From the Chicago Sports Review’s Chris Sprow :
Rick Telander is skeptical.
œI™m on the air, and a reporter hands me a thing that says the Cubs are going to make this major move, that™s what the word is, right? So I go ahead and say this on the radio. Turns out the guy got the story from the Web site for The Heckler. This is satire! And I™m trying to look credible here. I™m thinking, ˜Great.™ This is real good.
Peter Devries would remind us that nostalgia ain™t what it used to be. But Telander clearly longs for some of the old days. He isn™t flat-headed, and he™s not antiquated. On this one, he™s just incredulous. A Chicago institution, he™s written a column for two decades for the Chicago Sun-Times, has a number of books, and has written for Sports Illustrated, among many others. He also hosts the Rick Telander Show, on WSCR 670.
œThe thing is, suddenly everybody has a voice. Have they earned that right? Maybe, but in a lot of cases, no. You have a vehicle here where everybody that can write a good sentence is a source, and anybody can write a good sentence. Where™s the accountability?
Where’s the accountability when daily newspapers routinely get their facts wrong, invent rumors out of thin air and in many cases, assign writers with their own self-serving agenda to cover a story? It couldn’t be that Telander is any way concerned that Joe Blow’s easy access to the net (as a reader or writer) might pose a threat to his own livelihood?