Earlier this week, Jason Cohen forwarded a link to a Mark Whicker’s now infamous Orange County Register musings about all the cool things in the sports world Jayce Dugard (above, right) missed during her 18 years in captivity. Said column has been the subject of considerable ridicule, earning Whicker’s editors “Worst Person In The World” status from Non-Metallic K.O. (yes, worse than Rep. Joe Wilson or Chuck Knoblauch) and resulted in the sportswriter’s subsequent public apology.
ESPN.com’s Rob Neyer (above) republished a reader’s letter bemoaning the Whicker witch hunt, to which he responded :
I’m not nearly as charitable as Keith (which is just one of my many failings). But while I agree that it’s morally wicked to call for Whicker’s head because he has failed, morally, what about calling for his head because he’s incompetent?
It’s especially easy for me, because I’m infatuated with good writing and I abhor bad writing, and columns like Whicker’s give my profession a bad name.
We might reasonable assume that it’s the worst Whicker can offer … but are his best efforts better enough, and frequent enough? Again, I don’t know. Nor am I going to know. Only his readers can know. And his editors, who should know him better than anyone.
Neyer’s entry was deleted from ESPN.com earlier today. Writing to Watching The Watchers, Neyer explained his post was in violation of WWL policy prohibiting media criticism.
It’s a somewhat curious policy, though it does serve the tiny benefit of restricting the Sports Putz’ beefs with far jerkier radio hosts to the former’s Twitter feed.