OT: Jason Whitlock Out as Head of "Black Grantland"
I don't know how many of you have been keeping up with this, but this comes as no surprise.
Deadspin already foreshadowed this about a year ago here: http://deadspin.com/can-jason-whitlock-save-espns-black-grantland-from-hi-1586606960
Then they made another update article 2 months ago about it here: http://deadspin.com/how-jason-whitlock-is-poisoning-espns-black-grantland-1698683962
Looks like the head honchos finally had enough and canned him.
http://deadspin.com/jason-whitlock-out-as-head-of-the-undefeated-171097…
And if you were wondering what the "Black Grantland" is going to be named... The Undefeated.
It was supposed to be revealed June 24th... don't think that's happening anymore...
Personally, I think the ESPN execs got this right. The dude is a horrible writer and quite ego-centric as detailed in those hilarious Deadspin articles...
Now if they could just fire him from ESPN entirely and tell him to take Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith with him.
"completely re-writing someone's story so it sounds exactly like something you'd write" has no business ever being an editor, let alone the man in charge of a major journalistic enterprise. I have no idea what ESPN was thinking letting something like that be run by someone so completely unqualified for the gig.
And that's before you even consider the HR nightmares he caused.
I was weirdly loyal to the Foxsports website a few years back. I left because I could no longer take the constant terribleness of Jason Whitlock (and Mark Kriegel)
Even worse, he relished upsetting people because he thought he must be writing good articles because it upset people...when in fact it was because his logic and reasoning were horribly flawed.
His success really has bothered me so I'm glad he's knocked down a peg.
I guess you could say he was defeated?
. . . than some here (don't) like RichRod.
Like the saying about a blind dog finding body parts, Whitlock would on occasion have a good article. When he wrote about the double standards that are still in society when it comes to sports. But he was never consistant in his views. As far as Stephen A and Skip, they have admitted on multiple shows that they say what they want and are not going to say sorry if someone is offended. May not be the right thing but they will get people talking about stuff.
Thank goodness!!! I read some of his stuff from back in April about standing up his race and sports website and all I could think was "charlatan"! Some of his emails to staff which got published were way out of line as well.
Could ESPN actually be taking a critical look at itself and say, "we've lost our way"?! One could only hope. If ESPN cleans house, hopefully Jemele Hill, Colin Cowherd, Stephen A Smith (doubtful given his big ass contract), and Skip Bayless are next.
The only thing that will ever cause ESPN to part ways with First Take is if Skip or Stephen A do or say something so bad that it causes advertisers to drop from the show. The show itself is a major anchor of the ESPN2 lineup and makes too much money. God know who the people are, or what has happened to them in their lives, but there are a lot of people that watch that show.
And if all of their race-baiting and misogyny hasn't caused anyone to give up on the show, I really doubt it'll ever happen. We're all going to have to just wait for Skip or SA drop dead.
Jason Whitlock is a self serving delusional tyrant! "Black Grantland"? What a vacuous concept to begin with. Of course there is no real agenda for Black awareness/empowerment! Not only is the platform heavily influenced and funded by White dollars the leader's distorted perspective consisted of diminishing Muhammad Ali while lionizing Charles Barkley for crying out loud.
There are plenty of Jason Whitlock's in the world. Fortunately, most of them never find someone with the right combination of power and stupidity who can put them in a position of real authority. As long as his fantasy of being a good leader was just in his head, he was not really all that harmful.
Whitlock and Hoke are good friends. Both canned within 6 months of each other.
who thought he was going to beat up on other black people for their lack of discipline, etc. This is a message that some sectors of the white community are always happy to hear, and bankroll. All this is made evident in the superlative Deadspin pieces. And--as the Deadspin pieces also show--a flat-out nut.
His contrarian take on almost everything sometimes leads him to stumble on a hard nugget of truth, but the idea that this guy was going to write or be responsible for creation of long review-essays. . . the ESPN chieftains were not looking very hard, or themselves sharp enough to determine his adequacy to the task.
There are a lot of great writers out there, though, and the concept has merit. Will be interesting to see what happens now.
This is an interesting, and I feel likely true, take on why the hire, and why it did not work out. Hard to say unless you are on the inside circle of the people doing the bankrolling, but very conceivable.
Followed a couple links to one of his articles and found out that white people are responsible for Adrian Peterson beating his kid, lol. He seems like a miserable guy.
You'll remember that one of Whitlock's first stops was the Ann Arbor News, where he spent a few years as an arrogant columnist, before giving way to another arrogant columnist, Jim Carty. Oh, for the days of Wayne DeNeff!
If the things in the articles are accurate, Whitlock is not a very good leader or manager, and that is being kind. But to call him a horrible writer...that is just not true, or even accurate.
He is a good writer. I may not agree with his take all the time, but I enjoy what he produces regardless.
Sounds like putting him in charge of anything is a death sentence to what whatever that is.