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Topic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 8/28/2008 3:14:56 PM
Title: Roger Ebert's message to Jay Mariotti
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
Roger Ebert to Jay Mariotti

An open letter to sports columnist Jay Mariotti, who resigned from
the Sun-Times and lashed out during a TV interview announcing that
newspapers were dead:

Dear Jay,

What an ugly way to leave the Sun-Times. It does not speak well for
you. Your timing was exquisite. You signed a new contract, waited
until days after the newspaper had paid for your trip to Beijing at
great cost, and then resigned with only an e-mail. You saved your
explanation for a local television station.

As someone who was working here for 24 years before you arrived, I
think you owed us more than that. You owed us decency. The fact that
you saved your attack for TV only completes our portrait of you as a
rat.

Newspapers are not dead, Jay, although you predicted the death of the
Sun-Times and the Tribune. Neither paper will die any time soon. Job-
hunting tip: It is imprudent to go on TV and predict the collapse of a
newspaper you might hope would hire you. Times are hard in the
newspaper business, and for the economy as a whole. Did you only sign
on for the luxury cruise? There's an old saying that you might have
come across once or twice on the sports beat: "When the going gets
tough, the tough get going."

Newspapers are not dead, Jay, because there are still readers who want
the whole story, not a sound bite. If you only work on television,
viewers may get a little weary of you shouting at them. You were a
great shouter in print, that's for sure, stomping your feet when
owners, coaches, players and fans didn't agree with you. It was an
entertaining show. Good luck getting one of your 1,000-word rants on
the air.

The rest of us are still at work, still putting out the best paper we
can. We believe in our profession, and in the future. And we believe
in our internet site, which you also whacked as you slithered out the
door. I don't know how your column was doing, but we have the most
popular sports section in Chicago. The reports and blog entries by our
Washington editor Lynn Sweet have become a must-stop for millions of
Americans in this election year. After a recent blog entry I wrote
about the Beijing Olympics, I woke up at 5 a.m. one morning, when
North America was asleep, and found that 40 percent of my 100 most
recent visitors had been from China. I don't have any complaints
about our web site. So far this month my web page has been visited
from virtually every country on earth, including one visit from the
Vatican City. The Pope, no doubt.

You have left us, Jay, at a time when the newspaper is once again in
the hands of people who love newspapers and love producing them. You
managed to stay here through the dark days of the thieves Conrad Black
and David Radler. The paper lost millions. Incredibly, we are still
paying Black's legal fees.

I started here when Marshall Field and Jim Hoge were running the
paper. I stayed through the Rupert Murdoch regime. I was asked, "How
can you work for a Murdoch paper?" My reply was: "It's not his paper.
It's my paper. He only owns it." That's the way I've always felt about
the Sun-Times, and I still do. On your way out, don't let the door
bang you on the ass.

Your former colleague,
Roger Ebert

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