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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Kornheiser Among ‘Wash Post’ Buyout Takers

The Seinfeld Curse continues…

Kornheiser, the Post sports columnist who gained national fame on Monday Night Football and other ESPN network programs, announced on his radio show Wednesday afternoon that he was taking a buyout after 29 years with the newspaper.

“It just feels odd,” Kornheiser said on his radio show, according to a transcript posted on the “D.C. Sports Bog” by Post sportswriter Dan Steinberg. “It feels odd and it feels bad. It doesn’t feel sad, there’s no sadness to it, it just feels wrong.”

Kornheiser said “all I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer.” “In my mind that’s what it says on the headstone, it says ‘newspaper guy,’ “ he added.

Kornheiser hasn’t written a regular column for the paper recently, but provides video for its Web site, with some items excerpted on the second page of the sports section. Kornheiser said on the radio that he might continue to contribute to the Web. He said he signed the buyout papers Tuesday night.

In addition to commenting on Monday Night Football, Kornheiser co-hosts a daily sports talk show “Pardon the Interruption” with fellow Post sportswriter Michael Wilbon.

Thanks to Can’t Stop the Bleeding.

Repoz Posted: May 14, 2008 at 09:48 PM | 26 comment(s)
  Related News: GeneralBusinessMediaObituaries

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   1. Esoteric roots for the two worst teams in baseball Posted: May 14, 2008 at 10:27 PM (#2781491)
The move makes a lot of sense for the Post. Kornheiser's contributions to the paper had significantly decreased in both number and quality over the past few years as he became more and more of an ESPN talking head. I won't be sorry to see him go. He was a jack of all trades and a master of none.
   2. JRVJ (formerly Delta Socrates) Posted: May 14, 2008 at 11:00 PM (#2781527)
Perhaps totally unrelated, but I read recently that David Broder was also bought out by the Wash Post.

Perhaps this is the policy of the Post right now (buy out older columnists...).
   3. Rich Posted: May 14, 2008 at 11:03 PM (#2781530)
Charles Krauthammer should have been the first to go.
   4. JRVJ (formerly Delta Socrates) Posted: May 14, 2008 at 11:08 PM (#2781536)
Actually, I don't mind insane dingbat token columnists, because at least with those you know where you stand.

I dislike concensus-n-middle-ground spewing, closet fifth columnists much worse....
   5. Sean McNally Posted: May 14, 2008 at 11:09 PM (#2781538)
TV guy Tom Shales apparently went too. Newspapers are not a happy place to be lately.
   6. Esoteric roots for the two worst teams in baseball Posted: May 14, 2008 at 11:27 PM (#2781547)
Looks like they're cleaning out the crap.
   7. kevin Posted: May 14, 2008 at 11:28 PM (#2781548)
No wonder Buzz Bissinger is so fit to be tied. He just bought a house and now it looks like he'll be cold-calling widows to sell them mortgage insurance.
   8. Andy Posted: May 15, 2008 at 12:33 AM (#2781561)
Looks like they're cleaning out the crap.

Given the names that have been mentioned so far, it sure looks like it. Every one of these guys is as predictable as a stopped clock. He's fine on PTI but Wilbon both thinks and writes rings around him.
   9. Rich Posted: May 15, 2008 at 12:34 AM (#2781563)
I dislike concensus-n-middle-ground spewing, closet fifth columnists much worse....

I view the "fifth columnists" as those who uncritically regurgitated the Bush Administration's lies that got in us into the Iraq war, while failing to mention that the chief beneficiary of the war would be Iran, our biggest enemy.
   10. eric Posted: May 15, 2008 at 12:38 AM (#2781565)
He's fine on PTI but Wilbon both thinks and writes rings around him.

Completely agree. I grew up reading the post. I'd read Kornheiser for the occasional good joke he'd get off (one out of ten ain't that bad a percentage), but Wilbon for anything remotely original or insightful. The times a story was big enough that they'd each have a column dealing with it--basically any redskins game--were particularly unflattering for Tony.
   11. Gonfalon Bubble Posted: May 15, 2008 at 04:33 AM (#2781591)
Tom Shales is the opposite of crap. Now, David Broder... he will not be missed. Literally, unfortunately. Broder'll continue stenographing for the Post, only as a contractor instead of as an employee. Shales is staying on, too. In many cases, the buyouts will only affect the Post's internal accounting sheets and not their printed pages.
   12. ECBucs Posted: May 15, 2008 at 08:10 AM (#2781618)
Broder is 77 so he a buy out probably makes a lot of sense for him. I've wondered about Kornhiser, he never really writes for the paper so I thought the Post was paying him for his free advertising from his radio and tv spots than for his writing.

I've always liked Kornhiser better on radio than in paper. I found his columns too cynical and usually not that funny (I don't think Gene Weingarten is very funny either - any word on buyout for him?)

Shales and Robin Givhan are ones I don't really care to read very often. I think Shales is at his best when writing about older classic tv shows, but I get the impression that he wouldn't have liked them if he would have been a critic when they were running.

The Post's reports on politics and security are great IMO (Dana Priest, Thomas Ricks, etc).
   13. OsunaSakata Posted: May 15, 2008 at 08:42 AM (#2781628)
Weingarten does a great weekly chat. I don't think he's that great a writer, but he did win a Pulitzer Prize this year.
   14. depletion Posted: May 15, 2008 at 08:50 AM (#2781636)
re 13: Gene Weingarten is an imbecile. Walter Duranty won a Pulitzer for helping murder 20 million people. The committee still hasn't taken it back.

What does an article about Tony Kornheiser have to do with baseball? He's a pretty amusing commentator, but I can't even remember any great contibutions on baseball.
   15. Sometimes it Rains (sj) Posted: May 15, 2008 at 09:10 AM (#2781650)
Charles Krauthammer should have been the first to go.

He is freelance, isn't he? I am pretty sure he is.

Tom Shales is the opposite of crap.

Shales took a buyout some time back, he is printed is paid on a per column basis now.
   16. Chris Needham Posted: May 15, 2008 at 09:17 AM (#2781658)
Now this'd be something if they'd buy out Boswell.
   17. Alex Gordon's #1 Fan Posted: May 15, 2008 at 09:26 AM (#2781663)
Is this a trend in the newspaper biz or is the Post on shakier ground than other papers?
   18. Declino DeShields Posted: May 15, 2008 at 09:53 AM (#2781685)
The Post's reports on politics and security are great IMO (Dana Priest, Thomas Ricks, etc).


In his Post chat this week, Ricks confirmed that he'd been bought out too (though he indicated he'd still do stuff for the Post on a more limited basis).
   19. Austin Kearns: The Spy Who Shagged Flies Posted: May 15, 2008 at 09:58 AM (#2781692)
Tom Shales is the opposite of crap.

I remember seeing Tom Shales on Siskel & Ebert a few years back. It was right after Siskel died, and Ebert was auditioning for new partners. Shales was pretty terrible, without any charisma, and he didn't express his opinions well at all. Needless to say, he didn't get the gig.

So I kind of see him as a frustrated TV reviewer who wants to break into movie reviews but can't. Kind of a critic version of David Caruso.
   20. gef the talking mongoose Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:11 AM (#2781706)
I view the "fifth columnists" as those who uncritically regurgitated the Bush Administration's lies that got in us into the Iraq war, while failing to mention that the chief beneficiary of the war would be Iran, our biggest enemy.


That's pretty much the entirety of the mainstream media, no (including the fake liberals at the Post & the NYTimes, all of whom pretty much constituted a harem for Donald Rumsfeld, if memory serves)?
   21. Declino DeShields Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:21 AM (#2781715)
I don't know what's the worst image in the past two posts: an episode of Siskel & Ebert after Siskel died, David Caruso, or a harem for Donald Rumsfeld.
   22. Andy Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:24 AM (#2781719)
Is this a trend in the newspaper biz or is the Post on shakier ground than other papers?

They cry the blues all the time, but they're still among the most profitable newspapers in the country. And since they're family owned, they don't have to pay ridiculous amounts of attention to the bean counters who would otherwise want to take the Post down the road of USA Today.

The Post's reports on politics and security are great IMO (Dana Priest, Thomas Ricks, etc).

In his Post chat this week, Ricks confirmed that he'd been bought out too (though he indicated he'd still do stuff for the Post on a more limited basis).


That is terrible news, since not only is the Post's front section the only thing that separates it from rags like the Boston Globe and the LA Times, Ricks may be the best Pentagon reporter in the last 40 years. He completely indentifies with the troops (he wrote an entire book on the Parris Island boot camp), and he has the utmost respect for the military, but at the same time he has the greatest bullshlt detector on Earth when it comes to the Pentagon spin machine. The last thing that the Post needs is to lose reporters like him.
   23. Alex Gordon's #1 Fan Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:39 AM (#2781733)
I remember seeing Tom Shales on Siskel & Ebert a few years back. It was right after Siskel died, and Ebert was auditioning for new partners. Shales was pretty terrible, without any charisma, and he didn't express his opinions well at all. Needless to say, he didn't get the gig.

Yea, I saw him on a roundtable with TV critics on Charlie Rose a few months ago and Shales seemed to be the one that wasn't keeping up with the new shows. "I haven't seen this, but..."
   24. Aspiring One-Armed Economist (6 - 4 - 3) Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:45 AM (#2781743)
Is this a trend in the newspaper biz

Yes. Pretty much all columnists will be freelance/syndicated within another decade or two.
   25. Answer Guy Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:46 AM (#2781744)
I'm not sure Tom Shales has ever liked a single program of any kind ever shown on television. Of course there is a lot of garbage polluting the airwaves, but he seems to take his disdain to an extreme. His scathing reviews are sometimes funny, but it's not like reading Ebert really lay a bad film low because it clearly comes from someone who dislikes the whole medium.
   26. Rich Posted: May 15, 2008 at 10:47 AM (#2781745)
That's pretty much the entirety of the mainstream media, no (including the fake liberals at the Post & the NYTimes, all of whom pretty much constituted a harem for Donald Rumsfeld, if memory serves)?


Sadly, that's true. Bush used 9/11 as a sword, and most of the MSM swallowed it all too willingly.
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