Today, we’re going to go a little bit off the beaten path of awesome positive geek topics – but don’t worry – I’ll try to bring it all back in, in the end. I promise.
Chicago professional media – you know, the folks who actually do this writing thing for a living (can you imagine me writing all this sunshine for money? Now that would be interesting) lost someone from the newspaper ranks this week, sports columnist Jay Mariotti. Now, if this site is all about flowers and unicorns and sunshine for us cynical geek folk, because I’m just a bundle of joy all day long, then Mariotti’s style would be quite the opposite. A constant stream of negativity (even in praise) came from the back page of the Sun-Times during Mariotti’s tenure, whether it was about the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bears, Bulls, their broadcasters, their GM’s, their assistants, their assistants’ assistants, and their little dogs, too. Just a couple days ago, Mariotti resigned, citing that the coverage during the Olympics showed him that “sports journalism is entirely a Web site business”, that his future “wasn’t in newspapers”, and, of course, taking a dig at the Sun-Times website in the process.
Mariotti’s style of writing, which oozed with sensationalist controversy and the best of what we geeks would call a “flame” (you think we were the first to flame people? I think not, newspapers were slinging mud long before we were born), seemed to bleed over into his professional relationship with his peers as well. I’d have to say – given the reaction from his peers, which range from lukewarm and cordial to what I would have probably found on an Internet forum when a troll gets flamed (even Roger Ebert is capable of it), I have a feeling if they would have allowed it, Mariotti’s former co-workers would have burned an effigy of him in front of their offices near the Chicago River. I’m sure they wanted to avoid the traffic jam it would have caused. Thanks guys – my commute didn’t suffer.
See, now I’d love to just write here about the bright side of Jay Mariotti leaving, but gee, the petals on that rose have already been plucked, apparently, since a lot of folks appear to be real happy about it. Instead, I’m going to just tell you guys the good part of people like Mariotti being around.
It boils down to the fact that we need villains to have heroes.
Mariotti is a classic villain, you see. He’s hated. He’s egotistical. He’s doesn’t “play well with others”. He’s missing the desire to take over the world, but I suppose when you make the “world” equate journalism, it takes. Apparently he’s got the stock villain cowardice too, because he supposedly has never set foot in a clubhouse or directly been in contact with many of the targets of his criticism. If you put a twirly handlebar mustache on Mariotti, hunched him over a few inches, and gave him some rope, he’d probably be tying people to the train tracks (or getting his underlings to do it for him since he’d fear for his personal safety) while laughing manically.
People need to have a Mariotti to kick around. I mean, where else are you going to put the measuring stick for megalomaniac or arrogance? Where else are you going to get the picture for the entry for the dictionary next to words like “nefarious”, “sneaky”, and “weasel”? One of the “good” people? No, you need an asshole to define an asshole, which is why that Denis Leary song is so well-loved. Someone has to fill the role, you know, give the heroes a little bit of a challenge, lest they become complacent in their peacefulness and proceed to eat each other alive out of sheer boredom.
While I will happily show trolls and flamers the door on the forums I moderate with a wonderfully pleasant note about how they might better spend their internet posting (i.e. not from their parents’ basement after a McDonald’s job shift), I will say that if I had no standard by which to judge them I’d be banning the wrong people. Why I’d be wondering what to do with myself if I didn’t have five or six hundred good, hard flames a day to put out. I’d almost make my own just to add a little spice. The world would turn upside down. So I’m glad to have a few people who write like Mariotti to keep me mentally stable, and I’m sure my regulars are thankful for it.
Besides – trolls, flamers, Mariotti, villains, and other supposed malcontents – they’re like cockroaches – they stand out and demand attention, they might or might not have a couple of features that disgust you, and most of all, they aren’t going away any time soon, even if nuclear bombs were dropped on them.
And frankly, considering the reaction to Mariotti leaving, I can’t help but think people can’t ever get enough of smashing little beady-eyed insects, right?
For the uninitiated, here’s some recent Mariotti material: