Stephen Rodrick writes in Slate that television has killed the sports columnist. He's right! As Exhibit A he offers up Stephen A. Smith, the annoying, untalented ESPN head and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist. (Smith's boss at the Inquirer disputes Rodrick's thesis, saying that the "multi-tasking" hasn't affected Smith's newspaper work. He's right, too--Smith was always a terrible writer.)
But while Rodrick has diagnosed the disease correctly, he's mistaken on some of the symptoms. Most notably, he bashes the Washington Post's Tony Kornheiser. But in reality, Kornheiser is one of the few working sports columnists who still pays attention to the actual craft of writing. His columns are very solid stuff, despite his TV stardom.
Even so, reading Rodrick will probably get you shaking your head and saying, Amen.
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