“Jay The Joke III”
Recently I’ve been looking over the Jay The Joke weblog. So far what I’ve found is every bit a joke. But very little Jay.
Take The Joker's several posts about some kinda major scandal involving Jay Mariotti’s misquote of Rex Grossman:
Patrick Dahl, "In Which Jay States the Obvious," October 5
Patrick Dahl, "In Which Jay Makes a Big Mistake!" October 6
Patrick Dahl, "Like Really Tiny Jays Through an Hourglass," October 7
Patrick Dahl, "In Which Jay Kinda Sorta Admits He Made a Mistake," October 10
Patrick Dahl, [FILL-IN THE TITLE,] [FILL-IN THE DATE] ad nauseam
On October 5 ("Thankfully, Lovie not type for hype"), Mariotti did in fact misquote Grossman’s post-game comments following the Bears’ Sunday night victory over the Seahawks. So did Associated Press’s Andrew Seligman (Oct. 2) and the Chicago Tribune’s David Haugh ("Looking for pitfalls? Schedule doesn't offer too many," Oct. 4). Since Seligman’s misquote was first, and since Seligman’s was the version of the quote that went out over the Associated Press wire services into all of the newsrooms around the country, no doubt Seligman’s version of the quote was the source both for Mariotti and Haugh.
What Grossman had actually said was this (or something very close to this): Thirty seven-six just shows what we're capable of, but they’re a lot better than that. (In which Grossman's “they’re” referred to the Seattle Seahawks. As several of the subsequent correct versions of the quote made clear by inserting the words Seattle Seahawks parenthetically in place of Grossman's "they're.")
Now here was Andrew Seligman’s mistaken version of the quote for Associated Press (“Bears 37, Seahawks 6,” Oct. 2):
Rex Grossman threw for 232 yards and Ricky Manning Jr. intercepted two of Matt Hasselbeck's passes to lead Chicago to a 37-6 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night. "Thirty seven-six just shows what we're capable of, but we're a lot better than that," Grossman said. "They're a lot better than they played tonight and we realize that....We realize we may face them down the road at some point, and we're glad we got the win."
And here was Mariotti’s use of the Seligman (Oct. 5):
Lovie prefers a quieter approach. Without saying he has tranquilized his players, he has done so. We know it because they're now echoing his thoughts, a familiar hypnotic effect in coaching. Take Grossman, who said this after the Seattle romp: "Thirty-seven [to] six just shows what we're capable of, but we're a lot better than that."
And David Haugh’s (Oct. 4):
Minutes after leading the Bears to their biggest victory in Lovie Smith's tenure, his adrenaline still pumping, Grossman showed as much accuracy from the podium as he did in the pocket because he kept it all in perspective. "We're off to a great start, [but] that's all I'm going to say right now," Grossman said. "Thirty-seven-6 just shows what we're capable of, but we're a lot better than that."
As I wrote previously (check out my "Jay The Joke II," Oct. 10), I’ve also been able to find copies of Seligman’s original misquote on the pages of the Albany Times Union, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star, the San Jose Mercury News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Petersburg Times, the Vancouver Columbian, and the Ventura County Star. Until such time as a quote is falsified, its usage by secondary sources is routine and represents nothing more than the presumption that a professional such as Andrew Seligman reported it accurately in the first place.
Had any of Jay The Joke’s dozens of Dittoheads been motivated by something other than attacking Jay Mariotti (I’m still waiting for The Joker's scoop about how scandalous it is that Mariotti should use punctuation—any day now), and reshaping everything that they find until its fits this objective, their hype about Mariotti’s “big mistake,” with its proof of how dishonest Mariotti is (as one of this weblog’s Dittoheads (Jamel) put it, he “wasn’t aware that you could just rip off other people’s work, even if you do reference it, place it in another paper and sell it for a profit”), never would have appeared.
But then the whole of the Jay The Joke weblog never would have appeared, either.
So I guess this explains everything.
Wake up, sports fans.
Recently I’ve been looking over the Jay The Joke weblog. So far what I’ve found is every bit a joke. But very little Jay.
Take The Joker's several posts about some kinda major scandal involving Jay Mariotti’s misquote of Rex Grossman:
Patrick Dahl, "In Which Jay States the Obvious," October 5
Patrick Dahl, "In Which Jay Makes a Big Mistake!" October 6
Patrick Dahl, "Like Really Tiny Jays Through an Hourglass," October 7
Patrick Dahl, "In Which Jay Kinda Sorta Admits He Made a Mistake," October 10
Patrick Dahl, [FILL-IN THE TITLE,] [FILL-IN THE DATE] ad nauseam
On October 5 ("Thankfully, Lovie not type for hype"), Mariotti did in fact misquote Grossman’s post-game comments following the Bears’ Sunday night victory over the Seahawks. So did Associated Press’s Andrew Seligman (Oct. 2) and the Chicago Tribune’s David Haugh ("Looking for pitfalls? Schedule doesn't offer too many," Oct. 4). Since Seligman’s misquote was first, and since Seligman’s was the version of the quote that went out over the Associated Press wire services into all of the newsrooms around the country, no doubt Seligman’s version of the quote was the source both for Mariotti and Haugh.
What Grossman had actually said was this (or something very close to this): Thirty seven-six just shows what we're capable of, but they’re a lot better than that. (In which Grossman's “they’re” referred to the Seattle Seahawks. As several of the subsequent correct versions of the quote made clear by inserting the words Seattle Seahawks parenthetically in place of Grossman's "they're.")
Now here was Andrew Seligman’s mistaken version of the quote for Associated Press (“Bears 37, Seahawks 6,” Oct. 2):
Rex Grossman threw for 232 yards and Ricky Manning Jr. intercepted two of Matt Hasselbeck's passes to lead Chicago to a 37-6 victory over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night. "Thirty seven-six just shows what we're capable of, but we're a lot better than that," Grossman said. "They're a lot better than they played tonight and we realize that....We realize we may face them down the road at some point, and we're glad we got the win."
And here was Mariotti’s use of the Seligman (Oct. 5):
Lovie prefers a quieter approach. Without saying he has tranquilized his players, he has done so. We know it because they're now echoing his thoughts, a familiar hypnotic effect in coaching. Take Grossman, who said this after the Seattle romp: "Thirty-seven [to] six just shows what we're capable of, but we're a lot better than that."
And David Haugh’s (Oct. 4):
Minutes after leading the Bears to their biggest victory in Lovie Smith's tenure, his adrenaline still pumping, Grossman showed as much accuracy from the podium as he did in the pocket because he kept it all in perspective. "We're off to a great start, [but] that's all I'm going to say right now," Grossman said. "Thirty-seven-6 just shows what we're capable of, but we're a lot better than that."
As I wrote previously (check out my "Jay The Joke II," Oct. 10), I’ve also been able to find copies of Seligman’s original misquote on the pages of the Albany Times Union, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star, the San Jose Mercury News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Petersburg Times, the Vancouver Columbian, and the Ventura County Star. Until such time as a quote is falsified, its usage by secondary sources is routine and represents nothing more than the presumption that a professional such as Andrew Seligman reported it accurately in the first place.
Had any of Jay The Joke’s dozens of Dittoheads been motivated by something other than attacking Jay Mariotti (I’m still waiting for The Joker's scoop about how scandalous it is that Mariotti should use punctuation—any day now), and reshaping everything that they find until its fits this objective, their hype about Mariotti’s “big mistake,” with its proof of how dishonest Mariotti is (as one of this weblog’s Dittoheads (Jamel) put it, he “wasn’t aware that you could just rip off other people’s work, even if you do reference it, place it in another paper and sell it for a profit”), never would have appeared.
But then the whole of the Jay The Joke weblog never would have appeared, either.
So I guess this explains everything.
Wake up, sports fans.
posted by Robert Bonner at 8:17 AM
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