Monday, June 17, 2013

Two Pretty Quick Hits [CORRECTED]


I've heard like close to zero Ticket over the past week.  Family and work obligations, and that may linger for a bit.  Here are a couple of quick ones to fluff up the string a bit.  You can tell it's lame, because the second one is sportsy, always dangerous.

(1) One of the few segments I did hear was The Shake Joint's interview of CNN's Ed Lavandera on Sunday.  Wow.  I did not hear the beginning so I wasn't sure about how this interview came about, but it was outstanding.  Very interesting, and very professional.  I only heard Jake doing the interviewing, so I'm not sure if Sean was a part of this segment.  I especially liked the line of questioning about the moral dilemma of whether a newsman should participate in an event when there is a human need.

I asked myself -- what other show would, or could, do this?   I wouldn't mind hearing more off-sports interviews on The Ticket, but who the heck is going to do them?  Assuming they played it straight (an always shaky assumption), I can imagine two other guys being able to pull this off as well -- Gordon and Dan.   (Why Dan?  I don't know -- he's got a very penetrating intelligence and could be counted on to get to the the nub of the gist, without regard to his current-events knowledge.)  

But someone, presumably Jake, reached out to this guy or CNN, and landed it with great distinction.  What does this tell us?  Continue to keep an eye on Mr. Kemp. 

Nice work. 

[CORRECTION:  I have been reliably informed that the interview was conducted by both Jake and Sean, and booked by Sean.  In my defense, the only part I heard at proper volume and without interruption was the part I mentioned, and only heard the balance with the radio turned down and Mrs. Plainsman and a smallish child simultaneously giving me instructions as I tried to keep the Conestoga in the ruts.  Thanks to my reliable informant for the better information and apologies to Sean for failing to note his contribution.  Better keep an eye on him as well.]



(2)  MY WRONG THEORY ABOUT THE RANGERS' SWOON

It's not injuries.

It's not the departure of Michael Young, Mike Napoli, Josh Hamilton.

It's not questionable bullpen personnel.

Here's what it is:

It's Nelson Cruz.

I have no proof for this.

I only have a logical fallacy on which to rely, the old "happened contemporaneously with or after, therefore happened because."  Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

But it seems to me that the Rangers' collapse here really started right around the time that the dope story got big again.  I think it's an elephant in the clubhouse.  I'll bet every player on that team and every member of the coaching staff and every member of management believes that Cruz was dirty and that if he is denying it now he's lying.  Hell, he's even got the braces to keep his teeth organized in his jaw.

So there's this tension between public support and private concern, and uncertainty over whether they'll have him when playoff time rolls around.

It's casting a pall over the all-for-one, one-for-all Texas Rangers. 

And pretending like it's not there means Coach Ron can't "manage" it.  I don't know what I would do if I were him.  I know what I'd be doing if I were Jon Daniels -- I'd be getting the team's lawyers involved to get this thing resolved toot sweet, get the authorities to fish or cut bait, release a list or drop it.

So there you have a tragically sportsy MTC commentary.

*     *     *

I'll try to be back soon, but in the meantime, my thanks for informative and interesting commentary.

49 comments:

  1. Well, so much for my mamby-pamby opinions.

    http://www.dfwsportatorium.com/

    Someone's headed to Lowe's to replenish his supply of varnish.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I couldn't agree more about the interview. I loved at the end when Ed Lavandera said he loved the Ticket. I think the only other show to possibly pull that interview off would be the Cirque du Sirois show. I am basing that off previous interviews that are non sports related they have done. If the weekend shows are competing with each other, we are definitely the beneficiaries of great radio.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm not a fan of Richie in even the tiniest possible way, but I believe his account of the story infinitely more than Greggo's. It's sad to watch a public flame-out like this. Inevitable, but sad.

    And I think you're spot-on with your Boomstick theory, Plainsman. It's probably not the primary cause of their troubles, but it has to be bringing the room down at least a little bit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Geez what a mess RAGE was. At this point, I can't blame Spittle for doing what he did and getting the guys he wanted. His side of the story will probably be the most accurate, although we'll never hear it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The account given by RW, thus far, rings much more of the truth than GW's. I say this because it comports with GW's Ticket behavior. I've stated this here before and I'll say it again: GW's primary issue is not addiction. I've had to work with people like him. He is most likely a borderline individual with sociopathic tendencies. And that's why you have to be very careful believing anything they say. I mean anything. Including the revelations contained in his posting that cannot be discussed on this site. I'm not saying that that particular is untrue, I'm only saying that one ought to tread carefully.

    I knew RW's article was not going to be positive when his first mention of GW was not "Greggo" but "Williams." He never once referred to him as Greggo, by the way. I appreciated RW's use of "frick" in lieu of "f**K." Perhaps he's read his ex-partner's blog and saw just how ugly and stupid such language makes a writer look. That and we must remember that RW is a professional writer. I hope he keeps that standard. I also hope he doesn't go down his Observer route and begin to bash religion. Ugh. Talk about your village atheist. We'll see. Whatever the case, I'll be reading the other four parts of "The Hard Lie, Part II." So far, interesting stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @BBQ
    I'm wondering if RW will get around to that little thing called ratings? Wasn't that the reason they got fired? You know it was. We know it was. RW knows it was. 4 more parts to go, maybe he'll address it. I also wonder if he'll touch upon (or is even aware of) how RaGE was sort of presented as The Greggo Show? How RW would constantly defer to GW and that for the listener, it sure seemed like GW was #1 and RW #2. I think that could've had a negative influence on the thing because GW is in no way a #1. We all heard that time and again while he was on The Ticket. Especially when Rhynes was sick. Talk about a train wreck. By the way, I tried to watch one of his video podcasts. Unwatchable. He is so bizarre looking and behaving that it's more than off putting. It's downright creepy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. i got an ice cream headache reading RW blog part 2 .
    1-GW Needs help .
    2-RW needs to write for the Observer .
    3-Who cares about the back and banter between some GW supporters and some RW supporters ,
    4-RaGe didn't work , for a multitude of reasons .
    5-Seems both these guys ( GW & RW ) are telling us things we already knew , suspected or ignored ? I do not have much interest in their mudslinging contest .

    BTW , How is B&S holding up ?

    I am actually spending time between GAC , Sirius and KTCK in the afternoons.

    GW will be in the News again in the near future , not for humanitarian efforts either ?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I get nervous whenever a Ball is hit Nellie's way , you never know will happen ?

    We certainly can't miss Josh , his low 200 BA and his idiosyncrasies .

    This Ranger team has a good core = let them find their chemistry .

    Thanks to Michael , Nap and others for building a sound team foundation , a rose bush must trimmed to encourage new Blooms !

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Rangers have been going down this path since around the All Star break, last season. In truth, they've been heading towards this since Game Six, 2011. And you can blame that, in more than part, on Nellie Cruz. They seemed to have learned their lesson from last season and came out like gangbusters. However, once they went 5+ games up, they began to fall back into their "we'll turn it on when we have to" attitude. Well, as we saw last year, they can't. They aren't good enough. They aren't the 90s/early 00s Yankees after all. Not even close.

    The last 3 seasons they got off to amazing starts, while their bunkmates did just the opposite. They played average to below average ball post the All Star Break. The AL West wasn't good enough to catch up to them in '10 and '11. Not so last season. Oakland proved that in spades. Now not only has Oakland already passed them by, but also the Angels, despite Hamilton sucking and CJ sparing, are now playing like they are capable of. Oh, and just wait till Weaver returns. By the end of July we will be fighting it out with the Mariners for 3rd. Mark it down.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The Angels are 5-9 in June and Weaver has been back for weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Richie, clever media chap that he is, is stringing the story out. It's vividly told. Note how he starts with an anecdote, and not endless protestations of truth-telling.

    I'm happy to host comments on this, but before we conclude that Richie isn't going to address any of our favorite subjects (i.e., ratings, Sybil, the reasons for that long Greggo absence earlier this year), let's let him have his say, which I expect he will dribble out dramatically over the course of the listed chapters.

    I am very sorry to hear that Greg's substance abuse was apparently involved.

    How often does it happen that a journalist, coming to a subject and attempting to show both sides (which, despite some criticism from Confessors, I think the original "The Hard Lie" did a very good job with), realize upon closer acquaintance with the actors involved that perhaps he didn't get the whole story, and that perhaps there is not equal blame to go around? Answer: A helluva lot.

    I have some other nice things to say about Richie: (1) He was smart to wait until Greggo's initial blasts were out there before telling his side. (2) He was smart to make the effort to monetize his blog before his splashy, and well-attended debut (smarter, for example, than Your Plainsman, who toils in uncompensated anonymity). (3) I had a third one, but I forgot it.

    I do strongly urge him not to use a grey background for his readers' black-fonted comments.

    And, while I guess it's too late now, I would have urged him to continue to say absolutely nothing about the demise of RaGE. He wasn't a strong radio guy, but neither did he disgrace himself with his performance. He was out there slugging in the toughest market for sports/guy talk you can possibly imagine, and he did everything possible to make it work. (Maybe that was the third thing.) Never mind the way he dresses or applies product -- the guy has some skills and those clothes and product and probably lots of things we don't know about landed him a pretty sweet twist. He's only making himself memorable for the wrong reasons with a flashy takedown of his former partner.

    So I'm happy enough to wait for Richie's next act. Even though the tar baby that is Greg Williams is apparently too tempting not to stick your fist into.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh Plainsman, you might want to edit that "tar baby" remark. I know the term's original meaning, but you do know it has another, racist, meaning?

    I agree with you about hearing Richie out. Though a quick look-see at his Twitter feed shows a reply to the question of do you now view the Ticket's treatment of Gregg differently(?). His reply was "no," that their careers were not affected but his was, that he lost his job and they didn't. There is obviously a lot of bitterness on Richie's part. So while I've no doubt that wherever the truth actually lies (no pun intended), it's somewhere between each version, but leaning rather heavily toward Richie's version. I wonder if Gregg will go on the offensive? This is only the first installment and already he's called Greggo about the worst thing you can call someone once seen as a family member or friend. He paints Greggo out to be sociopathic. I'll be reading all week, for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Richie Whitt ‏@richiewhitt 1h
    @chriscrazy24 Ticket guys handled it wrong because they didn't lose their jobs. I did. Big diff. Thanks.

    Trem Deez ‏@ultimate_douche 2h
    @richiewhitt many a times you used audio of him being on something as "funny" content on your show. Now you kick him. Any response to that?
    Details Reply Retweet Favorite More

    Follow

    Richie Whitt
    ‏@richiewhitt
    @ultimate_douche When he helped the show it was funny. When he missed work and sucked, it wasn't funny. Pretty simple.
    Reply Retweet Favorite More
    6:10 PM - 17 Jun 13

    ****My Comment******
    I think the above Tweets say a lot about RW. The first Tweet reeks of anger at GW and an apparent lack of understanding a situation in a larger sense. The second one, well, you draw your own conclusion. Mine isn't a pretty one. Let's just say that there's a reason RW isn't well liked amongst his peers and also comes off as an asshat on air and in print, piece of twist or not.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Today's Greggo podcast lasted all of 12 minutes. It suddenly went dark and never came back. Nothing on his Twitter about it either. Which is strange because either he or his "handler" Jenn-O constantly Tweet about the blog and podcast. I wonder if he finally got word/read Richie's initial thrust and went into shutdown mode? The video stream was non-existent, but he sure seemed preoccupied during the first 12 minutes. Something tells me that he believed Whitt was going to keep mum and go along with the Cowboy's dictate meme.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Interesting precursor for those of you that think this could happen on The Ticket.

    http://deadspin.com/heres-the-steve-gleason-bit-that-got-three-atlanta-rad-513889322

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ha Greggo's podcast was too funny. Just stopped mid-sentence and after 20 seconds of shuffling/scrambling dead air, he said "Get me out of here..." Might be the last time we hear from him on that podcast.

    Both Richie and Greggo are losers. Greggo has always been problematic and Richie...well what is he to gain by trying to throw the troubled Greggo under the bus? Such an easy target and it's been done countless times by everyone. If this was Greggo's first offense then sure, go at it. But Richie knew what he was getting into when he pushed to bring Greggo aboard to form RAGE.

    I also found it comical when Richie conveniently decided to add Greggo's tweet that he and Sybil didn't deserve to be fired. So you just trashed the guy for being an unreliable coworker and addict but then you add that little nugget as if we're supposed to value said person's judgment of the situation.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think what we're seeing is, is two public people for who they truly are. One appears to be poisonous to himself and everyone around him, the other an opportunist in the pejorative sense and sleazy. I personally am ready for both to fade off into the sunset. From the way a certain podcast went today, I'm thinking we might've seen the beginning of if not in fact the actuality of one of the parties going away. Perhaps running like hell is the better way to put it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Pretty apropos comment from RW's site:

    "Looks like what Whitt's written, and it's only part one of five, has spooked Williams so much that he's shut the whole operation down. Twitter: silent. Podcast: cut off after 12 minutes with the mumbled "get me outta here." Comments from today regarding Whitt's piece and today's abrupt podcast ending (with no video by they way): wiped clean. Looks like somebody might be getting outta Dodge before EVERYTHING is brought to the light of day. Whew! Things seem to be coming home to roost."

    ReplyDelete
  19. Why would anyone waste their time on Greggo's podcast when BaD Radio is on?

    ReplyDelete
  20. The only reason, repeat...ONLY reason Richie had a gig as long as he did, was because of Greggo! I'd miss alot of work too if I had to put up with douche-dork! Richie brought Greggo in for ratings, but when you suck as badly as Richie, nothings going to work!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I just listened to today's GGBC podcast. All 13 minutes of it. He sounds positively f'd up. I mean really bad. The last minute is out and out bizarre ever so audible mumbling and very audible fumbling around. My guess is that he woke up, read Richie's blog, began to take something to deal with its content, decided that the show must go on / I'll show 'em, and then about a quarter of the way through it began to hit the wall.

    ReplyDelete
  22. re: 8:41

    http://www.theunticket.com/george-has-a-medifast-e-brake/

    I thought this was hilarious. Only The Ticket can get away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ryan P1 in Fort WorthJune 17, 2013 at 10:09 PM

    Greggo has been the lead star in an on-going dfw sports radio soap opera for a long time now...and I've grown tired of it. I hope he goes back to Grandbury and just spends the rest of his days there, relaxing at his lake house. I am tired of him. I am tired of Richie. I am tired of everyone (including people who work at the ticket) being obsessed with what they are doing or saying. After Richie releases his whole expose, can we all move on and just forget those 2 ever existed?

    ReplyDelete
  24. Ryan P1 In Ft. Worth, thank you for being the first person to echo what I've been saying for a while now. It's nice to know that someone else out there is thinking the same thing you do. I am very much hoping that by mid-next week (there'll be a few days of commenting on the 5 part piece) all of this goes away, forever.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Always been a fan of Seabass. But lately Diamond Talk is showing a side of him that I find off putting.....know it all and don't you damn dare damn disagree with me because any opinion that dissents from mine is wrong Seabass.

    Speaking of Seabass, I can't stand his partner's contribution to the Summer Bash song. "I'mma do it grandpa style." What does that mean? No. I don't want to know. Thankfully come Saturday I won't have to hear that crappy tune again.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I hope Jake isn't wearing off on Sea Bass.

    ReplyDelete
  27. 163 comments over there at that first installment of the Sportatorium and I made it 164. Like RW or not he is getting some clicks on the page. How long that lasts remains to be seen. He can surely drag it out for a few more entries on soap opera drama alone. After that well...if he starts in on Wimbledon and tennis again, laters.

    What stands out for me in all this are the staunch Greggo defenders that absolutely refuse to see any culpability on his part. Without some hard evidence that he was actually using again they refuse to consider that possibility. I tend towards the other direction, that without evidence that he wasn't using it is probably a safe bet that he was.

    I don't think this is going to die down very soon.

    SeaBass has some gottaberightis in him, I think it is a prerequisite for working in sports media.

    and

    "I do strongly urge him not to use a grey background for his readers' black-fonted comments." The Plainsman

    I'll second that.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Part II of Richie's Decline and Fall of the Richie and Greggo Empire is up.

    http://www.dfwsportatorium.com/

    It resumes scorching where the scorching Part I left off.

    I tremble to think of how Greg will respond. I also tremble to think that he might not.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I think he'll "man up" to it in his typical Greggo way. Richie just utterly destroyed him with all of the evidence; there's really no way for him to lie his way out of it.

    Anyway, I stopped reading Greggo's blog and deleted the bookmark immediately after he finished posting the RaGE articles. I have absolutely no interest in anything he says or does (ok, I'm a little interested in whether he'll try to take a shot back at Richie, but after that not at all).

    ReplyDelete
  30. You know how Mike R has hinted from time to time that we don't know the half of what went on during the Hammer years at The Ticket?

    I think Richie is giving us a flavor of what he's talking about.

    Greg got a deal with The Ticket -- and it doubtless included "nondisparagement" provisions that would prevent any Ticket guy from detailing the hardships of working with someone like Greg Williams. (And Greg was probably under similar strictures.)

    Fortunately for those of us who scan the sports-radio horizon in DFW, R a G's departure deal, if any, did not include any such clauses.

    So now we know. And what we don't know from the Ticket years, we can pretty much surmise.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Greggo is done...I think his blog and podcast won't make it to the end of the week, much less the month. Richie Whitt has more supporters and fans, especially with Sybil. The few RAGE fans left out there will choose him over Greggo now. Bye bye Hammer!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I've seen it in the comments on RW's site that I'm not sure how it's possible for RW to post the accusations about GW being high on the air without actual proof. In that meaning a failed drug test or something or similar fashion. You would think without something like that he could get sued for slander. Oh, I'm sure GW was high on the air, but me saying it in a comment should be a little different than RW having a blog that states it as fact.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Dammit T4, I successfully avoided reading the comments over there then you got me interested and now my head hurts. I fully expected the usual Richie nut kicking but I can't believe there are still Greggo apologists. Those people are just as delusional as Greggo.

    ReplyDelete
  34. T4, you are right. But to answer as to why RW would make such an error (slander....and slandering someone who I have a feeling, barring some new revelation/proof in an upcoming installment, will indeed sue him for this), I kindly point you toward my last comment:

    "I think what we're seeing is, is two public people for who they truly are. One appears to be poisonous to himself and everyone around him, the other an opportunist in the pejorative sense and sleazy."

    ReplyDelete
  35. I'm finding it difficult to navigate the Café. How does one get into archival posts? And his recent podcasts appear to have no comments, which seems odd.

    (I was there looking for comments on Richie's nuclear strike.)

    ReplyDelete
  36. I see RW's site being stripped of all comments after all stories have been aired. Just like his first Hard Lie article years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Whereas Whitt's story so far probably has more truth to it than Greggo's ramblings, I still am waiting on who Whitt will blame for his big bag of radio nothing.

    I never listened to anything Whitt was on at the Fail. His tryout as a "plus one" after GW got fired at the little Ticket cured me of that.

    From what I have read in various places, it appears that Whitt was and is trying to be a Skip Bayless starter kit-always taking a contrarian viewpoint of what ever the subject matter was.

    I also suspect that if he ever talks about ratings, he will spin it saying that ratings don't matter because the revenue was still coming in. No matter how he couches the ratings, the numbers don't lie.

    He should stick to writing as it appears he is better at writing than hosting any type of radio show.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Apparently Hammy isn't happy with the state of his café:

    "I feel I am cheating my diners and myself. SOOOO…for the next two or three days I will be taking off and organizing."

    So, "organizing" is what the kids are calling it these days.

    He promises "everything" will be addressed and we're not to read more into this hiatus than what he tells us. $50 says this is the last update of the ol café.

    ReplyDelete
  39. That's toooo funny Birq. For somebody so unpredictable he sure is predictable isn't he?

    ReplyDelete
  40. Plains, thanks for the Richie blog info. I checked it out, and poor Richie is taking a nut kicking of the highest caliber, for the most part. One thing I admired about Richie, was no matter how brutal his comments became, he always took it. [talking about his Observer days] I dont even waste my time on Greggos blog.

    ReplyDelete
  41. I've heard several references today to a "players-only meeting" conducted by Ron Washington. Um . . . no.

    ReplyDelete
  42. RW's soft toss mea culpas reek of Greggo's "unvarnished truths." Both have the appearance of two individuals, neither of which, want to admit the whole story. I've no doubt Greggo leaves a wake of destruction wherever he's been/whomever he's come in contact with. I also think there's more to the story where RW's personal life is concerned. I think this because he offers up said soft toss "I'm no angel," "I was infamously over-served at a company sanctioned function" mea culpas / get ahead of the story CYAs are so opaque in their intention that it's almost laughable. Nay, it is laughable. I don't think we'll ever get the so-called unvarnished truth. Frankly, I no longer care. I only wish these two clowns would crawl back under their respective rocks.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I wonder how RW got those Twitter direct messages.

    He might have answered it in the comments, but I don't have the life force to sift through them.

    ReplyDelete
  44. He said that he didn't get them via hacking or any other nefarious method; they were given to him by the people who received them and by sources.

    I'm with those who have grown so very very very very very weary of all this. I MIGHT finish out the week of Whitt's Hard Lie Part 2. After that, I'm donzo. If you don't know what Greggo's about by now then I don't know what to say to ya. If you haven't figured out Whitt's game by now, again, I don't know what to say to ya. At this point, we're getting the final report on a very agenda-ized autopsy. After that, what's left? Nothing but one dude whose 15 minutes are up but who parlayed it into an out of his league of looks wife and another dude who from all appearances is someone you don't want for a neighbor and whose career in this market is done. Both will go into that good night. Maybe not gently, like they ought to, but make no mistake about it, for all the I'm just gettin' starteds and you haven't heard the last of mes and the just you wait and sees, they will end up in the Rocco Pendola--Darrel Ancorlo Self Absorbed Self Promoting Radio Personalities Who Didn't Have What It Took To Be Successful But Who Refused To Go Away With Their Dignity In Hand Memorial Dustbin.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Richie talks to Unfair Park this afternoon:

    http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/06/richie_whitt_is_blasting_gregg.php

    While he's suggested that his future installments will identify other culprits in his dismissal from The Fan, he's pretty explicit with Unfair Park -- it's Greggo first and last.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Talked to a buddy of mine today who is in the industry. No he doesn't work for any of the sports stations. Nor does he work for Cumulus or CBS. But the insight and bits of scuttlebutt he gave me were interesting so I thought I'd pass them along.

    Ratings and RaGE. Whitt has always maintained that it's advertising dollars that matter, not ratings. Well ratings don't matter as much as we think and so they're not the end all be all measure of success. Buddy says that's partly true but it's a bit misleading. The 2 go hand in hand. Without ratings sponsors will eventually look elsewhere. CBS is big enough to keep finding clients willing to give them a shot, but the bigger clients usually leave as soon as their contract is up. Most of RaGE's sponsors were on the nickel and dime plan and the few that remained for a long period of time ended up being friends of the show, which can and from what buddy says in a few cases did become problematic. Wanting special favors, access, deals, and stuff like that.

    Also told that from what he's heard for months now, way before the firing went down, that this move had been in the works for a long time. Long before Whitt's Nov. 15th Greggo Armageddon that he writes about. Kinda like the ads, RaGE and the management before Spittle and the receptionists and everyone else had all gotten way too close. It was an unprofessional and unproductive work environment. Everyone was having way too good of a time, but in their own ways. Everything was OK'd and permitted by the 2 regimes prior to Spittle. The proverbial other way was looked on just about everything for every member involved. So when Whitt says his relationship and all the rest was approved by management he speaks the truth. But that was the problem. You can't have such a permissive work place and still think it's going to end well. When you have people like Williams and Whitt, guys who will take advantage of a situation, though one obviously in a much different and disturbing way than the other, and such an anything goes work environment the outcome won't be good and it wasn't. After re reading Whitt's last two blog posts and looking at the Twitter material it's very obvious that my buddy while maybe not in the direct know, does know enough to have the gist of the heart of the matter. Some of that Twitter material and some of the things said are the sorts of things that any properly or sanely run work place steers well clear of. Unless you want HR involved in a nanosecond.

    Basically Spittle was brought in to clean up and clean house. That meant RaGE. Buddy says he's heard that there will be more changes but nothing mind blowing like The Ticket and The FAN merging or the whole thing going national. Spittle is most likely watching each show closely until around mid July and at that time see who if anyone needs to be replaced by new talent.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Shan Shariff ‏@NewSchoolSS 2h
    "Like or dislike, believe him or not, there is no doubt that my guy @richiewhitt is the best damn sportswriter in DFW. And its not even close"

    Oh god...make it stop now

    ReplyDelete
  48. Well, here's something innnnerestin'......

    From today's Unfairpark (thanks for the link, Pman):

    "Greggo, we assume, remains unemployed, though Whitt isn't exactly sure."

    "I haven't spoken to Greggo since the day he walked out of the office and we were fired," Whitt says. "He's reached out to me several times at some point I might reach back, but not right now."

    Let's do a quick recap of what we have here:

    Two recently fired media personalities who are desperate to regain what they lost. Both, soon after their firing, fire up blogs whose first order of business is to explain in caustic fashion why they were fired. One shoots out of the gate blaming the employer, specifically a certain one individual. He demonizes him in every way possible. The other, waits a couple months and comes out scorched earth on the former partner. Basically calling him a pathological liar and sociopath. He, being media savvy, immediately begins to spread the story through other, well read, outlets. Then, at the very end of one of these "junkets," he lets it slips that said psycho ex-partner has reached out to him and that while not ready to reciprocate at this time, the door isn't completely closed.

    Please, if you would, think back and recall the personalities, words, and actions of both parties in question.....then ask yourself: "Is this...?" No wait. Before you do that, please recall Whitt's anecdote at the onset of his first installment of The Hard Lie 2: The S*** Hits The FAN. Remember? Greggo proposed an over the top, but played out in a very real way, gag in order to get national attention. Now go ahead and ask that question to yourself: "Is this one big Andy Kaufmann-esque put on designed to eventually land these two stooges another gig somewhere else?" "That they'll eventually 'both reach and touch each other and make nice, and thereby reunite better than than ever so that 'nothings gonna stop [them] now? *to quote a horrific Starship tune*"

    Not possible? You think? Would you really put it past these two? I wouldn't. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Whitt, thinking he's being clever, actually clued the reader into the gag with the very anecdote above.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Michael, it seems rather unlikely to me.

    It requires the gradual decline and sputtering-out of RaGE to have been deliberate so that there can be a falling out followed by the feelgood reunion. Your theory also would seem to require that the Party of the First Blog be firing away at the Party of the Second Blog, but that's not happening, either.

    Nope, I don't think anyone would contrive a war, an essential element of which being that each loses his job and makes himself unattractive to employers through his post-employment conduct.

    Just doesn't ring right to me.

    But stranmger things have happened.

    ReplyDelete