You know the old PR adage: Any publicity is good publicity.

If that’s the case, Skip Bayless wins again. The ESPN First Take host has everyone riled up with suggestions that Derek Jeter’s big season at the age of 38 might be the result of taking PEDs.

Name another TV sports personality who generated more ink (cyber-space?) this week?

FoxSports.com went a bit overboard. In a very weird photo-illustration, it placed Bayless’ head on what I assume is Kim Kardashian’s body. Not a good look. In fact, disturbing.

The premise of Peter Scharger’s column is that Bayless has become Kardashian-like in being able to generate undeserved attention.

He writes:

Kardashian’s all over the headlines, but it’s baffling to me as to why anyone would pay attention to her. In the sports media world, there’s only one man she can be compared to. That man is Skip Bayless.

Every few weeks or so, Bayless says something on his daytime ESPN2 show “First Take” that ticks off everyone in sports media world. Like clockwork, someone with a verified account tweets about Bayless’ stupidity, the rest of the sports media world chases after the bone with wagging tongues, and it — somehow, someway — becomes a “story.” It’s a vicious cycle, one that repeats itself far too often, and one that can cause right-minded people great frustration.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News also went after Bayless for the Jeter comments:

“First Take” has undergone a bunch of changes since it was created. It is not  exactly a ratings juggernaut. The ratings are all that matters to Bayless, his  co-pilot Stephen A. Smith and the producers of the show. Accountability finishes  a distant fifth.

The employment future of all involved in the show depends on those ratings.  If smearing Jeter helps Bayless & Co. reach their ratings goals, and keep  their jobs, then it’s well worth the effort. If Jeter is collateral damage, so  be it.

Will Leitch in New York has a column with a great headline: “Please stop feeding the Skip Bayless.”

Leitch writes:

The problem is not Skip Bayless; he is simply being Skip Bayless, Numbnut. The problem is us. We all listen to him and quote him and can’t believe how outrageous he’s being, tsk tsk, tsk tsk, oh jeez, look what he’s doing now, that’s totally over the line, let’s let him kick off another news cycle. This is a daytime television shock jock — not even a good one — and people act like what he says has any connection to the physical world we all inhabit. This is just making him stronger.