Normally no, but journalism has a different set of rules. Not really, thought it's nice to think so. First of all, it's not exactly as if ESPN's writers are unionized. So he's basically an at-will employee. Secondly, I could see someone getting away with saying that you disagree with a move or two made by your superiors -- immediate or further up the chain -- but even that isn't safe harbor in a lot of places. It's another issue to state that your bosses are slime, which is what Easterbrook basically did, while also throwing their religion and culture into the mix. Nice job, TMQ. (It's why it's nice to have a good editor or producer. Two good heads to save one ass. There are ways to make the same point and not have to look for another writing gig.) Finally, I thought that his apology was pretty weak. Perhaps what struck me most was the implication that Weinstein had nothing to do with "Kill Bill". Maybe things have changed, but my impression is that outside of Ben and Matt, there's no one Weinstein dotes on more than Kill Bill director Quentin Tarantino. Easterbrook probably knew this when he made his blog entry, and he also knew that Eisner probably had more than a passing interest in that movie's development as well.
FWIW, my best friend, a huge movie and Tarantino fan, saw Kill Bill yesterday and said it isn't worth the price of admission unless you make it part of an 'informal' double feature.
Easterbrook doesn't like Pulp Fiction??
I thought that too at first, until I realized that he's full of lame, self-serving logic, which is amusing the first time you see it, but it is his only gag. Um, what columnist doesn't employ self-serving logic time after time? This is just an inflated way of saying you don't like his columns. I've heard it said that if you have a microphone put in front of you for your opinions, if you talk long enough you're going to eventually get into trouble. This may be the first notable time that a blog had the same result.
Easterbrook was a fantastic member of the ESPN writing team - TMQ was damn funny and insightful - but damn if that wasn't a piss poor article with some shoddy and questionable inferences. I've never heard him sound so ill-informed and poorly mannered (This is the guy who refuses to call the 'Skins anything but the Potmac Drainage Basin Indiginous Persons). The 'money worshipping Jew' angle is nothing short of a slanderous assault. But he'll find other work. He's too good not too. And he's dead wrong about Tarantino, but that's another story.
I've heard it said that if you have a microphone put in front of you for your opinions, if you talk long enough you're going to eventually get into trouble. That's not really fair to columnists and commentators who manage to be brilliant without making asses of themselves in print or on air.
Kill Bill kicks ass. Period. Bill, no disrespect to your best friend, but he obviously isn't much of a kung-fu movie fan.
Notice this happens before he was able to update whether or not the NY Times finally went 1000 straight games without picking a correct final score. interesting...
hopefully he can continue the column on his own somewhere... I was thinking he could go back to slate where he was, but ESPN is on MSN and isn't slate MSN too? So that's out. Damn it, TMQ is the whole reason I come to work on tuesdays! (Not really, but it is why I stay at my desk for lunch)
Dear Mr. Easterbrook, Until you get a paying gig, write a Tuesday column for us. No, really! Sincerely, Spofi
Gregg has long been in love with his own words, and this is the consequence of that self-love. He lost the ability to edit his own writing. Regardless of whether or not he deserved what happened to him, he's smart enough and has enough experience in the journalism/entertainment biz that he should have known better. This is the biggest problem with blogs: no editors. A good editor would never have allowed that last paragraph to be published. I stand by Gregg's right to say what he said, but I don't have any sympathy for him. To quote a comment from this blog: "Calling your boss Jewy Jew Man is probably not the best way to keep your job."
This is the biggest problem with blogs: no editors. A good editor would never have allowed that last paragraph to be published. Absolutely well put. And agreed to by Jack Shafer on Slate here. But I detect the heavy hammer of Eisner falling. This whole shebang doesn't say as much about Easterbrook and his momentary lapse of judgement, as it does about 'decision-making' by the holy trinity of ESPN-Disney-Eisner.
Not this kind of momentary lapse, chriskalexander?
