Scott Pierce Says Chicago's Jay Mariotti 'Is In Part What's Wrong With the Newspaper Business.' Also, He Says Lolo Jones Was Slighted By D.M. Media

Veteran radio play-by-play announcer Scott Pierce of Des Moines takes off on ex-Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti, and has some other thoughts on his mind in this e-mail to me:

Ron:

"Through no fault of his own, Jay Mariotti is in part what's wrong with the newspaper business. Too many reporters worry about being included on CNN's and/or Fox's news panel than just doing their job. In sports, they all want to be on First Take, The Sports Reporters, Around The Horn, etc.

"I'll take someone like Rick Hummel from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch any day over some fraud like Ken Rosenthal. Hummel just reports and writes. He's not worried about making a name for himself.

"On another subject, I'm still waiting for our local media to recognize Lolo Jones as an Olympian. Granted, her performance was disappointing. But it will be a long time before this area produces another Olympic track athlete. Sure, Shawn Johnson represented us very well. But it's easy to be humble with medals around your neck. Lolo's character was tested. She didn't just pass the test---she aced it.

"It is not my intention to stir the race baiters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but I can't think of another reason Lolo was slighted by our local media these past several weeks. For as long as I live, I will remember WHO-TV's pre-Olympics special "Iowa's Golden Girl" being about Shawn Johnson. If they mentioned Lolo (and I have to admit I did not watch it), they certainly didn't mention her in the promos or the opening of the show."

Scott Pierce

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Over the years, I've met countless sportswriters and sportscasters in press boxes, locker rooms and interview rooms, but the Chicago Sun-Times' Mariotti wasn't one of them. Maybe that's because he rarely traveled with the pack. Mariotti's critics say he didn't have the balls to go to the locker room and interview room so those he attacked could confront him. He had as many enemies in his own newsroom than he had among the athletes, managers and coaches at whom he pointed arrows.

Chris DeLuca, a Sun-Times writer/columnist who is writing in a manner that would suggest he wants to be the guy who replaces Mariotti at the paper, addressed the issue today. Writing from Baltimore, where he was traveling with the White Sox, DeLuca said, "Word of Jay Mariotti's split with the Chicago Sun-Times reached the White Sox' clubhouse minutes after their victory Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, and the reaction could be heard outside.

"Once again, Mariotti should've been there to witness it first-hand. Ozzie Guillen -- the top target of the venom-spewing columnist who called for the Sox to fire their manager this season despite the team being in first place -- said his e-mail inbox had a record number of new arrivals by Wednesday afternoon. It was a steady stream of digital high-fives. "'When people wish the worst on people, you have to be careful because the baseball gods are going to get you,' Guillen said. 'He was not asking just for my job, he was asking for thousands and thousands of peoples' jobs over the years. I'm not going to say I will get the last laugh because I will get fired from this job. But the day I get fired is the day I lose interest in this game. Am I enjoying this? Yes, because he tried to make my life miserable. He did everything in his power to make my life go the wrong way, but he didn't make me miserable because I don't believe him. Maybe if somebody else wrote that stuff about me, then I would put attention on it. And that's what he wanted. He wanted attention. He has to thank me because I gave him a lot of [stuff] to work with. I know I helped him the last four years to make his money, and, obviously, he did not help me at all to make my money.'

"Mariotti spent the better part of his first day divorced from the Sun-Times, acting like a scorned lover. He wants you to believe there was a greater principle involved -- one that somehow loomed larger than his ego. He wants you to believe that newspapers -- specifically the two biggest ones in Chicago -- are dying. Once again, Mariotti was playing fast and loose with the facts. 'It's about time,'' said Sox broadcaster Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson, another favorite target of Mariotti's. 'I know one thing, when he got that [contract] extension three or four months ago, he wouldn't have signed that extension if the things he's saying about the Sun-Times now were true. So he's spinning it again. 'We have some great newspapers in Chicago, and the Sun-Times has some great writers. He tried to give readers the perception that he was in the clubhouse getting all the stuff, that he was in the dugout getting all that stuff, when he was never there.' The Sun-Times was a vibrant, relevant newspaper long before Mariotti arrived 17 years ago. It remains one today. The Sun-Times has built its reputation as being a bulldog covering the city and being the No. 1 source for sports and entertainment coverage...'

I'll accept Scott Pierce's claims that Lolo Jones [pictured at the right] didn't get the recognition she deserved from the Des Moines media. However, I'm not a good source. For a major portion of the time the Olympics were being held, I was traveling. I was unable to see any Des Moines TV stations and the Des Moines Registers that were available to me and others had such early edition times and were so far out of date that they weren't worth the 75 cents that one or two people were spending to buy them].