For those of you who noticed Slate's sports department when they ripped Robert Horry right before he saved the Spurs... they have done it again. This time it is The World's Crummiest Bike Race, aka the Tour de France. I would love to give a point by point rebuttal to the article and it's intentionally aggravating style, but child psychology tells me that I shouldn't validate the debate because that will only encourage the behavior. If that wasn't enough, there is a second Andy Rooney style article on the front page about the banners that someone hung on the wall in the gym that Timothy Noah has a membership to in Austin. Is this really worthy of Slate or anyone's valuable time? The article is completely absent of any information or humor and most blogs have better entries than this on a regular basis. Was Timothy Noah forced to write an article that was complimentary to the other but found himself sitting in front of the keyboard at 4:00 am with a 8:00 am deadline and absolutely nothing? I mentioned this in the other thread about Robert Horry... I always thought Will's articles were great (still do), but Slate appears to be getting more and more desperate for attention. The headlines tell it all. Here is the shortlist of ones that I found the week Robert Horry was ripped on: "Goss Point Blank" "Booger Eating Morons" "Jacko: Off" "Steve McQueen is an Extremely Macho Elf" Other than the headlines today of "The World's Crummiest Bike Race", "Tour de Bore", and "Lance Armstrong Wrecked my Gym!" I also spotted "Your Grass is A**" a few days ago. BTW, the "World's Crummiest Bike Race" was the headline that appeared on the front page and the "Tour de Bore" was the one stuck on the article itself. I enjoy reading Slate because I can get quite a bit of information wrapped up in a neat little package that is mixed in with some thought provoking opinions and a sprinkling of other topics. So please everyone! Act your age! "Thought provoking" and "annoying" do not mean the same thing. Let me read my Slate without someone poking me with a stick while I am doing it. At the very least, use titles that better reflect the content of the article.
I'm not sure what happened over there - maybe it was the switch in ownership, but I don't enjoy reading their articles very much anymore. The writing seems to have a bit of an artificial 'in your face' attitude that just doesn't work.
