Sports: The Orange County Register’s Mark Whicker: I’m a freaking idiot
- It was not my intention to do so. But it’s obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity, had on those who read, buy and advertise in our newspaper.
- Mark Whicker • On his column last Tuesday, which may go down in history as the most misguided sports column ever. In it, Whicker used Jaycee Dugard’s kidnapping and captivity as a hook to look back at the last 18 years of sports. The copy-editing staff understood why this might be a bad idea, giving the column this boring-as-nails headline: “Many odd things have happened in sports the past 18 years.” The next day, readers gave him a lashing for his idiocy. He then apologized. The editors also apologized, but it was still beyond boneheaded. It was downright sick. • source