I would like to thank Jason Whitlock for providing me with some page views today. He spoke out on Twitter about my post this morning regarding his comments about the APSE judging.
WhitlockJason Just a good old boy, never meaning no harm. Ed Sherman comes out smoking!!!
WhitlockJason Ed’s journalistic instincts are a little suspect. But he’s a good old boy, never meaning no harm. Making his way, the only way he knows how.
OK, you get the idea. Whitlock also had this post:
WhitlockJason Guess I shouldn’t have told Ed Sherman his Q&A questions were stupid a month ago
I hadn’t planned to write about him accepting and then declining to do a Q/A with me on the site. But since he brought it up, I figure it’s worth an explanation.
In December, I reached out to the FoxSports.com columnist, asking if he would be interested in doing a Q/A. My request came just after Bob Costas quoted Whitlock’s column on gun control during his halftime commentary on NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
I also wanted to talk to Whitlock about his sports media-based podcasts for Fox Sports. Specifically, I wanted him to address comments about a podcast he did with Richard Sandomir of the New York Times.
He repeatedly implored Sandomir to go after ESPN. “Deadspin has done a good job,” Whitlock said. “Some adults could get at the bigger issues at play here.”
Keep in mind, Whitlock once worked for ESPN and didn’t leave on the best of terms.
I also was intrigued about Whitlock’s comments on First Take during his discussion with Sandomir. He alleged that the show was geared to unemployed African-Americans.
“It’s not by accident that they’ve added the rap music, added the black women eye candy,” Whitlock said. “Skip Bayless picks on certain black targets. Then they brought in Stephen A. Smith to smooth it out.”
Later, Whitlock said, “Their ratings among black viewers is off the charts and it drives their decision-making. I’ve heard that from people I know.”
And one more sound bite. “There are a group of people who have time to watch this. They don’t have jobs. They like to talk sports and like the barbershop style of sports talk.”
OK, that’s a bit out there. I wanted Whitlock to discuss his position here.
So I contacted Whitlock about doing a Q/A and he said to email him some questions. I did ask him about ESPN, his First Take comments and other issues. After a week, I received the following email from Whitlock on Dec. 13:
Sorry for the delayed response. I’m not interested in the Q/A at this time. I can get my views out more effectively through platforms I control or through interviews with a more sophisticated line of questioning. Thanks for the invite.
Damn, I knew I should have gone to grad school so I could ask more sophisticated questions. At least, he said thank you.
Sure, I was ticked. But I moved on.
Then on Jan. 4, I went to Big Lead, and what did I see? A big Q/A with none other than Jason Whitlock. Now Jason McIntyre asked some good questions, but I didn’t think they were any more sophisticated than mine.
Now I was really ticked and thought about doing a post. But then there was Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o. And I moved on.
Until today. I had a nice little Twitter battle with Whitlock. Not on the level of Whitlock-Richard Deitsch, or Deitsch-anyone, but still it was spirited.
Whitlock did do a chat with Deadspin readers today. My name came up. I swear I didn’t put Jon DePaolis up to it:
JonDePaolis: 52: Do you dislike Ed Sherman, or is he just a hater on you?
Whitlock: I don’t dislike Special Ed. Don’t really know him. The debate/discussion I’m having about the sportswriting industry is just above his ability to comprehend.
I’m trying, I’m really trying. And if anyone knows how I can get more sophisticated, please let me know.
How exactly is Jason’s pointing out what is glaringly obvious to any savvy First Take watcher “out there” as you say? Aren’t you supposed to be a media critic? Would you add music by Wale and replace a Ken-doll-esque host with Cari Champion if a bunch of white retirees and housewives were the audience, as is often assumed in other daytime television programming not geared towards African-Americans? If you were sharper you could talk about these topics, too. You’d be a great beat writer, perhaps. Nobody would worry you could see past their p.r. gloss and robotic locker room responses.
LOL Ed…clearly you should be insulted that a Pulitzer-quality individual such as Whitlock is bashing you. I think the time it will take for him to put his foot in his mouth and get fired is nearing. Remember when sports writing was about writing a good story rather than saying stupid things to get pageviews?