Okay I don't know if anyone cares, but the rumor monger that was driving me nuts every time I read one of his articles (so why did I read them.. I guess I was glutton for punishment)... was bought out of his contract with the Chicago Tribune. Thank god.. is all I have to say to that. http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/03/17/rumor-monger-sam-smith-freshly-unemployed/ Unfortunate news out of the Windy City, via Blog-a-Bull: Eons-long Chicago Tribune NBA columnist Sam Smith has accepted a voluntary buyout as the paper looks to cut costs, which means the number of completely fabricated rumors about our league will be cut in half in coming weeks. Seriously though: It's hard to complain about losing NBA columnists with buckets of institutional knowledge while bureaus covering government and investigative reporting teams are shrinking. (This is especially troubling in Chicago.) And it's not like Smith won't turn up again. In fact, Blog-a-Bull has a fantastic idea: Sam should start a blog. How better to resolve an old spat with the new media vanguard than to become one of us? It worked for Stephen A. Smith, after all.
the number of completely fabricated rumors about our league will be cut in half in coming weeks. Not necessarily,Vescey will be working overtime.
Nobody has disagreed with Sam Smith in his lifetime more than I have. NOBODY. I've been fuming at his columns and beat work for 18 years. A year ago, it got to the point where I had to beg my Dad NOT to read him because reading him meant I had to spend a good 45 minutes every Monday (seriously) quashing everything that Sam brought up during his Monday rumor column. That said, he's a mensch, a good guy, he did huge things for my "career" ages ago (we're talking, this time in 2001, living in a basement apartment in Chicago and writing for Chad Ford's website), and nobody's going to like the look of media in ten years if things keep going like this. For every Sam Smith, there are a dozen deskers, all sorts of national correspondents, all sorts of in-city crime reporters, and hundreds of other positions that are being dismissed so that $400-million profits turn into $450-million profits.
Firstly, I dont Sam Smith's his writings. But he didnt fabricated anything. He published his Monday column with some of his fantasy trade ideas and made up some lame excuses to justify them. But he clarified them as his fantasy trades right at the start of his column. However, some stupid readers always mixed up and thought they were real trade rumors and went nuts over them.
Thank God I'm not the only one who heard that song as I read Kelly's post. Hey Kelly, you have mail BTW.
I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad. I'm happy on one end -- since we won't need to read anymore completely ludacris and imaginary trade scenarios that always send half of this board into a frenzy everytime he musters up another one. Sad, because well, I always liked to see what he would come up with next.
Too true. What's sad is how many don't realize it's already changed tremendously. Heck... I remember when Time Magazine used to be a news magazine, instead of People Magazine in drag. Everytime we lose a Houston Press or Houston Post, we lose far more than that paper hitting the lawn everyday. Gone are a host of people digging out the news fit to print. CNN, Fox, and MSNBC are jokes, but millions depend on them, and the 22 minutes a night on the network news, for their information. It's a bummer, people. You don't know what you're missing.
A reference to the theme song of the Wire, which in Season 5 touched upon the cuts made at the news agencies.
