Days after his extended interview with Bob’s Blitz, NY Post sports media watchdog Phil Mushnick took great pains to let his legion of followers know he was going on vacation — not, as rumored, serving out a suspension for his unexpurgated remarks on You Tube. While it’s nice to know free expression is still alive and well at NewsCorp, that’s not necessarily the case at the Chicago Sun-Times, where the paper’s Jim O’Donnell has been yanked from his sports media gig after some 13 years on the beat. Despite denials from O’Donnell and editor Chris De Luca, Vocalo.org’s Robert Feder insists the former’s needling of local sports yacksters is to blame, after The Score’s afternoon programming was characterized as “must-flee radio”. Here’s some excerpts from Feder :
œExcruciatingly painful sports-flush radio recently when WSCR-AM (670) flatliners Terry ˜Wheezie™ Boers and second-banana Danny ˜Boo Boo™ Bernstein (above) tried to dissect the Bulls™ organizational changes and newest direction. It was like baby baboons vs. the first wheel. . . . Biggest losers in the whole mess ” especially if Reinsdorf, Paxson or Rainbow/PUSH request audio of Tuesday™s rambling wreck ” could be CBS Radio and Schnore program director Mitch Rosen. He clearly has lost control of his drooling afternoon franchise and apparently lacks the decisiveness or vision to do anything about it. (May 6)
œThe addled afternoon swill-io on WSCR-AM (670) ” still featuring post-˜caca™ Terry ˜Wheezie™ Boers and withering bellhop Danny ˜Boo Boo™ Bernstein ” continues. . . . Actually, with ˜Wheezie™ and ˜Boo Boo,™ it™s probably a ˜special™ demo of adult males who listen who are most likely to shoplift, own the complete Seka Betamax collection and don™t have driver™s licenses. (May 13)
Feder’s post is less about a muzzling of O’Donnell but the amusement over the idea of another editor giving him a chance in the first place. It wasn’t 13 consecutive years: as Feder said, O’Donnell gets yanked quick each time as hs “uses his sports media column to attack his perceived enemies and settle old scores”
I don’t know this history myself, his appearance surprised me (as did a local sports media column in general, seems they’ve been cut a lot lately).
It was probably that ‘axe to grind’ history and just general incoherence of the columns. I mean, if he’s a veteran the S-T, so they probably should’ve known better to his style, but have you read these things? 😀
“The addled afternoon swill-io on WSCR-AM (670) — still featuring post-‘caca’ Terry ‘Wheezie’ Boers and withering bellhop Danny ‘Boo Boo’ Bernstein :”
That’s just bizarre, especially knowing that ‘Boo Boo’ and ‘Wheezie’ are not some official nicknames but of O’Donell’s own creation.
I’m a Boers/Bernstein fan, so, maybe I’m giving to much thought to the ‘style’ of the message and not whether he had any point, but that was a weird couple weeks of columns.
Boers and Bernstein isn’t half bad. Hey the Hawks won while I was reading this, and someone is firing a pistol in the air.
I guess I was just a little too impressed that anyone would reference Seka in 2010 (though I wouldn’t put it past Whitlock). And I cannot condone a major newspaper columnist using the auspices of the Sun-Times “to attack perceived enemies and settle old scores”. That’s what da blogs are for!