Journalistic lack of Integrity

H

HardScrabble

Guest
A nobody writer for a virtually unknown news rag (Hannibal Courier Times) decides to write a derogatory editorial on a subject about which he knows nothing, understands less, and despises before he even begins. Sad.

Sadder is that the article might just arouse enough fans to get the culprit substantial notice by his editor, which is probably the only reason the mutt wrote it anyway.

NASCAR season off to bad start
By JEFF ARENZ
Of the Courier-Post

WARNING: Anyone who likes NASCAR, DO NOT read this column.

I will admit, I was never much of a racing fan. In fact, I'll go as far to say that watching automobiles traveling at high speeds around an oval track over and over bores the living hell out of me.

In my view, it doesn't take much talent to be a race car driver. A common person like myself can drive a car. You can drive a car too, if you're over 16 years of age. Virtually, anyone meeting the proper requirements can operate a motor vehicle.

There aren't many people that I know who can make the less than split-second decision to swing a baseball bat and have the hand-eye coordination to hit it 400-to-500 feet.

Why is there a need to drive in excess of 80 miles-per-hour (for those of us who may have a lead foot on interstate highways), let alone make the dashboard needle reach the 180-mark? Why would anyone pay good money only to sit there and have their hearing ruined?

A race car driver doesn't have to be in shape. He or she doesn't need the offseason workout program of true athletes, like U.S. Olympic gold-medalist Marion Jones or world-famous cyclist and multi-time Tour de France victor Lance Armstrong (a man who beat cancer).

At any rate, Michael Waltrip was crowned the winner of the Daytona 500 on Sunday after a heavy downpour forced the race to be stopped at the midway point.

What occured in the Daytona 500 boggles my mind. I understand "The Great American Race" to be the Super Bowl of NASCAR, just like the Indianapolis 500 is the most prestigious race for Formula One cars.

I realize that a racing event can't be contested when there is pouring rain. The crashes, which unfortnatety seem to be the only entertaining aspect of racing, would be endless.

However, do you honestly think Game 7 of the World Series would be stopped after six innings because of rain or that the Super Bowl would end because the field had too much mud? Those events would be played out to their entirety no matter how long it takes.

If NASCAR wanted to do the right thing, it should have suspended the race until Monday, which happened to be President's Day. Since many people ­ government employees and school children ­ across the country had the day off. With a snow storm keeping many others on the East coast at home, think of the great television exposure and ratings NASCAR could have gotten.

Another thing I've never understood is the fact of when NASCAR's most important event is held. Every other true sport ­ baseball, football, basketball and hockey ­ determines its champion at season's end.

Why would anyone want to start a year with a Super Bowl-like event? It sounds like NASCAR is doing it all backwards. If NASCAR wants to have a true champion, why not save "The Great American Race" until the last week of the season, when it could determine the curcuit's points winner. That would nearly guarantee an exciting finish every time.

NASCAR would rather take out all of its passion on the first week on the season.

It's such an important event, that Dale Earnhardt (a man that I respect very little because of his brash personality) died trying to capture the checkered flag at Daytona in 2001. I am passionate about many things, but taking that passion to a dying level seems to be too extreme for me.

I'm sure some NASCAR fans will point to Major League Baseball's All-Star Game of last season ­ the game that MLB commission Bud Selig called a tie after 10 innings. The difference is that the All-Star Game is played for exhibitional purposes and racing is supposed to be hotly-contested event.

If NASCAR ever wants to be considered a serious sport, instead of being one step above pro wrestling, it should determine a true champion by finishing what it starts.

Now, chew on that Billy Ray and Bobby Sue.
 
Originally posted by HardScrabble@Feb 20 2003, 12:07 PM
...just like the Indianapolis 500 is the most prestigious race for Formula One cars.
WHAT??

I could care less that he doesn't like racing, but he doesn't even know what the hell he's talking about!
 
The lengths some go to just to fill their word count. Billy Ray and Bobby Sue indeed. What do you expect though? Arenz ain't exactly one of the grand old Southern names to begin with. Must be an import.

Let him cover Tad and Tinkerbell on the figure skating "curcuit" (sic) instead. Nobody cares about that crap anyway, so he can be as critical as he likes. I'm with Paul, the fact that he does not care for racing is OK by me. I can say that I've never submitted an article on something I didn't care about though.

Oh well, to each his own and a little more.
 
Originally posted by paul+Feb 20 2003, 11:20 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (paul @ Feb 20 2003, 11:20 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--HardScrabble@Feb 20 2003, 12:07 PM
...just like the Indianapolis 500 is the most prestigious race for Formula One cars.
WHAT??

I could care less that he doesn't like racing, but he doesn't even know what the hell he's talking about! [/b][/quote]
Ain't that the truth! This guy is a joke! And to think that he will get "exposure" writing this TRASH! :angry:

I do hope he understands "duck and cover"! :D
 
Since when has the Indy 500 been a F1 race??

What a joke that guy is. I think someone should invite that guy to a race at Bristol and put him in a Richard Petty Driving car around Lowes. Then lets hear him talk trash about NASCAR!
 
"If NASCAR ever wants to be considered a serious sport, instead of being one step above pro wrestling, it should determine a true champion by finishing what it starts. "


This moron must be living in a cave!

NASCAR already IS a serious sport.

It's the NBA with its thugs in trouble with the law and MLB with its constant threat of strikes that are losing credability.

This was just a column that was written to generate attention to the newspaper, and it is working! Hard to believe that anyone could be this obtuse.


Guido
 
Ya know, I used to feel the same way this idiot does about racing......... until I finally sat my butt down on the couch and actually watched a race. He needs to learn about the sport before he can run his mouth off like that.

He said he doesn't like Earnhardt because of his brash personality, and then pops off with that Billy Ray and Bobby Sue comment. Very poor taste.
 
This guy is so ignorant about the sport, it is not even funny. Just goes to show you that anybody that can push a pen can write for the Hannibal Courier Times.
 
A true DH in the bad sense of the term.....that dude needs to get a clue about auto racing in general and get his head out of his ---!!!! :angry:
 
Originally posted by racerx11@Feb 20 2003, 01:43 PM
This guy is so ignorant about the sport, it is not even funny. Just goes to show you that anybody that can push a pen can write for the Hannibal Courier Times.
Where is that? The only Hannibal I am familiar with is in Missouri.
 
His paper looks very similar too thatsracin .com? Or am i the only one to see this?
 
Every one of these idiotic collums begins "I was never a race fan, but..." thats right, never a race fan but has so much ego he can write an article to edjumacate all us hick race fans. maybe we'll met this cat someday, hmmmm, things that make you go hmmmm.
 
"just like the Indianapolis 500 is the most prestigious race for Formula One cars."

That's where I stopped reading...
 
He better be careful these days at the races. Billy Ray maybe a bank president and Bobbie Sue may be a lawyer and they both drive motorhomes that cost more than his house and pull cars behind them that cost more than his salary for a year. :dual9mm: :bslfag: :bleh:

what a piece of crap!!!!!
 
Does this guy also write for thatsracin? ......See kids, this is what happens when you do drugs and alcohol.......Unfortunately, stupidity is just annoying, not illegal. :dual9mm: :dual9mm:
 
I gave him a "nice" email saying what a complete waste of space he really is.

I hope he responds. :lol:
 
You know what is funny!! My brother is a pro wrestler and his tag team aprtner is Billy Ray.. Thats just too funny, thta he used that name then compared racing to wrestling. thats just too funny!!
 
I just sent that guy a message my self. Ok it was more than a message!! I did not bash they guy just pointed out all the areas that he was wrong. TOOK ME FOREVER!!!!
 
Just pure provocation,plain and simple.A 'shock-jock' in print.Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,Oz travelers!

Nobody is this stupid.A publicity stunt to be ignored. -_-
 
thanks, 5car! That was a very tactful rebuttal. Much better than I could have done. ;)
 
Some better, but am I the only one who noticed the repeated PBR slams? That's just as bad as Arenz using Billy Ray and Bobby Sue.

To clarify: Not all Southerners or all race fans for that matter are the stereotypical dumb inebriated PBR drinking trailer trash denizen illiterate inbred belt buckle wearing tobacco chewing cousin dating knuckle dragging monster truck driving poster children for dental hygeine hillbillies they are made out to be. Just the lucky few of us fall into that catagory. :lol: Actually, I don't date my cousin and I live in a house, but otherwise...
 
LOL! I'm not sure what Mark Twain had to do with it, but maybe that's my fault. Personally, I think Mark Twain was a great writer.
 
Originally posted by The_Mad_Hatter@Feb 21 2003, 12:31 PM
LOL! I'm not sure what Mark Twain had to do with it, but maybe that's my fault. Personally, I think Mark Twain was a great writer.
That's Twain's home town.

Mark. Not Shania. :knowitall:
 
Where is Twain's hometown? The place where the paper is located?

I like Shania too. She says she feels like a woman, man oh man I bet she does! I'll just stop there.
 
"Staged diatribe"....very likely.


And didnt the attractive but no genitec engineer Shania Twain once claim she was a direct descendent of Mr.'Twain'??On the side of her family that isnt kin to Sitting Bull,I mean? :D
 
Originally posted by TN-Ward-Fan@Feb 21 2003, 10:56 AM
Some better, but am I the only one who noticed the repeated PBR slams? That's just as bad as Arenz using Billy Ray and Bobby Sue.

To clarify: Not all Southerners or all race fans for that matter are the stereotypical dumb inebriated PBR drinking trailer trash denizen illiterate inbred belt buckle wearing tobacco chewing cousin dating knuckle dragging monster truck driving poster children for dental hygeine hillbillies they are made out to be. Just the lucky few of us fall into that catagory. :lol: Actually, I don't date my cousin and I live in a house, but otherwise...
TNWF, anybodyacuesesyouofbeinanyofthosetingsandwegonnapayemavisit. (chicago accent)

if you need a translation let me know. B)
 
can someone post the rebuttle? I can't seem to ge the page up???
 
here it is, pettybenson.

RACING PERSPECTIVES
A Response to Jeff Arenz
Someone Who Has No Clue About NASCAR
by Jeff Alan - Staff Writer
02/21/2002

Every once in awhile, the NASCAR pot is stirred up by a --- dare I say --- journalist who seems hell-bent on getting a e-mailbox full of threatening and vile letters from those whom he might push to the limit of patience and decorum.

A few years ago, it was Gerry Callahan, who read the Petty family, and the entire racing community, the riot act, in a column that even Saddam Hussein would consider in bad taste.

And now, from the land of Mark Twain, another blithering boob has surfaced with a scathing dissertation of NASCAR racing ----- directed at both drivers and the fans. And the more I think of it, perhaps this whole thing is a staged diatribe by the editors of the Hannibal Courier-Post to boost newsstand sales or website hits. If it is, it will work.

But it will come with a price.

To be fair to Mr. Arenz, I will post his exact quotes here, lest I take something out of context. What will follow is my response. And I sure hope you guys agree.

(Arenz) “In my view, it doesn't take much talent to be a race car driver.”

I can understand your view, Jeff. Most narrow-minded, stick-and-ball writers stuck in a small, hometown newspaper would probably consider driving home after drinking 20 drafts at the local sport pub, and do so without killing someone, a badge of honor. So, why would I expect anything else from you? Your statement is so absurd …. so shallow … so far removed from the opinions of noted sports psychologists … and so inaccurate, that it isn’t worth even debating.

(Arenz) “There aren't many people that I know who can make the less than split-second decision to swing a baseball bat and have the hand-eye coordination to hit it 400-to-500 feet.”

You don’t know many people then, Jeff. But then, I don’t know many people who can hit a baseball 400 feet, either. But I know OF at least 250 guys who do it all summer. So, does that make baseball players unique? I think not.

Put down that swimsuit issue and wake up, Jeff. Dr. Fran Pirozzolo, the world’s most renown sports psychologist (He is also the staff psychologist for the New York Yankees) makes no bones about the fact that competitive driving challenges as many finely-developed physical and mental attributes as any other athlete. And, in some cases, more. But if you knew that, Jeff, you wouldn’t have made such an asinine remark.

(Arenz) “Why is there a need to drive in excess of 80 miles-per-hour (for those of us who may have a lead foot on interstate highways), let alone make the dashboard needle reach the 180-mark? Why would anyone pay good money only to sit there and have their hearing ruined?”

First of all, Jeff, race cars don’t have speedometers ---- another direct indication of your lack of knowledge and imbecile attitude. NASCAR racing is the most popular spectator sport in America. This means there are plenty of people who don’t share your view about the noise, or anything else your anus has spouted via your PBR-stained fingertips.

While I am at it, Jeff. why would people pay good money to see a bunch of over-fed, under-paid, out-of-shape, whining, ready-to-strike-at-the-drop-of-a-hat baseball players, just to have an excuse to drink some beer in the sun?

(Arenz) “A race car driver doesn't have to be in shape. He or she doesn't need the offseason workout program of true athletes”

Jeff, your stupidity is exceeded only by your stupidity. Guess you never took a few minutes to do some research before you lambasted this sport. You would have learned that conditioning and physical training is pretty much standard for drivers and crew today. Yes, it does make a difference because the physical condition of those who tend to the cars in the pits have slashed four-tire pit-stop times by almost 8-seconds in the past 10-years.

Let me tell you something, Jeff; It takes more stamina and physical endurance for a driver to run a 500-mile race, than it is for one of your beloved baseball players to sit on the bench, chewing tobacco, and scratching their genitals for nine innings, then trotting to their positions on the field in a vapor trail of methane. Go ahead and try to convince me otherwise. Go ahead. Try it. I dare to say that if you climbed into a race car, you go about two laps before you came in to grab a PBR, or crap in your pants. Or both.

(Arenz) “I realize that a racing event can't be contested when there is pouring rain. The crashes, which unfortnatety (I left the typo from the story intact. My guess is that the newspaper can’t afford a spell-checker) seem to be the only entertaining aspect of racing, would be endless…”

At least you realize something, Jeff. There may be hope for you. Unfortunately, you don’t realize that fans also find entertainment in the competition and rivalries. But why would you know that, Jeff? You are a lover of ‘stick and ball’ sports, and you have the sports bar mentality to go with it.

(Arenz) “Why would anyone want to start a year with a Super Bowl-like event?”

It is called ‘marketing,’ Jeff. There has been a long, cold, off-season. Everyone is ready for racing. Daytona is, typically, temperate in February, and folks can plan their vacations around the race, instead of shoveling a foot of snow. A big race in February – the beginning of the season --- generates worldwide excitement for the upcoming year.

But I don’t expect you to know, care, or understand that, Jeff. I really don’t.

(Arenz) “It's such an important event, that Dale Earnhardt (a man that I respect very little because of his brash personality) died trying to capture the checkered flag at Daytona in 2001. I am passionate about many things, but taking that passion to a dying level seems to be too extreme for me.”

Well, Jeff, I am sure you must be passionate about getting hate mail, because that comment right there will light the fuse to the biggest stick of dynamite you have ever seen. I sure hope your pitiful, second-rate newspaper has something other than a used Packard-Bell 386 for a Pop-3 Server, because about 500, 000 fans are about to attack it with vitriol … the likes you have never seen.

And by the way, Jeff, a baseball player (You know, Jeff, those super-human athletes that you adore?) just died because he was using a drug that caused his bodily organs to stop working --- all in the name of making the roster of a baseball club. Are you going to insult that dead man, and his family, by criticizing his passion, which was so great that he risked his life to achieve his goals?

I can think of a dozen or more athletes who have risked --- and lost --- their lives in the pursuit of their passion. But I’m not going to pass them along here for you. You don’t care. The words of your article bespeaks of lurid deductions and antiquated views.

(Arenz) “If NASCAR ever wants to be considered a serious sport, instead of being one step above pro wrestling, it should determine a true champion by finishing what it starts.”

Jeff, there you go again. You know what? I haven’t seen a imbecile like you since Gerry Callahan. Are you two related? You actually believe NASCAR isn’t a serious sport? Granted, the pre-race shows and the victory lane celebrations, complete with confetti and fireworks, may look like a professional wrestling event, but I assure you those drivers aren’t following a script. Ask Ryan Newman if this isn’t a serious sport. Ask guys like Troy Aikman or Terry Bradshaw if this isn’t a serious sport.

Ask your mother. Hell, she might even know.

Jeff, climb out from under that old steamboat on the Mississippi. NASCAR garners the second-highest annual TV ratings than your beloved baseball, hockey, and basketball…. COMBINED! Only the NFL can claim hold of the top of the heap. And that’s not bad for a sport that wasn’t even in the mainstream until just 15 years ago. But, Jeff, I don’t expect you to know that, or care, either. You’ve been sitting in front of too many big screens, in too many sports bars, sucking down nickel drafts to really care and research what you write.

(Arenz) “Now, chew on that Billy Ray and Bobby Sue.”

Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Arenz. We will. And wait till’ you see what is spit back out.

Have a nice day, Mr. Arenz.

Peace to you.

You can reach Jeff Alan at: [email protected]

Jeff Arenz can be reached by calling (573) 221-2800 or by e-mail at [email protected]
 
How did you do that? BTW- 123 days!! :cheers: good for you, keep it up!
 
Thanks!!!
That guy basicly did the same thing that i did in my e-mail to him! This guys was much better than mine, but it was the same kind of thing. Pointing out all the mistakes in the way he did.
 
Originally posted by PettyBenson4510@Feb 21 2003, 09:01 PM
Thanks!!!
That guy basicly did the same thing that i did in my e-mail to him! This guys was much better than mine, but it was the same kind of thing. Pointing out all the mistakes in the way he did.
See now, I just straight out told him he was a mistake.
 
Back
Top Bottom