We haven’t done a show in a while. I was in New York for the Blogger Fantasy League draft at the NFL offices (more on that tomorrow). Today, we tackle a lot of media stories in the news.

We talk about Vin Scully’s announcement that he’ll be back in the booth in 2011. We juxtapose that, in a way, with Lou Piniella’s effective-immediately retirement. His decision must be hard, but obviously the circumstances would be different if the Cubs were in contention. Should the reaction be?

PRINT’S NOT DEAD

Jay Mariotti was arrested this weekend for reportedly beating up his girlfriend. Alleged alleged alleged. The internet has never been so happy, if you follow the tweets of countless writers, bloggers and other insiders. Have we ever seen so many reporters revel in someone else’s plight?

Of course, it’s Mariotti, so it’s rather understandable why people would have glee (though the circumstances of him potentially hitting and injuring a woman are terrible and nobody should be laughing at that part) at his arrest and (potential) subsequent job-related fallout.

Then there’s this: The last thing tagged with Mariotti’s name over at Fanhouse as of the taping of this show. Classic, given that this incident happened less than a day after his story was filed. Within 15-20 hours! His open:

It was arrogance that doomed Roger Clemens, raw defiance feeding a blind and reckless narcissism.

The middle re-inforced the sentiment, furthering the irony of JAY MARIOTTI writing this:

He’s an American pariah, a hopeless buffoon who continues to claim his innocence despite mountains of evidence against him,

And then there’s the close. Remember this is less than a day before the incident that led to him being arrested on suspicion of felony domestic assault and released on $50,000 bail:

For that, he deserves to be hauled away in cuffs. Any man who compounds one big lie with 15 others, while under oath, is an affront to humanity. He used to wear No. 22 in Yankee pinstripes. His next number will be much longer.

PRINT’S NOT DEAD (Part Two)

We talk about Jason Whitlock’s “Explanation,” which was very well chronicled by Tommy Craggs at Deadspin. In the end — three hours of talking on radio or not — Whitlock leaving the Kansas City Star is nothing more than a guy who was employed by a newspaper but never wrote for the newspaper leaving a newspaper. That’s it. Whitlock wasn’t the voice of Kansas City, nor the Kansas City Star for a long time. Whitlock writes for FoxSports.com and that’s where most of his inflammatory work has come in the last few years. He’s leaving the paper because that’s what people do when they get a national voice and can make 5x the money and get 100x the exposure.

But this isn’t some giant blow to the newspaper industry like The Big Lead said last week. You know what the problem with newspapers has been the last 10 years? They pay writers to NOT write for them, because they can go on TV or write for national outlets and people associate them with the paper. Name recognition alone doesn’t sell papers anymore. Writing does. And if the guy hasn’t been writing much (or anything in the last three months) for the paper, than maybe his salary can actually HELP them hire more people to give local coverage a little more depth. Trimming the fat…pardon the pun…is what papers have needed to do for years in order to survive. If the Star did anything wrong, it was letting this look like he’s leaving them in the dust because they are antiquated and out-of-touch (which, to be fair, they very well may be).

And here, via Craggs’ transcription, is the key issue with people like Whitlock (and Mariotti and Stephen A. Smith, etc):

“When you have my platform, my relevance, people wanna be me. The people that don’t know me and wanna be me, they’re gonna attack me. And that’s fine.”

See, that’s the problem with ego-driven writers like Whitlock – they honestly think we want to be THEM. In fact, we are jealous of their success, if only for the fact that we feel (using the term “we” loosely so go with me) that their success is based on smoke, mirrors and riot-inciting gimmicks to gain notoriety. Is there a better way to do it? Maybe not, as Whitlock did sell papers and will drive more traffic to FoxSports.com. But that doesn’t deny the fact that it’s inflammatory and cheap.

Whitlock may very well believe the things he writes and isn’t simply being a race-baiter or a contrarian or a loudmouth simply as an act to get attention. There could be substance behind his act. But it is an act, nonetheless. He’s a performer…the biggest ringmaster in the circus. And that’s okay to attack, with the awareness that part of that attack is back at the media who care about Whitlock’s opinions or decisions or “explanations”.

“We” aren’t attacking you. We’re attacking the fact that there’s a never-ending cycle of people like you getting coverage for whatever you say because the rest of the media loves a good story and thus giving you free reign to say whatever you want because you know they’ll fawn all over it again. Dance for us, big boy…you’ll make us all rich. But make no mistake: we don’t want to be you. But if you think so…that’s fine.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

The biggest thing with being a columnist is remembering that while you have to write with conviction, it’s important to remember that your opinion isn’t the only one out there. You may be right, but there’s a good chance someone else is right too. Write as if you’re right, but know that what you write isn’t aways right. Right?

In other words: All I know is that I don’t know nothing.

HOUSEKEEPING

Jenn Brown is the new face of Ice House beer, which led John Ourand at SportsBusiness Journal to wonder if the Ombudsman should have a say on this with Brown slated to work college events and being a pitchwoman for beer. My reply to Ourand: Is she giving away free samples during the games?

Is this really an issue that the ombudsman needs to address? And is the ESPN ombudsman even relevant at this point?

Also, We talk about Cardinals’ announcer Dan McLaughlin’s DUI and time off for “personal reasons” that lasted two games. Is there a problem with the attitude toward alcohol with those in and around the Cardinals organization? Does their affiliation with a major beer company cloud this issue?

Philly is taxing it’s bloggers for the right to “work” in the city. $300 bucks for a license to blog, even if you make less than $20 a year. This is why people don’t work in Philadelphia and pissing off the HUGE blogging community in Philadelphia is going to lead to the end of someone’s political career — perhaps even the Mayor? Don’t piss off hipsters…or people trying to make a living in your city.