thirds of nba after dark are moving to simmon's new thing so presumably it could survive? is sharp that critical to it's success?

# ¿ Oct 12, 2015 20:21

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

soggybagel posted:

What if Michael Vick was white?

probably would have been rottweilers not pits

# ¿ Nov 2, 2015 18:55

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

the idea that grantland got shut down because the editorial staff blindsided espn with their resignations was ridiculous anyways. even if the four who left to go work with simmons didn't give notice grantland was losing rembert browne, andy greenwald, dan fierman, wesley morris and probably others who did give notice and they seemingly made no attempt to replace them. the writing was on the wall

# ¿ Nov 3, 2015 00:15

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

straight up brolic posted:

Vice sucks

agreed, but viceland looks like it'll feature adrianne jeffries, molly crabapple and eddie huang pretty prominently. all three of them are really great

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 21:30

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

ElwoodCuse posted:

There's this and he no doubt wants in on the ground floor so if she ever takes off he can brag about it forever

She got her show as a direct result of Bill Simmons trying to hire her away from Fox to work on Grantland/

# ¿ Dec 10, 2015 18:03

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

Eric the Mauve posted:

Looks like it's going to lean a lot harder to the pop culture side than Grantland did

that's probably just because ESPN had things for the sports side people to do. all the pop culture people were sent home

# ¿ Feb 17, 2016 19:20

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

General Dog posted:

So when does BRIC start dominating the century?

BRIC is so last decade, we're on to MINT now (mexico, indonesia, nigeria and turkey i think?)

# ¿ Jul 1, 2016 03:21

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

mike modano fed his dogs out of the cup

# ¿ Dec 25, 2016 03:08

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

competitive rocket league is absurdly good to watch

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 02:32

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:00

the talent deficit: Dec 20, 2003; self-deprecation is a very british trait, and problems can arise when the british attempt to do so with a foreign culture

i think simmons is actually ahead of the curve here. he thinks podcasts and video content are going to be where advertising dollars go as television and website rates drop. the ringer site is really just because you can't be a media property without one (yet). it's clear most of the effort goes into the podcasts

# ¿ Jun 2, 2017 08:44

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Sports Journalism Tumblr: A Black self-insert character called Jabaal Abdul-Simmons

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