Things Overheard in a Taco Bell Drive-up Line

So, I had just gotten out of work this afternoon, and was waiting in the drive-up at Taco Bell. I flipped around the radio, and eventually landed on The Dan Patrick Show. For those of you who don't know, Dan Patrick was a major host of SportsCenter on ESPN for years and years before leaving them recently for his own show, loosely affiliated with Sports Illustrated.
Anyway, he was discussing something I think is very pertinent to our class. A link is found at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/danpatrick/blog/8601/

The story is about an interview between Michael Phelps (yes, THAT Michael Phelps) and Dan Le Batard, a Miami Sports Radio Host whose goal is to make every interview memorable.

Basically, Le Batard asked Phelps about the coolest thing that's happened to him since the Olympics. Phelps, who was only there to promote the Kellogg's products his face now graces, side-stepped the question by talking about the Kellogg's-related charity he had just set up. Then the interesting stuff began...

Le Batard then said, “That was a nice move there, Michael, because you just segued right into what it is that you were selling there, when that can’t be the coolest thing to happen to you since the Olympics."

Phelps mentioned Kellogg's again and raising swimming awareness or something. In reference to a less-than-savory photo of Phelps in a nightclub, Le Batard then asked, “Do you go into the nightclub with these Kellogg’s products and just drop them on the floor with your face on them?”

Phelps decided enough was enough, and ended the interview, but not before accidentally not hanging up the phone right away and saying this about Le Batard: "That guy was an idiot, that was ridiculous."

Le Batard later called into The Dan Patrick Show to defend his method of journalism, which you can listen to by following the link.

So, this brings up a few interesting questions with regards to our class:
Was Le Batard fair to Michael Phelps?
Did he press that last point too hard?
Could Michael Phelps have gone off script and had some fun with it?
Does he have a responsibility to the media to answer their questions?
Has he developed a poor relationship with the media after this incident?

RIP Mary Garber

Touching tribute to a pioneer of sportswriting from North Carolina, Ms. Mary Garber in the Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/sports/23garber.html?_r=1&ref=media&oref=slogin

Since I want to be a sportswriter, I've been doing a lot of research into the lives and backgrounds of some of my journalistic idols: Buster Olney, Tim Kurkjian, etc. Many of them have a reverence for Garber, because she excelled in her field at a time when everyone was doing their best to exclude women from the sportswriting profession. Now, it seems that women reporting on sports have been popping up more and more. What an age we live in...

An Odd Apology

As some of you may know, I am an aspiring sports journalist, for either print or broadcast (maybe both...tee hee). Anyway, I have been more sensitive lately to the things that sports journalists and broadcasters do and say. Probably has something to do with this class...
Anyway, I was watching the Monday Night Football game on ESPN (AFTER I went to FHE, for all of you who wish to question my motives...ha ha). It just hapened to coincide with the NFL's recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month. As such, they played the Spanish announcer's call of a play coming out of a commercial. That's where it got interesting...
Tony Kornheiser, the quasi-comic relief in the booth, said after the Spanish call, "I took high school Spanish, either he said he's not going to be caught, or please pick up my dry cleaning tomorrow." I thought it was funny, since I served a Spanish-speaking mission and I currently teach Spanish at the MTC, and know what it's like to have no idea what's going on.
Apparently, someone thought it was, in the words of the Commish, "funny faux pas, not funny ha-ha", because Kornheiser then issued this odd apology later in the game: "I said something before which I shouldn't have said, I apologize for it. Not my first mistake, undoubtedly won't be my last, but a 100% apology." Huh?
I suppose it's just Tony trying to be extra-cautious, since it isn't his first mistake: he's gotten into hot water with ESPN before over comments about their awards show, The ESPY's. Still, I think he had no need to apologize for this one. There was no malicious intent. Just shows the kind of world we live in, where everyone takes offense to everything.