Avs Beat Writer Says ESPN Blows Goats. Goats Not Available For Comment.

(Dater VS ESPN, Round 1)

A couple of weeks ago, when I interviewed him about his book, Adrian Dater seemed like a pretty laid-back, friendly guy. Cool and calm, he responded to each of my silly questions and graciously humored a blogger he probably couldn't care less about.

Today, though, the gloves are off. He's got an axe to grind with a little network called ESPN, and he's not afraid to let it all out:

You can take your ESPN and all the alleged superiority that comes from being on it every day and you can shove it in that little space where there is very little sunlight, ever.

Hmm, a classy way to get the ball rolling. He goes on:

Do you hear me, ESPN producer schmucks? You didn’t break JACK SQUAT. Some real journalist at a newspaper broke that story. You’re nothing more than a bunch of pathetic piggybackers, trying to fool that gullible sports audience out there - of which you have legions of the duped tuning in daily.

This is getting good.

We newspaper people - the real journalists out there still - do not need to feel inferior to a bunch of made-up clowns with microphones in hand. Cash your paychecks and feel superior if you need to. But remember this: you’ll never be half our equals when it comes to being able to write and really report a story. Oh, and good luck making it in your business when the wrinkles start to show a little.

Now that's a blog entry! Raw emotion, sweeping generalizations and the uninhibited throwing of insults and accusations. Man, you can't beat that!

I'm not sure how things work over at the Denver Post, but I have a distinct feeling that this little blog entry of his may not go over too well at the next staff meeting. Then again, that's the same paper that has employed Woody Paige for years, so maybe they won't even notice.

Speaking of Woody Paige, a long-time ESPN talking head, I have a feeling he and Dater won't be playing golf together any time soon.

(Check out Jibblescribbits' take on the rant, while you're at it.)

UPDATE: Dater takes a deep breath, gets a little sleep, and calmly expands upon some of the points he made in his fierce old-school journalist beat-down of the pretty TV people. He's still really mad, though.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Both the original rant and Dater's more reasonable follow-up have been yanked from the Denver Post web site. Because I possess a keen sense of foresight, I made a copy of the original rant just in case something like this were to happen---and it always happens. It's available in handy jpeg format, so anybody can read it! Click here and enjoy.