Marioti Leaves Chicago Sun-Times; Elation Ensues

[Pogotheostrich]

Dear Jay,

What an ugly way to leave the Sun-Times. It does not speak well for you. Your timing was exquisite. You signed a new contract, waited until days after the newspaper had paid for your trip to Beijing at great cost, and then resigned with a two-word e-mail: "I quit." You saved your explanation for a local television station.

As someone who was working here for 24 years before you arrived, I think you owed us more than that. You owed us decency. The fact that you saved your attack for TV only completes our portrait of you as a rat.

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Your former colleague,

Roger Ebert

http://deadspin.com/5043228/roger-ebert ... t-the-door

[BronXBombers51]

Hah, I really did not realize how hated Mariotti was among his peers.

[chargerss24]

Rumor has him going to Boston.
http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2008/0 ... -to-boston

please no.

does this mean he is off of ATH? lets hope so. dont watch it much, but he always bothered me

He was on there today (Aug. 28), it appeared that he was doing the show from his home.

[phillyphan12]

He suckssssssss...I stopped watching around the horn like a yr ago cuz i got fed up with him and his crap. Still put it on every now and again before PTI comes on ( now thats a show ) and i just get sickened by the look of him.

[knapplc]

What does it say to us about the state of modern media when a man as universally reviled as Jay Mariotti, hated by his peers, hated by the teams he covered and hated by the public in general, was so entrenched in his position that he pulled this stunt over and over before he was finally fired. Yet, despite his universal loathing, you can be sure that some paper, most likely a high-profile paper in a large media market, will snap him up. It apparently doesn't matter to them that Mariotti is considered at best a chump and at worst a tremendous coward. What matters is that the controversy he generates will act as free advertising, and they'll gladly sacrifice some of their "journalistic standards" to gain a few bucks.

Welcome to the New Media. Same as the Old Media, but without all that pesky integrity crap.

[Art Vandelay]

Welcome to the New Media. Same as the Old Media, but without all that pesky integrity crap.

I think you're giving the Old Media too much credit. It's not as if a lack of integrity among the press is a new development, nor, for that matter, is drumming up controversy to sell papers or attract viewers/listeners. I think your statement would be more accurate without the qualifier at the end.

As for Marioti, I've never read a single one of his colums and am familiar with him solely from his work on Around the Horn, which I used to watch, but haven't seen in more than a year. When I watched the show regularly, I could not stand him. And not in a guy-you-love-to-hate way, but in a fastforward-every-time-he-opens-his-stupid-mouth way.

[knapplc]

That line was more for effect than actual fact. I'm well aware of the news industry's historical shortcomings.

[RugbyD]

Mariotti had excellent prose for his topic and medium, but that's the only redeeming quality I ever found in him.