By Steve Rhodes
Hey, Jim Kirk, here’s your first crisis: What do you do with a sportswriter who wonders if he should be worried because the plane he’s on his piloted by a woman and who advises one of his female Twitter followers to “hottie up” her pic?
Apparently you delete his Twitter account but you keep him on the job. Backwards!
Instead, you should fire Cowley and hire this guy to replace him. He deserves it.
Disclosure: Ricky O’Donnell is a former Beachwood Reporter contributor. And you know what? He’s a fantastic talent.
He’s also now the editor of SB Nation Chicago, so he may not be available. Your loss.
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There are many reasons to fire Joe Cowley. The Ricky O’Donnell firing is one – and send Chris DeLuca packing with him. Here are some more.
1. Clearly Cowley thinks he’s some kind of character. Clearly he’s not.
“He once called Canada a third world country, and refused to stand for the Canadian National Anthem at a Blue Jays game in Toronto,” Deadspin noted in 2010. “He’s also been suspended from the BBWAA for his ’embarrassing’ MVP votes on multiple occasions.”
Clearly Cowley thinks he’s funny. He’s not.
“Sun-Times reporter Joe Cowley is a homer in a city of media homers,” Deadspin wrote in that same post. “But his Twitterrhea explosion last night against the Twins and their fans was something else. Stereotypes about being ugly? Calling players jag-offs? Mocking the dead? Check, check and double-check.”
2. Chicago Sun-Times Rides A Plane, Degrades Women Everywhere.
3. Joe Cowley: Best Sexist Around, Nothing’s Gonna Ever Keep Him Down.
4. Did we mention this?
5. His utter failure to understand satire (while accusing others of just that) and imagining that a villain isn’t really channeling his real thoughts. See, it’s us taking Twitter too seriously; he thought we’d all figured out what his account was about by now.
6. His bromance with Ozzie Guillen. How this was allowed to go on is beyond me. White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper and general manager Kenny Williams out-and-out called Cowley a liar. If you edit the Sun-Times, you make them prove it or fight back. The paper, as far as I can tell, did neither. You can’t leave fans wondering – and the benefit of the doubt isn’t with your guy.
Time to act, Sun-Times. You aren’t Randy Michaels’ Tribune. (Hey Joe: Landing place!) Are you going to tolerate this?
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Comments welcome.
Posted on May 1, 2012