The Olympics are dwindling down so and I'll be back here soon, just in time for the NFL season which, awesomely, kicks off in exactly two weeks. One of the best parts of the Olympics is that the Games have managed to distract me from the awfulness of preseason football. But even hating commenters, dropped batons and American relay sweeps couldn't distract me from reading an interview Daniel Snyder did with The Wall Street Journal, which you should be reading before I get to the end of this sent-. In a clip loaded with quotable gems, this one stands alone:
Well-played Danny. If only you were as good at selecting second-round talent in the draft as you are at deflecting questions from reporters and turning them into rants about the company that should be reciprocally helping yours. Snyder speaks of the Post losing business all the time, but he should probably check both the ratings of his much-maligned DC sports stations that have eliminated all variety and choice in sports talk and also take a look at the back of the Post's business section to see how his Six Flags stock is doing. Here's a hint: You could buy a share with change you have in your pocket right now.WSJ: In June you bought a radio station, WTEM, which is a very popular local sports station. There's some concern among fans that it might become a propaganda tool for the Redskins. What do you say to that? Mr. Snyder: It's actually just the Washington Post. We have a problem in this marketplace with our local newspaper. There's a monopoly. I have no problems saying that. They have been losing circulation by the droves, losing advertising by the pound load and they are desperate to create controversy. They had a Washington Post radio business at the time -- it's since gone out of business -- that was a competitor. We did write them a letter saying obviously you're a competitor, so don't use your newspaper to affect the business. Other than them, you won't find any of that type of talk.
Bitter
Then there's this: A Washington Post reporter going off on the Redskins. This is from the comments of Jason La Canfora's Redskins Insiders blog.
(70Chip) sent the following message on or about August 23, 2007:Of course Kendall will start. We all know Joe is just covering for his guys. Don't take it so personally. He yelled at Steve Buckhants one time. It's all affectation. I would encourage you to get some Redskins employees to talk to you so you don't have to hunt down people from other teams. That way would be more "Insiderly."
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LaCanfora responds:Gibbs treats people like they are morons, so I am calling him out on it. Don't insult that same fanbase you try to stroke all the time after you go 5-11.
trust me, i have no lack of people talking to me on this team, way more than gibbs can stomach. he can't stand the fact that i get the straight dope and don't write his dopish version of the truth in many instances (their crappy left side of the line a perfect case in point).
Thanks for reading.
Cheers.Posted by: Deepthroat | August 14, 2008 8:18 PM
Taking a shot at a Hall of Fame coach who everyone reveres after he's left the building... classy. When I went to training camp two weeks back, La Canfora was dressed for work in flip flops, torn cargo shots and a goofy looking hipster t-shirt, along with a hat pulled low over his head. I commented to a friend of mine, "he looks like a frat guy who's late to an 11:00 a.m. class.) The other media people present were by no means dressed to the nines, but they all looked presentable. La Can looked like he was tailgating for John Mayer.
Who knows what that means, I just got the sense that La Canfora's lack of professional attire probably is a sign that he's not too professional in other realms. Maybe this could explain his hatred of Gibbs and the ongoing feud he has with Vinny. It would also stand to reason that this attitude is hurting him in developing contacts that break stories.
It makes no sense that Sportsline and Jay Glazer are breaking Redskins news, while La Canfora is getting worthless material from the guys he talks to who Gibbs can't stomach. Everyone is handling this thing wrong and, frankly, childishly and it won't get better until an outside party steps in to knock some sense in the Post and the Redskins. They both need each other. Two of the most visible businesses in the DC area can't continue this petty squabbling. This should be a happy marriage.
Note: Because La Canfora frequently does respond to comments, this thought hadn't occurred to me, but it's worth sharing: There's a chance that the "deepthroat" comment was from a La Canfora impersonator. On Fourth-Place Medal (which has been really good, by the way -- I hope you've been reading), the thousands of Chaz-haters have begun using my real name in their comments and posting racial and homophobic slurs. So, there's a shot that this wasn't La Can writing. The stuff about his attire is completely legit though. I'll look into the Redskins Insider comments later to see if I can figure it out.
3 comments:
Gay Talese used to put on a suit to go to his own basement office to write. Showing up to your job in a tank top is unprofessional; bashing your own beat has to be borderline unethical. Snyder is slimy, no doubt. But it's not his right, as a businessman, to make La Canfora's job easy. It's La Canfora's job, as a reporter at the best newspaper in the area, to get the story even if it takes some shoe-leather. Of course that's difficult to apply to flip flops.
Pretty hilarious, all the anger being spewed in the 4th-place medal posts.
You know what Riley Freeman says: "If n*ggas ain't mad at you, you doin' somthing WRONG!"
Jlac does a very good job covering the skins. is the beat reporter supposed to be a simple minded cheerleader for a team that hasn't set the world on fire in 16 years? Is a reporter supposed to just rehash the mindless drivel shelled out by some pr hack? No and no. Look, thedanny is a great businessman but his skin is so thin, its practically clear. He should man up and take the criticism he's a public figure. The post is one of the best news organizations in the world, who is danny to come off like he's a victim, the post does their due dilligence and JLac skewers the teasm sometimes, he also comments positively more often than in the negative. JLac busts his ass to get the stories he does, the fact that Gibbs was super secretive didn't make it easier, but that's life. I think Dannny would only be happy if that piece of shit/tool/ back-stabbing bitch Larry Michael or hack in training Casey Husband did all the stories about the skins, a veritable slurp fest would ensue.
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