Thursday, September 16, 2010

A lady? Maybe. But she's no journalist

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ESPN's Jemele Hill has written a thought-provoking piece on the whole flap regarding Ines Sainz, the TV "journalist" who was treated like crap by the New York Jets.

READ IT.

Jemele's column reminded me of the one I wrote about Erin Andrews back in 2008, the piece that temporarily caused a storm of biblical proportions.

Sainz did not deserve to be treated so shabbily, obviously. But when a model (who regularly does publicity stunts for a living) tries to pass herself off as a legitimate journalist, it's a recipe for trouble.

Sainz's act makes it difficult for the hundreds of outstanding female sports journalists - those in TV, radio and print - to do their jobs. And I echo Jemele Hill in wondering why some of those people immediately rushed to Sainz's defense.

Switching topics, here's for the commenter who asked for my take on the Bruce Pearl situation ...

This is the classic case of reaping what one sows. As longtime Illinois basketball followers know, it was Pearl, then an Iowa assistant, who ratted out the Illini for alleged recruiting crimes involving Deon Thomas some two decades ago, leading to NCAA sanctions against Illinois.

Now here comes Pearl, it hot water with the NCAA over his own lying and cheating. Beautiful.

As is the case with many holier-than-thou people - Jay Mariotti fits this category, too - the fall is hard when the "thou's" prove to be most unholy.
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2 comments:

  1. Frankly, I’m surprised stuff like this doesn’t happen more often given the testosterone-fueled nature of football. My suspicion is that a level of “boys will be boys” locker room attitude is accepted by female reporters as long as certain lines aren’t crossed.

    But c’mon. Isn’t it just slightly possible that part of the Jets’ success is the result of the swagger encouraged by Rex Ryan? If the Jets were meek and mild (and probably not nearly as good), would their fans be happy with them? The aggressive nature of football is very accepting of the kind of behavior that would get most people kicked out a country club.

    I’m not saying the Jets’ boorish behavior is excusable. But there has to be some middle ground here. You can’t expect people whose livelihoods depend on a constant warrior-like mentality to suddenly act like choirboys at the drop of a hat.

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