How Whitlock is poisoning ESPN's "black Grantland"

[Sully]

http://deadspin.com/how-jason-whitlo...ium=socialflow

Very long read. Interesting, infuriating, sad, funny, and most likely headed to DC.

Enjoy...

[Discuss Thrower]

It's just been my observation from working HS sports for four years in two different avenues.

[RINGLEADER]

I've worked in the media business for 30 years. Having gotten thru most of the article all I can say is that Whitlock gets what makes a good media strategy. The best editors are overly confident dictators. Groupthink doesn't work as well as a single vision that has the will to make others follow. Period. Half of the magazines/websites/news shows I've worked on or owned that had a strong editor succeeded and half failed. Every one that had a weak editor failed in spectacular fashion.

I have no doubt Whitlock is as full of himself as he's presented to be in the story. And maybe he's such a blowhard his enterprise will collapse (he lacks another essential element which is trust which engenders loyalty which makes finding success so much easier). But being headstrong about what he wants doesn't make him the rotten ogre he's portrayed as in this article.

And that's coming from someone who's not much of a Whitlock fan.

[wazu]

I was on a plane this evening and had just pulled up this article before takeoff on my phone, so I actually read it all. It is a hopelessly rambling mess, and in the end it appears the author wants to paint Whitlock as an Uncle Tom as well as somebody who knows nothing, is out of touch with pop culture, is wildly insecure, and an egomaniac.

The last two might have truth, and the e-mails do a pretty good job of painting that picture. But the overall character assassination of this article is over-the-top and reeks of somebody who has lost all objectivity.

[Baby Lee]

Guess that answers this question

http://deadspin.com/can-jason-whitlo...-hi-1586606960

[crazycoffey]

Whitlock isn't poisonous, he's venomous......

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Guess that answers this question

http://deadspin.com/can-jason-whitlo...-hi-1586606960

Very long but worth the read.

Part of the problem seems to be the whole "black enough" measurement stick. I never got the impression Whitlock wrote for black America - he wrote for an American sports audience.

Whitlock doesn't have to explain black life to black people - he says what he does to attract attention from all people. He wasn't hired to write for only one demographic. He's trying to translate his opinions to a wider audience and while doing that things get lost in translation.

What makes him smart is that even when they take him the wrong way his talking points are headline news. The conversation happens. The matter is discussed.

Carlson called Whitlock brave, and it was a compliment that aligned with how Whitlock saw and sees himself. In truth, it was the opposite. Whitlock, in the name of "telling it like it is," was merely flattering the prerogatives of white people who preferred that any discussion of race begin with the pathologies of black people and their culture, not with the de jure and de facto system of oppression in America and its residue. Whitlock was chickenshit. He took the easy way out. He did what comes easiest to an American, even in the 21st century, even—especially—now in the age of Obama, himself no stranger to this sort of ahistorical rhetoric. He blamed the black folks.

I'm just a white guy but I never took it that way. I saw it more as "while you fight your enemies surrounding you don't forget about the enemy within." It's not a black problem, it's an American problem that we have of refusing any responsibility at all when there's a conflict.

Cigarette and beer companies are to blame, not my gluttony. I'm a victim of AIDS even though I ran out and slept with as many women (unprotected) as possible. We can't have smoking in bars because I don't wan't you to poison me while I'm poisoning myself.

Whitlock throws words instead of stones. People are fine with that until a word or a stone is thrown their way...

[Deberg_1990]

Why does It feel like Jwhit wrecks every gig he gets?

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Why does It feel like Jwhit wrecks every gig he gets?

Modern media loves controversy as long as the popular opinion is behind you...

[Prison Bitch]

Whitlock and joe poz were the dream team of sports columnists. RedStar allowed both to leave to focus on the papers political views. Shame

[cosmo20002]

The article calls Whit "the preeminent black sports writer" or something like that. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but is he really that big of a deal?

I've never been a big fan and I'm aware of him wearing out his welcome rather quickly everywhere he goes, but the article comes off as a rather desperate attempt to attack the guy and generally difficult job of launching a new project. Whit and the writer both seem like dicks.

[WilliamTheIrish]

I thought he was just another fatso with a platform. And a quitter. The day he quit 610 sports after all the bravado from him and Maas/Grunhard, was hilarious.

[Hootie]

deadspin and those other sites just have it out for REAL media members

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

The article calls Whit "the preeminent black sports writer" or something like that. Maybe I haven't been paying attention, but is he really that big of a deal?

Yes

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Why does It feel like Jwhit wrecks every gig he gets?

How so?

And to further Ringleader's excellent analysis and post, without a vision, media ventures are doomed to fail, whether it's print, TV, film, music or advertising.

Being a dick doesn't make him wrong.

[BigRock]

Whitlock is a social commentator with a 15-year-old’s understanding of American history and a 75-year-old’s appreciation for pop culture. He has no experience as an editor or manager; no real constituency among the young writers his site is supposed to develop; and no new ideas to bring people. His career-long aversion to reporting and love of the sound of his voice have left him without the skills necessary to build his new enterprise, and his personal incuriosity and lack of grace have left him unable to develop them or productively manage the people who have them. He is flatly, desperately unqualified for his present position. The question is just how the hell he’s heading up what should be the most important black sports and culture website in the country. And the only answer that makes much sense is that he is nothing more than the instrument of interests that would work against the very people his site is supposed to serve.