Posted by chicagomedia.org on June 20, 2008 at 09:31:56:
In Reply to: Jay Mariotti on WTTW tonight posted by chicagomedia.org on June 20, 2008 at 09:29:27:
J is for journalism
The ultimate team player—that's how you think of Jay Mariotti, right? The same Jay Mariotti who described his Sun-Times colleagues as "soft" for declining to rip White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.
Mariotti tells WTTW-Ch. 11's John Callaway in an interview that airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday: "When I'm being critical of our writers, it's to try to unify."
Callaway deserves props for taking Mariotti to task several times during the half-hour program.
Mariotti: "Are the local media now brainwashed that every time Ozzie goes off it's 'Ozzie being Ozzie,' or are we dealing with one of the great crackpots in the history of professional sports? I happen to choose the latter."
Callaway: "That's what people would say about you."
Mariotti: "Not me."
Mariotti went on to say that Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley "has issues" and wrote a "pathetic" column after the Sox's blowup-doll controversy.
He had harsher words for fellow columnist Rick Telander after Callaway played a clip of Telander asking why Mariotti is always so angry and determined to find "the dark side."
Mariotti: "If you're not interested in, as he says, 'the dark side' of sports, then get out of the business."
Callaway: "Wait a second. Nobody has said more about the dark side of college football than Rick Telander."
Mariotti: "We're all supposed to cover the entire spechicagomedia.orgum. Don't sit here and stereotype me. That's just a smear campaign from a guy who … if he calls me angry, I call him bitter and old. This is a fellow who needs to examine the newspaper business, where it is right now, where the Sun-Times is in this market and maybe get his act into gear and help us win this battle..."
Both Cowley and Telander took the high road Thursday, declining to fire back. Besides, they might get a chance to do it in person this weekend during the White Sox-Cubs series.
(Greenstein)