Raising a little hell about this year’s Red Smith Award winner
Dave Kindred |
July 16, 2010 10:26 p.m.
I asked a friend, "Should I write about Mitch Albom?"
"Why?" he said.
"He's won the Red Smith thing now, five years after that Final Four column."
"No, leave him alone. Old news."
But another friend said, "Shouldn't somebody raise hell about this?"
Albom, the Detroit Free Press star, raised unshirted hell in 2003 when Jayson Blair was found to have made it all up while working for The New York Times. "What he doesn't get," Albom wrote of Blair, "is that journalism is not Hollywood. It's not about closing the deal. It's not about face time. It's about — simply put — telling the truth."
I paid attention, then, when Albom, an unlikely guardian of journalistic values, recently spoke up again on the practice of our craft. First he did a column on how the media had behaved poorly during the LeBronathon, reporting what he considered to be silly rumors.
"Note to journalism students," he wrote. "When we celebrate investigative reporting, it's for issues like war crimes, nursing home scandals or police corruption. It's not to report that LeBron James has opened a Twitter account."
The advice came shortly after the Associated Press Sports Editors organization did a curious thing. It gave Albom its highest honor. The Red Smith Award, named after the elegant wordsmith, recognizes lifetime achievement in sports journalism. At the Smith ceremony, Albom issued even more advice.
"Be ruthless with yourself, be compassionate with those you cover," he said, according to a transcript of his speech. "Be scared of praise, be brave about criticism. Be aware that a microphone is a funny thing, it changes people. Be sensitive that ‘on the record' is a guideline, not a trap. Be mindful that a pen is a powerful thing – and a pen plus the Internet can change a person's life forever. The image from the movie ‘Absence of Malice,' where a woman runs from lawn to lawn trying to pick up the newspapers before a damaging story can be read, should play in all our heads before we take somebody down. Be a judge, but don't be God. Be fast, but not rushed. Be humble enough to admit a mistake, and be able to sleep at night with what you've written."
All good stuff, sound and true.
Red would have said the same things, only more gracefully.
Nor would he disagree with Albom's next thoughts: "Be in love with language, be respectful of its power and be in awe of its possibilities. Be prepared. Read everything. Study other writers. Remember that, as the saying goes, a writer's brain is like a magician's hat. If you want to pull something out of it, you have to put something into it first."
A columnist at the Free Press since 1985, Albom won the APSE's column-writing contest in the big-paper category 13 times before anyone else won it twice. He is more widely recognized for his writing outside sports; his website reports that his books have sold over 28 million copies, literally around the world, printed in 42 languages.
About here, you may wonder why any sportswriter would raise hell about the APSE giving its Red Smith Award to America's most famous sportswriter – especially when Albom chose that venue to puff out his chest for all of us: "Be proud of the sports section – it's as real as any section in the paper, and it's the most read.. . . ." The award is decided by a vote of previous winners (I'm one) and past presidents of the APSE; clearly, Albom had pleased most of the voters (if not all). One past president of the APSE told me, "I have absolutely no problem with Mitch winning." Another, speaking of Albom's dominance of the column-writing contest, said, "Mitch should win it every (expletive deleted) year!"
Accepting the Smith award, Albom went on giving advice . . .
"And always, always, be mindful of who you are serving – not your ego, but your reader. I never spent much time in media hospitality suites because I saw the trap of comparing notes, trying to impress colleagues with who could write more viciously. I saw how quickly conversations degenerated into complaint sessions and where I lived, cynicism was the wrong approach. The reader of Detroit, the guys on the assembly lines, the grandfathers in Alpena, wished every day they could trade places with me. If I turned cynic, how would that serve them? So I often kept a distance. I spent more time at events than in the office, more time in my community than in press boxes or media parties, and this may have cost me over the years. People who don't know you are often the quickest to speak about you, especially if you are blessed with some success."
Note to journalism students: at some level we're all in this for the ego, or we'd be doing dentistry in Darfur. Albom's level of ego involvement might be best measured by the "Official Mitch Albom Website" at Mitchalbom.com. It lists eight categories of Mitch Albom-centric availabilities: "Books. Journalism & Sports. Film & TV. Radio & Music. Theater. Service. Discussion. Bio."
So the denial of ego made me a little itchy, as did his take on hospitality suites. I suppose it's possible that a milquetoast hack could belly up to the hot dog tray, hear snarky cracks from the next guy over, and find himself transformed into a vampire of cynicism lusting for LeBron's blood. It's just never happened in my presence. That said, it's still the "old news," as my friend put it, that's the most bothersome.
In April of 2005, not long after tarring and feathering Jayson Blair, Albom was forced to write a note of apology to Free Press readers. He had committed a column in which he described events that never happened. Subsequently, he was suspended briefly while his newspaper did an in-house investigation. Four Free Press reporters worked through 600 Albom columns to determine if he made a habit of deceiving readers. The investigation reported "no pattern of deception." It did show Albom guilty of lifting quotes from other sources without attribution. One reporter told Editor & Publisher magazine that Albom not only lifted quotes, he changed them to livelier versions of their former selves.
All this began on April 1, 2005, the day before Michigan State's basketball team would play in the NCAA's Final Four. It was a Friday, the deadline for an Albom column that would run in the Sunday paper. He wrote about all the fun a kid's college years can be. Under the headline "Longing for Another Slice of Dorm Pizza," the column began:
Trouble was, neither Cleaves nor Richardson made it to the game. Not in their MSU clothing. Not rooting for the dear old Spartans. Not by plane, train, or riverboat had they been delivered to St. Louis. They'd told Albom early in the week that they'd be there, then they changed their minds.
That meant Albom had written as fact on Friday a Sunday column leading with events of Saturday that never happened.
Note to journalism students: This is known as fiction. It can get you expelled.
"Why?" he said.
"He's won the Red Smith thing now, five years after that Final Four column."
"No, leave him alone. Old news."
But another friend said, "Shouldn't somebody raise hell about this?"
Albom, the Detroit Free Press star, raised unshirted hell in 2003 when Jayson Blair was found to have made it all up while working for The New York Times. "What he doesn't get," Albom wrote of Blair, "is that journalism is not Hollywood. It's not about closing the deal. It's not about face time. It's about — simply put — telling the truth."
I paid attention, then, when Albom, an unlikely guardian of journalistic values, recently spoke up again on the practice of our craft. First he did a column on how the media had behaved poorly during the LeBronathon, reporting what he considered to be silly rumors.
"Note to journalism students," he wrote. "When we celebrate investigative reporting, it's for issues like war crimes, nursing home scandals or police corruption. It's not to report that LeBron James has opened a Twitter account."
The advice came shortly after the Associated Press Sports Editors organization did a curious thing. It gave Albom its highest honor. The Red Smith Award, named after the elegant wordsmith, recognizes lifetime achievement in sports journalism. At the Smith ceremony, Albom issued even more advice.
"Be ruthless with yourself, be compassionate with those you cover," he said, according to a transcript of his speech. "Be scared of praise, be brave about criticism. Be aware that a microphone is a funny thing, it changes people. Be sensitive that ‘on the record' is a guideline, not a trap. Be mindful that a pen is a powerful thing – and a pen plus the Internet can change a person's life forever. The image from the movie ‘Absence of Malice,' where a woman runs from lawn to lawn trying to pick up the newspapers before a damaging story can be read, should play in all our heads before we take somebody down. Be a judge, but don't be God. Be fast, but not rushed. Be humble enough to admit a mistake, and be able to sleep at night with what you've written."
All good stuff, sound and true.
Red would have said the same things, only more gracefully.
Nor would he disagree with Albom's next thoughts: "Be in love with language, be respectful of its power and be in awe of its possibilities. Be prepared. Read everything. Study other writers. Remember that, as the saying goes, a writer's brain is like a magician's hat. If you want to pull something out of it, you have to put something into it first."
A columnist at the Free Press since 1985, Albom won the APSE's column-writing contest in the big-paper category 13 times before anyone else won it twice. He is more widely recognized for his writing outside sports; his website reports that his books have sold over 28 million copies, literally around the world, printed in 42 languages.
About here, you may wonder why any sportswriter would raise hell about the APSE giving its Red Smith Award to America's most famous sportswriter – especially when Albom chose that venue to puff out his chest for all of us: "Be proud of the sports section – it's as real as any section in the paper, and it's the most read.. . . ." The award is decided by a vote of previous winners (I'm one) and past presidents of the APSE; clearly, Albom had pleased most of the voters (if not all). One past president of the APSE told me, "I have absolutely no problem with Mitch winning." Another, speaking of Albom's dominance of the column-writing contest, said, "Mitch should win it every (expletive deleted) year!"
Accepting the Smith award, Albom went on giving advice . . .
"And always, always, be mindful of who you are serving – not your ego, but your reader. I never spent much time in media hospitality suites because I saw the trap of comparing notes, trying to impress colleagues with who could write more viciously. I saw how quickly conversations degenerated into complaint sessions and where I lived, cynicism was the wrong approach. The reader of Detroit, the guys on the assembly lines, the grandfathers in Alpena, wished every day they could trade places with me. If I turned cynic, how would that serve them? So I often kept a distance. I spent more time at events than in the office, more time in my community than in press boxes or media parties, and this may have cost me over the years. People who don't know you are often the quickest to speak about you, especially if you are blessed with some success."
Note to journalism students: at some level we're all in this for the ego, or we'd be doing dentistry in Darfur. Albom's level of ego involvement might be best measured by the "Official Mitch Albom Website" at Mitchalbom.com. It lists eight categories of Mitch Albom-centric availabilities: "Books. Journalism & Sports. Film & TV. Radio & Music. Theater. Service. Discussion. Bio."
So the denial of ego made me a little itchy, as did his take on hospitality suites. I suppose it's possible that a milquetoast hack could belly up to the hot dog tray, hear snarky cracks from the next guy over, and find himself transformed into a vampire of cynicism lusting for LeBron's blood. It's just never happened in my presence. That said, it's still the "old news," as my friend put it, that's the most bothersome.
In April of 2005, not long after tarring and feathering Jayson Blair, Albom was forced to write a note of apology to Free Press readers. He had committed a column in which he described events that never happened. Subsequently, he was suspended briefly while his newspaper did an in-house investigation. Four Free Press reporters worked through 600 Albom columns to determine if he made a habit of deceiving readers. The investigation reported "no pattern of deception." It did show Albom guilty of lifting quotes from other sources without attribution. One reporter told Editor & Publisher magazine that Albom not only lifted quotes, he changed them to livelier versions of their former selves.
All this began on April 1, 2005, the day before Michigan State's basketball team would play in the NCAA's Final Four. It was a Friday, the deadline for an Albom column that would run in the Sunday paper. He wrote about all the fun a kid's college years can be. Under the headline "Longing for Another Slice of Dorm Pizza," the column began:
ST. LOUIS – In the audience Saturday at the Final Four, among the 46,000 hoop junkies, sales executives, movie producers, parents, contest winners, beer guzzlers, hip-hop stars and lucky locals who knew somebody who knew somebody, there were two former stars for Michigan State, Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson.
They sat in the stands, in their MSU clothing, and rooted on their alma mater. They were teammates in the magical 2000 season, when the Spartans won it all. Both now play in the NBA, Richardson for Golden State, Cleaves for Seattle.
And both made it a point to fly in from wherever they were in their professional schedule just to sit together Saturday. Richardson, who earns millions, flew by private plane. Cleaves, who's on his fourth team in five years, bought a ticket and flew commercial.
They sat in the stands, in their MSU clothing, and rooted on their alma mater. They were teammates in the magical 2000 season, when the Spartans won it all. Both now play in the NBA, Richardson for Golden State, Cleaves for Seattle.
And both made it a point to fly in from wherever they were in their professional schedule just to sit together Saturday. Richardson, who earns millions, flew by private plane. Cleaves, who's on his fourth team in five years, bought a ticket and flew commercial.
Trouble was, neither Cleaves nor Richardson made it to the game. Not in their MSU clothing. Not rooting for the dear old Spartans. Not by plane, train, or riverboat had they been delivered to St. Louis. They'd told Albom early in the week that they'd be there, then they changed their minds.
That meant Albom had written as fact on Friday a Sunday column leading with events of Saturday that never happened.
Note to journalism students: This is known as fiction. It can get you expelled.
July 17th, 2010 at 8:31 am
Perhaps it had been said earlier by somebody else, but 38 years ago, at an API sports editors seminar in New York, the late Lewis Grizzard took a sip of his vodka tonic and said, "The secret to writing a good column is to remember with perfect clarity events that never happened." Good on Dave Kindred for refusing to keep quiet about Albom winning the Red Smith Award.
July 17th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
THANK YOU, DAVE KINDRED!!
How are so many people in the business letting Albom off the hook?? It was an incredibly hypocritical speech and when I saw the first few grafs, I was prepared to commend him for owning up to his mistake. But no! Albom has since become one of the laziest slobs in the business, rarely attending sporting events in Michigan until something blows up and he's left with no choice. Meanwhile, he sits around and collects $$ from radio and book deals while writing about people who stand in line for iPhones and taking your kids to summer camp. Hang 'em up, Mitch. Time for some new flavor.
July 17th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
I've always thought of Albom as a whiny little guy- not shocked he's a liar as well.
July 17th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Careful, you don't want to piss off Lupica and the "World-Wide leader."
July 17th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
thank you sir.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Not to condone what Mitch did by any means (and yes, Mitch is speaking out of turn when warning people about ego), but the man made one bad mistake in what has been a superb 25-year career. Kindred acts like the Final Four article should be scrawled on Albom's epitaph. Another thing of note: This column essentially implies throughout that Mitch doesn't deserve to receive the Red Smith Award, yet never comes out and says it. Why? Lack of courage is the easy answer, though I'll reserve judgment.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Surely Dave Kindred, one of the best in his chosen profession, has won this prestigious award. If so, he doesn't mention it. If not, there's something wrong with the selection process. We still miss you in Louisville, Dave.
http://uoflcardgame.com
July 17th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Thank you for having the integrity to write this column. When one reads what Albom actually wrote in the column of deceit quoted above juxtaposed with his apology – the apology is equally appalling and arrogant! Ego? Over the top.
Equally troublesome is the fact that so many others who "love" Albom for his writings, continue to laude & magnify him. Indeed, forgiveness is extremely important on such matters. We all do terrible things we regret deeply. However, Albom did not show a deep-seated regret about his atrocious column. Certainly not the regret he would expect of those he, rightly, criticized. Instead, it was the classic, "I made a mistake, I'm sorry – but, really, it's the Friday deadline that is to blame." Seriously?
I am appalled. Equally appalling are the enablers in the sports industry who ignore not only the deceptive column, but the failed apology. As my teenage daughter would put it: Albom + Apology = Fail.
July 17th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I have such respect for Dave Kindred as both a stylist and a reporter.
Yet the lack of reporting, or context, that went into this piece is breathtaking at best and startling at worst.
It makes me wonder: Is something else going on here?
There is a lot of professional jealousy when it comes to Mitch Albom.
And this incident in Albom's career certainly remains a low point.
But as I remember the facts, or at at least the story, the column in question involved a pre-print Sunday section, assurances to Albom by Cleaves and Richardson that thet were going to attend the game. And I believe the copy desk was aware of the situation.
Albom, and others involved in the editing of the column and responsibility for accepting Albom's assumption in the column, suffered consequences.
Mitch accepted ultimate responsibility.
This was all no secret. The Red Smith voters obviously knew the story.
So why do this now?
I don't get it.
And as I said, it saddens me because of who's involved here.
July 17th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
That's it? That's what negates years and years of being one of the better writers in his field? If that's it, the award was well given!
July 17th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
I'm a bigger fan of Kindred's work than Albom's, but I wonder if Kindred called Albom to ask him about his winning the award five years after his erroneous Final Four column. That seems the journalistically sound thing to do — not to mention fair. Has he ever met Albom? Either way, that'd be a worthy sentence in Kindred's story. This just seems like a snarky kick in the nuts. BTW, Albom's email address is also on his website.
July 17th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Also Jason Richardson WASN'T on the 2000 Championship team, he was a freshmen in 2001.
July 18th, 2010 at 7:24 am
Albom and Rick Reilly have earily similar careers to many right wing politicians who hurl rocks from the protection of their multimillion dollar glass houses. Their idea of how things should be and what makes sports special comes from lives where none of those qualities are emulated. We are in a society that roots for our heros to fall and during these epic collapses we fien for commentary on the spill, this is how these men made fortunes.
July 18th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Mr. Grizzard was a writer, a stylist, more than a journalist. During his brief tenure as sports editor in Atlanta, those who worked for him liked to say he'd tell them "I got a great headline here; go write a story for it."
I must admit that I've never understood the love affair with Albom's columns. When he first started winning APSE column awards, I'd read his stuff and be underwhelmed. But overwhelmed by the verbiage. While columnists in my area were limited to 600-700 words, Albom was writing columns twice that length. He was (is) repetitive and apparently in love with the sound of his keyboard. I read Albom's book about the Fab Five and was curious how he quoted (looong quotes) things that were said in the huddle during games. I never realized Albom played for the Wolverines.
I agree that APSE made a curious choice and that Mr. Red Smith is looking down wondering, "What the …?" Albom's fabriciated column in 2005 would have gotten most sportswriters fired. It was a fireable offense and the Free Press leadership failed misrably.
July 18th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Albom writes about sports? I just thought he wrote sappy books.
July 19th, 2010 at 1:05 am
"Note to journalism students: This is known as fiction. It can get you expelled."
I recall some fiction in the L.A. Times once about baseball players named in an affidavit. I think Jason Grimsley was a central figure in that fiction. I won't hold my breath waiting for Mr. Kindred to disinfect that stain with some sunshine, though.
It is entertaining to see all of this dragged out again, though. Yet I'm not sure whether Steve Klein is a genius, a moron, or both. I do know that if a copy desk is told not to edit a column, then it's sort of unfair to blame said desk when it does not edit the column. But that concept seems to be beyond the grasp of the dimwits at the Free Press and many other places, which think they can run down their desks and fill them with bad hires and yet expect to be bailed out of situations like this one by said desks.
I generally agree with Mr. Barnhouse, and apologies to him if that offends. He is right that the Free Press leadership failed miserably. What has been ignored is that paper's leadership had been failing in many regards for some time, and those failings led to the unfortunate Arch Madness situation. If you fill your last line of defense with buffoons and then tell those buffoons not to do their jobs, even at the small capabilities they offer, then you invite problems.
July 19th, 2010 at 1:17 am
"Also Jason Richardson WASN'T on the 2000 Championship team, he was a freshmen in 2001."
Sorry, but you are incorrect on all counts, including your spelling of the word "freshman."
Sportswriters often get time references wrong — on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis — generally because they go with off-the-cuff recollections rather than using the myriad references available, so I thought you might be right. But you are not. Mitch A. might be guilty of a few things, but I don't recall him falling into the erroneous details trap as often as, for example, Drew Sharp or even the author of this piece.
With luck, though, you will have planted the seed for decades of sportswriters to claim that Richardson was not on the 2000 title team.
July 19th, 2010 at 8:46 am
As I read the article I had the belief that sour grapes may be an issue.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:35 am
For those keeping score (and who doesn't, really?), Richardson scored nine points and had two rebounds in the 2000 title game. … Re Albom: The comparison to Rick Reilly is a good one, I think. Both were excellent earlier in their careers, but have a found a comfortable seat on their laurels these days. Albom's sanctimony is also hard to take. His apology, though, is more clear-cut than I remember – except for throwing other people under the bus with him in the last paragraph. Here's the 2005 text:
To our readers: I made an assumption in a column this past weekend. It was a bad move. In a column written Friday for our Sunday newspaper, I assumed that what I had been told by Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson had indeed happened, that they had indeed flown to the Final Four, sat in the stands together rooting on Michigan State in Saturday's game. That was their plan. Both told me so in separate interviews. Because the column had to be filed on Friday afternoon, but appeared on Sunday, I wrote it in the past tense, as if it already had happened.
While it was hardly the thrust of the column – which was about nostalgia and college athletes – it was wrong just the same. You can't write that something happened that didn't, even if it's just who sat in the stands. Perhaps, it seems a small detail to you – the players still love their teams, they are still nostalgic, they simply decided not to go after the column had been filed – but details are the backbone of journalism, and planning to be somewhere is not the same as being there.
So I owe you and the Free Press an apology, and you have it right here. It wasn't thorough journalism. While our deadlines would have required some weird writing – something like, "By the time you read this, if Mateen and Jason stuck to their plans, they would have sat in the stands for Saturday's game"- it should have been done. We have high standards at this newspaper, and I have high standards for myself. We – the editors and I – got caught in an assumption that shouldn't have happened. It won't again. Thanks.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Bra-freaking-vo.
The rules are simple — don't steal and don't make it up. Period. What's the statutory limit for fraud? One piece? Five? Ten? Give me a number. I'm interested. That the APSE would sanctify this egregious malpractive with its highest award — and, worse, that there are people who would defend that decision with piles of straw like "professional jealousy" — makes me weep for this business.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Charles, we're all weeping for the business but it's almost reached the baby shampoo stage – no more tears. We're just about dry.
July 19th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
W –
At least we can go out with some honesty, and with some dignity, and not being preached at from the glassiest of glass houses, no matter how richly appointed it may be.
July 19th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
"Charlie Springer Says: Surely Dave Kindred, one of the best in his chosen profession, has won this prestigious award. If so, he doesn't mention it. If not, there's something wrong with the selection process. We still miss you in Louisville, Dave."
Fifteenth graf. Mr. Kindred won the award in 1991. Without the benefit of lifting and "improving" quotes sans attribution (per the Freep investigation, as noted above) as well as writing fictitious advance columns, one would presume.
Fire away, Messrs. Kindred and Pierce. Albom may be a supremely talented writer, but I don't think I'll be signing up for his class on media ethics.
July 19th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Have to agree with the comments about asking for Albom's response. If you're going to write a column attacking someone's integrity (whether it is justified or not), you have to give them the right to respond. If he refused to comment, tell us. To Charlie Pierce: that's one of the simple rules of journalism as well. And you, of all people, should know that.
July 19th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Wow…a column based on sports writers voting to give another sports writer an award. Self indulgent claptrap. At the end of the day WGAS?
July 19th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
It seems columnists of all stripes – but especially in sports – tend toward a certain curve where hard work, talent and daring early on gain them acclaim that ensures the hard work, talent and daring will be unnecessary later on in their careers. It's tempting to say one would work hard and stay diligent in the same position, but decades of writing might lead even the most hard-nosed to take shortcuts. In this, there's a parallel to many athletes that seem to phone it in on many nights after they've attained star status.
Still, I applaud this piece by Kindred. One can criticize Albom's receipt of a superlative honor without saying his entire career was about one bad move. If all it was was one bad day, then the appropriate thing for Albom to do would have been to own up to it in his acceptance, and to talk about it as a part of his career that needs to be remembered with all of the things people laud. A great writer would have let his actions be the lesson, rather than platitudes and trite maxims he failed to follow.
And cheers to whoever used Isaac Jaffe as a nom de plume; excellent reference, especially for the topic.
July 19th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Thank you for writing this. I couldn't believe it when I head he won the award, and I almost thought I was mistaken when I recalled that incident. Surely ASPE wouldn't give the award to a fabricator, I thought. Unfortunately, I soon realized I wasn't mistaken. Mitch's colleagues just didn't care that he had committed a cardinal sin of journalism.
Shame on those of you who suggest that having a stellar career makes it okay to fabricate things once or twice. That kind of attitude — it's okay to fabricate if you are talented — is what got us into this mess. Mitch had an early deadline and made stuff up to try to make life easier. It's one of the worst things a journalist can do. It's pathetic, it's lowly, and it makes the rest of us look bad.
Mitch is a sanctimonious blow hard, and after pulling that stunt I think he is the last person on earth who should be giving ethics pointers to j-students.
July 19th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Albom made a dumb mistake, but one that experienced editors come across from time to time — a writer assuming an event in advance copy had come to pass. The desk should have bailed him out by changing "attended" to "was to attend," but copy desks are shorter-handed than they used to be and don't catch as much. To hold this against Albom the rest of his career, as Kindred and indeed Romanesko seem to want to do, is not fair and smacks of schadenfreude.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I am not surprised by the choice. Depressed, but hardly surprised. Sports writing is no different than any other profession: you are rewarded for unbridled ego and self-promotion and sucking up to the movers and shakers in the industry, not for doing your job as best you can. Fame equals success, and if you get enough fame – and money – you can do pretty much anything you want. We all know people who were fired for lesser sins than Mitch committed. Fie on anyone who defends him. Two fies on anyone who takes a pot shot at Dave Kindred, the template for what a sports columnist and a journalist should be.
Mitch has a job only because he's too famous to fire. Think about that, folks, and tell me that's the way the world should operate. It's like Pete Rose: If he were the bullpen catcher for the Royals, no banishment would be long enough, but because he's Pete Rose and fans love him, he needs to be cut some slack. The world operates this way because we allow it to. People cheat only because they can get away with it.
It is an insult to every honest writer, and that's almost every one of them, to reward fiction. Tell me no stories about how it was an early column and they promised to be there. A journalist doesn't write about things that he wishes would happen. He writes about things that do happen. And it's not just putting the two players in the stands. It's describing their dress, how they're sitting, where they're sitting, a wealth of detail that everybody would have let slide if the two guys had just showed up. But even that would have been a lie; a fiction. This is not acceptable. A professional would have found another column that didn't require him to make it up.
Did no one note that the investigation showed that Mitch "borrowed" quotes from other sources and embroidered them? This is just as bad, and it's an epidemic among a certain school of columnist. You will notice that they always steal from their underlings, not from their peers. If they take something from a peer, they give credit. Steal from an underling, and they give no credit.
It's all part of the I'm-great-you're-not school of self-promotion. It has now been declared the only way to travel.
I'm not fit to carry Dave Kindred's ink pot, but if there's somebody I'd want to be like, it's him, not Mitch. I felt that way 30 years ago and still do. (I wouldn't mind writing like Charlie Pierce, either.)
Mitch is a terrific writer and a very talented man. Too talented, you'd think, to have to cheat.
Red Smith would not be proud.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Mitch Albom wrote, "While our deadlines would have required some weird writing – something like, "By the time you read this, if Mateen and Jason stuck to their plans, they would have sat in the stands for Saturday's game"- it should have been done."
Yes, it should have. And you know why it wasn't? Because the column wouldn't have been as good. And you can't win bushels of awards by weakening a column when the facts get in the way.
You know what's missing here? It was the wrong thing to do EVEN IF the two players had done exactly what they had told him they were going to do. He would still have been deceiving his readers, trying to trick them into thinking he had been there and had talked to these two guys at the time of the game. He still would have been writing about an event before it happened. That was a choice he made; the deadline had nothing to do with it. He could have written a tribute to Jud Heathcote or — well, anything.
I generally admire his work, but I've got to admit. Since this happened, I'll always have that nagging little question in the back of my mind. Did it really happen this way? Is that perfect quote really want the guy said? Was he actually there?
Fool me once….
July 19th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Now Charles Pierce chimes in.
I shudder.
I've read Charles for a long time; own his book "Sports Guy."
Mitch Albom, as Dave Kindred (same sentence; hope that isn't offensive) points out, has been "a columnist at the Free Press since 1985, Albom won the APSE's column-writing contest in the big-paper category 13 times before anyone else won it twice."
I always thought that was remarkable.
Kindred also writes:
"The award is decided by a vote of previous winners (I'm one) and past presidents of the APSE; clearly, Albom had pleased most of the voters (if not all)."
When/if you have the time, take a look at the list of past Red Smith Award winners and past APSE presidents. It's pretty impressive. I'm sure they did not overlook or forget about Albom's mistake. They chose not to make it his epitaph.
I think that's fair.
And right.
I think the disapproval is understandable.
I don't think it's fair play, though.
All you sports folks do remember fair play, don't you, or has covering sports all these years jaded us so?
Even a cursory reading of Mitch Albom's work demonstrates that he's never lost his love of sport and the people who participate in it. I choose to remember that legacy.
July 19th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Thanks, Kindred. Red Smith often got it wrong – hello, Ali – but he never piped the story. How tough a standard is that? Isn’t all that money enough? BTW, I see the winners of the AP column writing award every year and it’s a bad joke.
July 19th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Ken Fuson beat me by a few minutes, but he said what I have said since 2005, and I have been disappointed that so many missed the point then and continue, apparently, to miss it: The discussion of deadlines and no-show players begs the question.
No matter how you slice it, the column was dishonest. Anyone who read his column would have believed that Albom had written the words after the event; a reader also would have reasonably assumed the Mr. Albom was sitting with them to hear their conversation because he went out of his way to imply that, as this excerpt from the column shows (BoldFace mine):
"It was loyalty, sure. And it was exciting, no doubt. But in talking to both players, it was more than that. It was a chance to do something …
" 'In the pros, you don't hang out with your teammates; everybody has their own life, their wife or their kids or their girlfriends," Richardson said. "And anyhow, you're together on the plane, at the arena, on the bus, 82 games a season. When you have time, you're just looking to get away."
"You gotta miss those college days," Cleaves said. "We were a family at Michigan State. In the NBA, you're just not as close."
If he were honest, Albom would have said: In telephone conversations Friday, the players told me …
Further, how is it that both of them failed to show?
What we know from this is that Mitch didn't even plan to see them at the game. He was content to allow us to believe he was there in the stands, chatting and taking notes.
And there is this, the final sentence: You looked around the stands Saturday ….
He went to great effort to make us believe he was on the spot. Does anyone know whether he even was in the arena during the game?
It was the Final Four. It was Mitch Albom. Could his editors not have found space on Sunday for a nostalgia piece so that Mitch could actually have reported?
Did anybody talk to the players after this? Maybe they didn't like Mitch and set him up.
July 19th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
"Red Smith often got it wrong – hello, Ali"
This is why I laugh at sportswriters fairly often. "We got it wrong, but …" — the boilerplate excuse. What's next — "the desk didn't catch it"? Oh, wait …
"The desk should have bailed him out by changing "attended" to "was to attend," but copy desks are shorter-handed than they used to be and don't catch as much."
You have no speck of a clue what you are talking about. The desk was told not to edit his column.
Today we have a greater insight into why Sports sections are packed with bad writing, incorrect time references, TV listings that might as well consist of people throwing darts at the grid, and factless rants. The writers don't care, and they are very skilled at blaming others.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Albom crossed picket lines as well..what a schmuck.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
I congratulate the voters for picking someone who's not dead this time around — failing to recognize W.C. Heinz before he left us remains a terrible shame — but allow me to join the opposition to the choice they've now made.
Mitch Albom is a prolific writer who has enjoyed tremendous commercial success. He's also a quote lifter, a fabulist, and a crosser of picket lines.
As much as Mitch might like to divide his lives, he can't.
And yet, somehow, Pete Rose just found his way into the Hall of Fame.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:30 am
As a Free Press subscriber, the only thing I would add to all this is that it has been a very, very long time since Mitch Albom has written a great column, be it sports or, in recent years, his Sunday general-interest column. He parachutes into topics after they already have been hacked over. Although I think Albom has the ability to write extremely well, I also think that his multimedia career has hurt his writing to the point that it reads as if it were produced by software and not a human being. His editors would be doing him — and, by extension, his readers — a great service if they got in his grill more often about the topics his chooses. But clearly, that doesn't happen.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:31 am
albom's failure resulted largely from laziness and the glaring failure to realize that you NEVER, EVER write that something has happened until you KNOW it has happened. he took what Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson told him EARLY in the week and did not bother to check back LATE in the week to see if their plans had not changed.
i ran across pretty much the same thing as a young journalist when somebody told me one day he was going to do something at a certain time the next day, which coincided with my p.m. deadline. only he didn't do what he said he was going to do. and never did. i screwed up, but the embarrassment taught me one thing very clearly: NEVER, EVER write that something has happened unless you KNOW it happened.
my mistake – and albom's, too – should not be a career buster, particularly if it is not repeated. and it is sort of pointless and petty to resurrect it regularly.
of course, i think this kind of thing happens all the time — in books. i often read a book and wonder, "How in the hell could the writer possibly know this? What could the source for this possibly have been?" it may be the dirty little secret of publishing.
July 20th, 2010 at 10:59 am
That just isn't true. Newspaper desks are not told to ignore errors, it would be a violation of professional standards to issue such a directive. Someone who was high in the sports dept. at the F-P at the time told me that one should have been caught.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:48 am
It sounds to me like there are a bunch of jealous writers who can only dream about winning one award let alone dominate the sports writers of America.. Although Mr. Albom has admitted his mistake, there are many sports writers that just won't let him live it down. Let's see, he's been with the Free Press for over 25 years, he's probably written between 3500 and 5000 sports columns. And Mr. Kindred has to make issue with ONE column. It sounds to me like he, as well as quite a few other writers who have submitted their comments, are a little jealous of Mr. Albom's overall success as a sports writer as well as a best selling author.
July 20th, 2010 at 12:37 pm
In the October 12, 1992 edition of the Sporting News, Dave Kindred, bastion of integrity and hero to all that is honest and true, questioned the veracity of Magic Johnson's claim that he contracted the HIV virus through unprotected heterosexual sex. Kindred insinuated that Johnson got the virus through gay sex. Kindred did so based on no evidence whatsoever.
What Albom was bad, yes. What Kindred did was worse. And unlike Albom, Kindred (to the best of my knowledge) hasn't had to answer for his transgression.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
I have always had a problem w/ Mitch Albom after it was announced that Michigan basketball was being placed on probation for recruiting violations, mainly Chris Webber. Did anyone read Albom's book, The Fab Five? The chapter he wrote in the recruitment of Chris Webber is one big smooch to Chris Webber's backside. Made him look like the biggest angel on the planet, especially for turning down a last minute offer from the University of Mississippi in which they offered his dad a job and would give Webber a car, cash, etc. It was one of the biggest selling areas for Albom's book and UM fans bought it all up because they're a bunch of saps.
When the NCAA came out with their findings, Albom wrote a column the following day saying that UM basketball should give back all of the money they made on merchandising the Fab Five, all the money they made on their tourney runs, refund all of the ticket sales because they were frauds. My question to you, big ears, did you donate back any proceeds from your fraud of a book? There are a lot of sports writers I can't stand, but Albom is at the very top of the list. What a hypocrite.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
All those that keep saying "it was only one column!" are probably related to the famous guy who asked Mrs. Lincoln about the play…
July 20th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Yes it should be your epitaph! It doesn't matter if Albom has written 5 million columns. If you make shit up, even once, you should be finished in the business. This is not defensible.
July 20th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
Jealousy? Some of Mr. Kindred's credentials:
National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame
U.S. Basketball Writers Association Hall of Fame (charter class)
Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Curt Gowdy Award
PGA Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism
And, of course, the very same Red Smith Award back in 1991. Jealous? More like, "Well, there goes the neighborhood."
July 20th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Steve, you say this: "Even a cursory reading of Mitch Albom's work demonstrates that he's never lost his love of sport and the people who participate in it. I choose to remember that legacy."
That may be true but it doesn't change the fact that he's turned into a shlock writer. I've never been impressed by either his prose nor his column topics to begin with. Maybe it's personal taste, but how exactly can it be that he has won this APSE column writing award 13 times? To give you a comparison, a guy like Joe Posnanaski has only won it twice? Or the fact that Michael Rosenburg, his compatriot at the Freep and a vastly superior writer (and journalist, really… see: UM scandal last season) has never won the column writing award?
Honestly, when was the last time Albom did real journalism? I think that's what sticks in my craw. I feel like column-writers should at the very least also be real journalists and not two-bit schmucks who write sappy features for the Opera crowd. It's lowest-common denominator pandering at its nadir.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Vlae:
I agree with you that it should have been caught and fixed, policy be damned.
Nevertheless, people whom I have no reason to distrust insist his column could be edited only under certain circumstances. Did they overinterpret the edict? Possibly.
We apparently disagree about where the blame should lie. You blame the desk, and I blame the upper management that allowed the situation to deteriorate.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Heavens. How many assumptions do you count in that lede?
This suggests that Albom got guarantees from a shitload of sales execs and hip-hop stars and beer guzzlers that they'd be there, too. That's the real sin against journalism, and one he never apologized for.
July 20th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
The same Mitch Albom that was close enough to the Fraud….errr, Fab Five to write a book about them, but conveniently didn't see the worst cheating scandal in the history of the NCAA going on right under his nose? This award has just been seriously devalued
July 20th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
"At least we can go out with some honesty, and with some dignity, and not being preached at from the glassiest of glass houses, no matter how richly appointed it may be."
I love Pierce but when I look at this finely worded statement, I think of Kindred more than Albom. Perhaps I'm making too big a deal of what I wrote in post #41. I vividly recall Kindred's column, have never heard him apologize for it… am I missing something here?
July 20th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
i think Albom is actually the worst kind of journalist. Ego doesnt even begin to describe him. And frankly, shuffling the corpse of his late "mentor" just to sell some books never impressed me. Albom is a hypocrit, a liar and worst of all, has managed to outlive the memories of most readers who have many more important things in their lives to be mindful of instead of his phony column on the Spartan stars (makes you wonder how much of "Maury" was concocted.
. But the internet never forgets and I hope columns like these are written every time anyone mentions Albom in good standing. Keep it up. (but change your comment format, man it's tough to type in this box)
July 20th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
No wrath for the worst sports book in the last 20 years: Albom's clearly embellished to the point of fiction book on the "Fab Five" at Michigan? How could a man who supposedly followed the team everywhere for a year have missed one of the single most corrupt programs in NCAA history – a team that no longer exists according to the university and all record books? How could he miss the expensive cars, thousands of dollars in cash flowing into their pockets weekly, and the numerous other hallmarks of dirty players and teams? That book alone should forever mark him as nothing but a shill willing to say or write anything to sell something. He doesn't give a rats ass about integrity, because he has none.
Kudos on saying what needed to be said. The man is a hack in the truest sense.
July 20th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Well, when I was a medical student in Detroit in 1991, my group (the Jewish Medical Students Association) tried to get Mitch Albom to speak to us–both as a Jewish professional in the area and as a "humanist" writer. We could not even get a direct line to Mr. Albom. Rather, he had his agent return calls.
Then he and his agent had the gall to try to charge us UP FRONT, $10,000.00 to speak to us (as his speaking fee). We were medical students down the street from his Freep office. We don't have money to spend on that. Not even if it was 500.00
For a guy who speaks about being humble, he sure does not act the part when given a chance. Granted this was 19 years ago, but this was before Tuesdays with Morrie, before WJR fame, before ESPN sports reporters. This was "Mitch Albom, the famed Free Press AP award winning sportswriter", and he should have known better and given us an hour of his time. It would have made a huge difference to 500 medical students. But, sorry to say, his stupid charge got in the way. And I have not forgotten what a selfish, hypocritical man he is.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
http://articles.dailypress.com/1992-11-06/sports/9211060267_1_hiv-magic-johnson-unprotected-heterosexual
“Dave Kindred, a columnist for The Sporting News, publicly called for Johnson to come clean about how he contracted the virus, even though Johnson has repeatedly said it was through unprotected heterosexual activity. Kindred’s hysterical column was the first wave of criticism that drove Johnson into retirement.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=5R8ScR4I_hgC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%22Dave+Kindred%22+Magic+Johnson+Sporting+News&source=bl&ots=-MjwWUYKFF&sig=fx8E2YmseGBcEdkDHpwslMRtN8U&hl=en&ei=XmtGTNfjKJnonQesnrGvBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=%22Dave%20Kindred%22%20Magic%20Johnson%20Sporting%20News&f=false
Separately, the name-dropping, while endlessly entertaining, is starting to get repetitive. Time to give it a rest, knee-pad wearers.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
I tolerated his writing for years… until I read "Tuesday's with Morrie" on my ex-wife's urging, saying it would change my life. The only thing it changed was my estimation of Albom from a formulaic writer (with rough raw copy) to a complete hypocrite. The final point of that book is to stop and smell the roses, spend time with those you love most, focus on your family, be humble … and yet he's on ESPN talk shows, his daily radio show, in Hollywood, etc. etc. etc. He is a franchise, not a newspaper writer.
July 21st, 2010 at 10:53 am
Thanks for this column. Long time Michigan residents who've had to suffer through Mitch's melodramatic style of journalism appreciate the fact that others feel the same way.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:04 am
I'd be more peeved at the idiots, like the past president and other guy, who thought Albom should be a slam dunk for the APSE. Did they also flush their journalistic ethics down the toilet just because a guy sells fiction books?
July 21st, 2010 at 11:22 am
Jason Whotlock says it best
http://thebiglead.com/index.php/2010/07/20/whitlock-on-the-newspaper-industry-letting-myth-albom-preach-was-the-equivalent-of-the-band-playing-while-the-titantic-took-on-water/
July 21st, 2010 at 4:53 pm
As long as you brought it up, Clay.
What Dave wrote as regards Magic was incorrect.
What Mitch wrote as regards the Michigan State players was A LIE.
Thank you for playing.
July 21st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
It's the equivalent of giving Barry Bonds the MVP when his head is exploding from 'roids. Red Smith's editor once told him "Quit Godicizing those jocks." Which is why I got out the business, because guys like Albom are in the business of Godicizing these clowns, then wonder why they turn out so narcissistic.
July 21st, 2010 at 6:32 pm
"What Dave wrote as regards Magic was incorrect.
What Mitch wrote as regards the Michigan State players was A LIE."
Both, however, were based on incorrect assumptions. It made for a better column to claim that the MSU players were there, and it made for a better column to insist that Magic could not have been infected through heterosexual sex.
Point of fact: An actual lie would be Albom knowing that none of that happened and then insisting it happened anyway. He filed the column in advance, so unless he was told before filing that the players were not going to attend, he would not have known the truth.
For there to be a lie, someone must know the truth and then say or write something different.
July 21st, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Also, it appears I have a comment locked up in moderation, so I'll try just copying the links:
http://articles.dailypress.com/1992-11-06/sports/9211060267_1_hiv-magic-johnson-unprotected-heterosexual
“Dave Kindred, a columnist for The Sporting News, publicly called for Johnson to come clean about how he contracted the virus, even though Johnson has repeatedly said it was through unprotected heterosexual activity. Kindred’s hysterical column was the first wave of criticism that drove Johnson into retirement.”
http://books.google.com/books?id=5R8ScR4I_hgC&pg=PA32&lpg=PA32&dq=%22Dave+Kindred%22+Magic+Johnson+Sporting+News&source=bl&ots=-MjwWUYKFF&sig=fx8E2YmseGBcEdkDHpwslMRtN8U&hl=en&ei=XmtGTNfjKJnonQesnrGvBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=%22Dave%20Kindred%22%20Magic%20Johnson%20Sporting%20News&f=false
July 21st, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Ah, but Mr. Pierce:
Both are embarrassing to the profession.
July 22nd, 2010 at 3:49 am
I've only managed to get through about half of these comments, but man, you guys care too much about this.
I'm just starting out in journalism — graduated this spring — so I'm a little in the dark about opinions of Mitch Albom and the politics surrounding these awards. What strikes me the most about this whole discussion is how much all of you seem to care about one guy winning one award.
Maybe you're a little old to this whole Internet thing, but you'll NEVER convince someone you're right in a comments section (and yes, I'm being a total hypocrite by doing that right now. Step 1: I admit I have a problem…).
So let's just move on. Don't we have better things to do than bitch about this guy?
July 22nd, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I seem to have a comment locked in moderation, too (several days now).
Odd way to run a media-related, university website.
It would appear that Dave Kindred's column has served as an opportunity for everyone who has ever had a beef with Mitch Albom personally, or about his ethics, or about his writing style, or about his success, to literally take a dump on him.
That may not have been Kindred's intent (likely not), but it as been the result. And APSE, which honored Albom with its highest award, has been party to all this.
All I can say is I hope I'm never so honored.
July 23rd, 2010 at 12:46 am
Steve, no one literally took a dump on him, as far as I know. That would be rude.
And if this were a case of professional jealousy at work, as you've so wrongly suggested, you'd see the knives come out every time someone won the Red Smith. You don't see that — you've never seen that before, in fact — because no one has a bad thing to say about Jim Murray or Mary Garber or W.C. Heinz. This award, until this year, was reserved for the giants of our profession. That's why you (nor I) won't ever have to worry about being so honored, and that's why we're upset.
And Zach, get out now. Good journalists care. That you already don't tells me exactly how far you're going to go.
July 23rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
"As long as you brought it up, Clay.
What Dave wrote as regards Magic was incorrect.
What Mitch wrote as regards the Michigan State players was A LIE.
Thank you for playing."
Oh, the cliche about "thanks for playing" drenched as it always is in sarcasm before a triumphant storm-off? Never, ever gets old! But if you don't mind, I'd like to play a little more.
Here's Kindred, from Thomas Bonk via LA Times: "He said unprotected heterosexual sex did it," Kindred wrote. "Numbers say that's unlikely. One study says the odds are one in 500 even if a man uses no condom and his partner already has the virus. . . . A man is hundreds of times more likely to acquire HIV by homosexual contact or by using dirty hypodermic needles.
(Dave? If you're out there, I'd love to know your source for the above information which every doctor with a brain might just take issue with.)
And more: "It is forgivable for a man to hide such activity–if no one else is hurt by his behavior. But it is reprehensible if a man serving his self-interest helps create a frightening lie that causes research money to be diverted from more critical fields."
Yes, Charles, Kindred was "incorrect". He assumed something that wasn't true which led to his being "incorrect." His assumption was based on (ahem) bovine scatology which led to him being "incorrect." Which makes him "incorrect" morally and "incorrect" professionally. But at least he didn't lie.
And Knilands? Not for nothing but *if* you think my praise for Pierce constitutes knee-pad wearing than I don't want to be anywhere near your perverted imagination and would add that you can go straight to the home of Hades, do not pass Go.
July 23rd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
You are far from the only one offering some testimonial to a name before tossing a dart.
“Oh, the cliche about “thanks for playing” drenched as it always is in sarcasm before a triumphant storm-off? Never, ever gets old!”
That was awesome, BTW. I refer to the “thanks for playing” statements as Internet victory laps. They’re pretty common these days. Here, the Kindred supporters are running them, even though they haven’t really won anything. Albom still has the award. Nothing has changed.
In today’s sports journalism world, we have too many lap-runners and too few meet-winners. The lap-runners sit on the warm bus and wait for the meet-winners to do the work. Then, long after the victorious teams have left, the lap-runners come out and stumble around the track. It makes them feel better, but it changes nothing.
Finally, the “see you in hell” cliche is tired and needs to rest. I prefer: “See you on the other side, Ray.”
July 23rd, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Dear Robert,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TylvUGJIi_w
Peace,
Clay
July 24th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Kindred was not incorrect in the estimation of the odds of female to male transmission of HIV. It is a much less prevalent form of transmission and at the time of Magic's infection an extremely rare event. Kindred was writing in response to rumors circulating at the time and to my understanding part of the purpose in writing the article was if the rumors were accurate Johnson was continuing to stigmatize gay and bisexual men by his insistence he had contracted HIV through heterosexual activity. That being said, Kindred also wrote this in response to the comments, which are valid criticism, generated by this article.
If I could take back anything I've ever written, it would be those three or four paragraphs at the end of the Johnson-comeback column. Not that they were a lie. Not that they were fiction. Not that they were incorrect in their use of the day's data. Not that I didn't believe what I wrote. But they had no place in a basketball column. More important, they were insensitive to Johnson's circumstances. They also offended colleagues I respected, among them some who had friends dead of AIDS.
http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-media-news/a-look-back-at-a-careers-worth-of-hatpins-in-the-eyeballs/
July 25th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Clay –
In this business, the difference between being incorrect, even garishly so, and telling a deliberate falsehood is all the difference in the world.
Thank you for playing again.
July 26th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Coming in the year 2026:
Dave Kindred smooths any ruffled feathers from the "Steroid Era," long after the accused players have retired.
I hope I am alive to see that one.
July 26th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
#71–You're right. And with that, there's no need for me to play anymore.
Be well.