With typical aplomb, Will Leitch (to say nothing of his cretinous readers) is in a tizzy today over a video of a Ball State undergrad stammering his way through a crap sports newscast.
Granted, it’s a funny video. Just as funny, in fact, when others linked to it in April of 2005. The only thing that could be funnier would be if it turned out the unfortunate would-be Mike Lynch had recently committed suicide.
Seems to me that if you’re gonna take the time to publicly ridicule someone for their complete and utter inability to function as a public speaker, you’d better have some chops of your own in said department. I’ve seen Will sweating bullets on ESPN2. I’ve heard his insomnia-cure cameos on Sports Bloggers Live. Suffice to say, if you had to choose from Radar O’Riley, Leon Spinks and Will Leitch for a recitation of the Gettysburg Address, the poetry of Robert Frost or just today’s blue plate specials, Will would come in third.
Ball State’s Brian Collins can take some solace in knowing that a few minutes of net video humilation is nothing compared to life as a Walking Blooper Reel.
Jesus. Take it easy on Will Leitch, will you?
I know you’re a visionary for your work with Matador Records. But come on. You’ve gone from being nitpicky to just being nasty, and frankly, I think you might need a break from the computer. Okay?
Thanks for the constructive criticism, not to mention the terrific defense of the ethically challenged, terminally unfunny Mr. Leitch.
You’re talking about a guy who just today, sang the praises of a blogger who devotes his time to something called ‘Why Mitch Albom Is A Terrible Writer’. Apparently, frequent attacks on the likes of Albom, Stephen A. Smith, Woody Paige, Skip Bayless, etc. are business-as-usual but holding Leitch to any sort of accountability is dirty pool.
While I am sorry you feel this way, there are plenty of other terrific blogs that will continue to either take it easy on Will or just turn a blind eye to his bullshit. I suggest you enjoy them and think twice before sniffing around here in the future. It tends to get pretty nitpicky, nasty and nauseating if not downright noisome.
As far as needing a break from the computer, I hear you loud and clear. But my visionary work for the Matador label requires that I am near the keyboard at all times — including whilst driving, taking a shower or playing raquetball in the Mid-Major Semi-Independent Label League (of which I am a co-founder). Have you ever tried blogging about Will Leitch while simultaneously preparing oso bucco, reading a bedtime story to orphans and building a house with Jimmy Carter?
Me neither, but I think I could handle the blogging and oso bucco.
Seriously though, Dan, feel free to write back anytime. Though in the interests of full disclosure, next time you might wanna mention that you’re a contributor to Will’s Black Table.
Fuck Will Leitch– he’s an asshole who’s gotten in over his head, and anyone who apologizes for him is a fucking moron.
I don’t like Deadspin and I do like this site. But I will say that, from people I respect who know him, that Will Leitch is apparently a very nice guy. It doesn’t mean his site is 1) producing great work or 2) readable — or that the ol’ Gawker snark is ever going to work for sports (or much else, honestly) — but I wouldn’t get too personal about it. That’s really more in relation to the comment above than to Gerard’s, though. Gerard might be fixated on the guy, but he’s never called him an asshole. Using that word. Specifically.
I continue to hear from first or 2nd hand acquantainces of Mr. Leitch that he is a really nice guy. I believe he’s referred to himself in those terms as well.
My comments about Will thus far have entirely been devoted to the content of Deadspin — if someone would like to extrapolate my findings and come to to conclusion that an ethically challenged, terminally unfunny writer with an almost pathological tendency to go after some of the easiest (and sometimes defenseless) targets on earth is in fact, not a great guy….well, that’s for someone else to determine.
To repeat something I wrote earlier, perhaps Woody Paige is a terrific guy, too. Surely he must have family and friends who will vouch for this. The same could be said for Rudolph Guiliani, Tie Domi, Adolph Hitler, Scott Staap, Leanne Rimes, Fisher Stevens, etc. Should this mean that the documented works of any of the above are exempt from criticism?
I realize that more than a few of you are very tired of this subject, and for that, I apologize. Though I’d hope you’d find some humor in all of it (and I’m sure a few of you do) there is a serious point or 2 to be made. Will has tried to advance the specious argument that “we’re all in this together.” I’d hope it is pretty clear by now that not only do I reject such a notion, but I’m not adverse to reminding you about it on a daily basis.
Also, I do hope the next time time someone tells me to spend less time on the computer, he or she can at the very least show some consistency and send me a handwritten letter. Either that, or discontinue their own intensely personal online diary.
man, we quit watching this clip in the office several months ago
and we watched it a lot. over a long period of time.
For the sake of full disclosure, I thought Will was a contributor to Black Table, not an owner. And I’m hardly a contributor – rather, a reader who they’ve given space akin to a “letter to the editor.”
CSTB, the only reason I’m nitpicking on this is because you are a genuinely talented, absolutely worth-reading blogger. I hate to think that you might allow yourself to deadspin yourself into a rut.
Plus, I’m pretty sure that you, Will, and I can all agree that Mitch Albom is a hack of the highest order and deserves a fate worse than death.
Regards,
Dan
PS. You’re right. I do need to stay away from the computer more…
…sorry for being either pot or kettle.
Dan, much as I’d like to stand corrected, you’ve made multiple contributions to The Black Table. Perhaps you’d like to call that a letter to the editor. And perhaps Will isn’t actually a pal or a colleague that might be relied upon, even in the smallest way, to assist you in your climb up the scribbling ladder.
to quote the Ruts’ Malcom Owen, “when you’re in a rut, you’ve got to get out of it out of it out of it out of it” etc. Except I think there’s enough non-Leitch action happening around here to keep the public coming back for more. But I do thank you for the kind words.
I’m sorry to say that while I am not a big fan of Mr. Albom, I don’t think Matoon, IL’s reigning champ of the 2005 Hackey-Sack Race is qualified to pass judgement on him. Or anyone else.
And just to clarify, there are worse things than being called an asshole. Duplicitous, cowardly and corrupt come to mind.