In the wake of George Dohrmann’s Sports Illustrated story about the downfall of Jim Tressel at Ohio State, writers including Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports, Chris Jones of Esquire and Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated weighed in on Twitter, with Whitlock saying, “Sounds like SI Ohio State story is same-old same-old…Typical slave-catcher investigation. Stop the presses.”
Slave-catcher? Who exactly are the slaves here? The mediocre wide receivers like Ray Small who get free educations at Ohio State and trade memorabilia for cash and favors? And who are the slave-catchers? The reporters investigating these players? Eesh. It’s not exactly likening Tiki Barber to Anne Frank, but….
Whitlock wasn’t done, writing, “This is laughable watching SI pretend it brought down Jim Tressel and unearthed something shocking.”
I don’t know, a media outlet marketing its own timely story? Ca-razy?
Esquire‘s Chris Jones took exception to Whitlock’s ranting, saying, “Hilarious that @whitlockjason is shitting on the Tressel story. Man wouldn’t know breaking news if it was asleep on the couch next to him.”
Business Insider has a rundown of the entertaining volleys.
Jones, you might remember, said this about Whitlock back in January on his personal blog: “Well, here’s the stone-cold truth, kids: Jason Whitlock has no soul. He’s neither a good reporter nor a good writer. He’s a bloviator who’s somehow carved out a niche for himself as a kind of anti-establishment figure by making references to The Wire and pretending he’s the second coming of Ralph Wiley, when Ralph Wiley would be fucking mortified to be associated with Whitlock’s brand of self-serving buffoonery.”
In short, Whitlock and Jones do not go bowling together.