BREAKING: MICHAEL VICK TO WRITE PETS COLUMN FOR INQUIRER
UPDATED BELOW
‘Dog-fighting’ football player’s columnist gig draws fire
The Disassociated Press
PHILADELPHIA – The publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer is defending his decision to make former football player Michael Vick a regular columnist who will write about breeding and raising dogs.
Vick was the “the key figure” of an extensive unlawful interstate dogfighting ring operating over a period of five years that critics call cruelty to animals. One critic of the Inquirer’s Vick columns says it’s like having O.J. Simpson write about the criminal justice system.
Inquirer Publisher Brian Tierney says that’s a silly comparison. He says Simpson has been found liable for wrongful death of a human being and Vick had been through no such legal process.
As Tierney put it: “Speech that is most important to defend is the speech that you hate; it’s easy to defend the speech that you like.”
UPDATE:
Editorial page editor Harold jackson was quick to respond in a column:
Paris. Yes, the one in France.
That’s the farthest point from which The Inquirer received e-mails protesting our contract with Michael Vick to write a monthly column, which mostly centers on topics related to the care and raising of dogs, especially pit bulls.
The hundreds of e-mails received are a testament to the power of the blogosphere, and of its superiority to newspapers in getting the word out about, well, about anything.
But I’ll save my whining about the murky future of my preferred vehicle of employment for a later date.
Obviously, people would prefer that I talk about Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterbacklwho “the key figure” of an extensive unlawful interstate dogfighting ring operating over a period of five years .
Unfortunately, most of the critics of our contract with Vick have their facts wrong.
But that happens when your information comes from those bloggers who never let the facts get in the way when they’re trying to whip people into a frenzy to boost Web site hits.
It’s a shame that one blogger who disseminated poor information is actually a full-time journalist for a sister publication in The Inquirer building.
To set the record straight, no one tried to hide vick’s becoming a regular columnist. He had appeared in The Inquirer occasionally since 2005, and his commentaries became a monthly feature about eight months ago.
At that time, his columns began appearing with his photograph and a title, “Game.” Vick’s first monthly column also announced that he would appear regularly.
The decision to publish Vick’s monthly came at the suggestion of The Inquirer’s publisher, Brian Tierney, who cited Vick’s intensive experience working with dogs as well as his deep knowledge of the criminal justice system. He’s an inmate at Leavenworth.
I had misgivings, but believed our readers would place the move in context with the paper’s clearly expressed criticism in numerous articles about dofghting.
I was wrong. From the beginning, we received letters and e-mails criticizing the hiring of Vick. The criticism increased after details involving abuse, torture and execution of under-performing dogs became public.
At our urging, Vick wrote a column explaining his reasoning in abusing, fighting, and executing his pit bulls through his interstate gambling and illegal dogfighting ring. That piece allowed our readers to hear him out, and respond with their own thoughts about cruelty to animals. It was exactly what you want to see newspaper opinion pages do – provide the catalyst for intelligent discourse.
Allowing Vick to have his say has not changed our Editorial Board’s opinion that animal abuse can never be justified. In each editorial that mentions the illegal dogfighting, gambling, and animal abuse, we note that Vick killed some of them, and that he writes for The Inquirer.
Vick has written on other subjects in which he and The Inquirer are in disagreement, including his suspension from the NFL (he’s opposed to it in most cases) and what qualities the next Eagles draft picks should possess.
In the last two years, The Inquirer has consciously added other animal abuse advocates to our daily op-ed page and Sunday opinion section to counter criticism that our editorials and columns always lean toward responsible pet ownership.
Adding more pro-animal abuse commentaries to our mix doesn’t mean we have become pro-animal abuse in our editorial positions.
It means we aren’t afraid to let people hear what the other side has to say. We think most of our readers aren’t afraid, either.
Our Editorial Board strives to take distinct positions on every topic that we write about. But we also want to make sure our pages present alternative points of view.
That’s the reason we run Vick, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, who also generates quite a bit of critical e-mail when he writes. But despite the suggestion of bloggers, there’s nothing more nefarious at play.
There have been calls for Vick’s continued suspension from the NFL, or worse, for his work for abusing, fighting, and executing pit bulls. Many of the e-mails that we have received are already calling him an “animal abuser”.
Whatever happens to Vick, I hope to have his reaction in a column written exclusively for The Inquirer. Then, our readers will get their turn to respond to what he has to say.
That’s what newspaper opinion pages do well.
When newspapers stop being a vehicle for thoughtful conversation, and instead provide an arena for one crowd to pummel the other crowd, without listening to what anyone else has to say, then papers might as well be the blogosphere – or talk radio.
I have met Vick, and found him to be very pleasant, even though we disagree on issues other than what constitutes animal abuse.
Of all the criticism our paper has received concerning Vick’s contract, I actually empathize with those who have expressed their displeasure with our paying him. But not for the same reason.
These days, newspapers are always looking for ways to spend less. But not even I am willing to work for free, and I believe Vick should be compensated for his efforts.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
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