Deadspin, Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion – and Apparently Class

Well, for those expats that missed last nights DUAN post (all 2 of you) – there certainly was quite the hatchet job done on our good friend Rockabye. Obviously, people in the sports blogosphere have had differences, and Rock was no exception – but AJ Daulerio took it to an entirely new level when he bashed the college student to pieces on one of the most heavily trafficked nightly posts on the sight.

Here’s the link to the aforementioned post, but for those who don’t want to give them the pageviews, read on :

And now here’s this: One Andy Hutchins, whom many of you knew around these parts as RockYouLikeAnIracane/Rockabye/incessantly needy boy from Florida, decided to curtail his usual late night masturbatory message board habits for a short period of time to write something of substance about the new Deadspin (and Gawker) commenting page which I’m told will launch on Tuesday. Andy stumbled upon the easily-sniffed out “stage” (Gawker is not NORAD) versions of the sites, which offer a preview of how the new system will work. He then provided a helpful step-by-step breakdown of how it will impact readers, commenters, Deadspin, the state of sports media, the Iranian election, the BCS, and anything else that cluttered his frighteningly active mind at 4 a.m. on a Wednesday, a time most young men his age are usually fast asleep with multiple co-eds on top of them. No, not Andy (never!).

Aside from the couple hours of annoyance he caused Gawker editors yesterday, he actually provided a good mock-up of some of the things we’ll all have to deal with starting next week. So look it over and marvel at his industriousness. All told, it was a great post in its service presentation and its gamesmanship. Cheers, sir. One can only hope his parents recognize his new-found maturity and finally let him drive a car at night.

Well, ok then. Apparently, prior to the post, Mr. Daulerio also had Rock’s commenting privleges removed – in order to prevent Rock from defending himself? Andy, using his Facebook account, posted the following:

Dear A.J.,

First, I didn’t “stumble upon” the previews of the sites; I was told that they were available to be viewed.

Second, while it is kind of you to link to The Rookies and to what you call a “great post,” it certainly seems in tune with a general attitude of smirking, haughty, and dismissive mainstream media reactions to bloggers for you to respond with this post.

Especially, of course, because you made sure I was banned from the Gawker Media commenting structure before you did.

You’re taking shots at a blogger, characterizing me as an “incessantly needy boy from Florida (who) decided to curtail his usual late night masturbatory message board habits,” saying, “most young men his age are usually fast asleep with multiple co-eds on top of them. No, not Andy (never!),” and finishing with “One can only hope his parents recognize his new-found maturity and finally let him drive a car at night.”

I don’t mind the shots, personally. You can say what you want; it only makes you look bad to be spewing the sorts of cliches about bloggers and blogging that Mariotti would be ashamed to type. (Hell, you’re barely better than Simmons, your old drinking buddy.)

But when Buzz Bissinger said that blogs were devoted to cruelty and speed last summer, he was half right: The speed part was an essential element of Deadspin.

And he’s still half right.have hired

But I put together my post this Wednesday morning at 4:00 AM. I was working while you were sleeping. And I’ll continue to do that.

You just seem to have the cruelty part down.

In conclusion: Enjoy your life. I’ll enjoy mine.

Thanks,

Andy Hutchins

P.S.: You may well be the dick joke.

What’s bothering me, and I’m sure others that are reading this right now, is that Andy’s original post at The Rookies was not a hostile post directed at AJ. He wrote a reaction piece (they teach those kinda things in J-School, even if it’s a blog!) to changes that will be upcoming in the Gawker network. Daulerio comes across looking like Moe from Calvin and Hobbes – a mean spirited bully that is doing something just because he can.

To be clear, Deadspin isn’t life, it’s a fucking sports blog (just like the one this is published on, but with a marginally larger audience – ok, much larger, but still). However, AJ elevated the attacks from the ball busting level that we all do to each other (like Sculptor criticizing my awesome music taste), into a hateful editorial message. What was the point of openly mocking Andy like that? Because he found out about something you weren’t planning on announcing.

AJ could have just ignored the post on the Rookies, and frankly much of the Deadspin readership would not have been the wiser. He also could have treated the author with a modicum of respect, acknowledged what was happening, and moved on – and still no one would have minded. Instead, he went out of his way to belittle and abuse someone who is in the same profession as him. AJ, don’t you want to encourage people to do better and make your industry a stronger, better place? Than why attack a blog that’s a blip on your radar? All it does is make you look like a jackass, as the comments in the DUAN post proved. What makes you better than Son of Spurrier, and putting up pictures of Afino’s wife? Spurrier put up pictures, but you managed to do worse, posting all the information about someone that read your website, critiqued intelligently, and then you launched a vicious sucker punch.

Not for nothing AJ, is it that hard to remember when you were starting out? When you started looking for pieces , looking for something from websites (The Black Table, Deadspin v. 1.0)? The only time you got blasted is when you blew up Stu Scott’s game. At least he had a legitamate reason for being mad at you – all Andy did was report on changes, and point to how you are becoming more like ESPN. Surely you can see the changes at the ‘Spin, and economically it might make sense. He granted you that point in his review, and you respond by belittling him. You make jokes about the lack of an ESPN ombudsman, but maybe Gawker should hire one too.

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Tags: aj, andy, deadspin, first derivative, forgot where you came from?, rockabye
Categories: Daily Specials, Domestics, Non-Alcoholic

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Daily Specials, Domestics, Non-Alcoholic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.