Boston Sports Media Watch - I

Well, since the official Boston Sports Media Watch is now dormant, I'll go off the Shank script occasionally, with this being one of those times.

So I went and checked out Kirk Minihane's Twitter feed earlier today, and I saw some angry tweets and re-tweets (nothing new there), but the name Samer stood out to me like a sore thumb. Samer Kalaf is one of the hangers-on at Deadspin and in my opinion is their laziest / least prolific writer on what's left of their staff. It seems that Samer wrote a post 'discussing' the local sports talk radio scene. Well, 'discussing' isn't quite the right word to use - it's pretty much a pile-on in the mold of the traditionally negative Boston sports media. Given the subject matter at hand, it's next to impossible to expect anything positive or even-handed, and Samer delivers. I'd like to say it was a good overall column, but I have a few nitpicks about it - he shortchanges a few people like devoting a single sentence to Marc Bertrand (like Samer couldn't at least mention he was Felger & Mazz's booth guy until a few years ago), and he seems to go out of his way to a) denigrate each person in at least one offhand manner and / or b) make sure you remember their worst moment on the radio, like the time Dennis & Callahan goofed (badly) on inner-city Boston Metco students from fourteen years ago and were suspended for it.

Let's note Samer's professional take on Mr. Minihane:

Kirk is the rat a ratfucker fucks. He is on the lowest rung of the ladder that is Boston sports radio, which is quite an accomplishment. He replaced John Dennis as Gerry Callahan’s partner for Kirk and Callahan on WEEI, which is like replacing the rat a ratfucker fucks with a dead rat.

Far be it for me to criticize others for using profanity in a blog post, but I am sparing in its use. Deadspin writers (aside from Kevin Draper, now at the New York Yimes) seem like they drop F-bombs in every third sentence. If you want to detract from the point your making, I suppose they should have at it.

It looks like Barstool Sports isn't too thrilled with him, either:

OMG look at this! Worst writer on the Internet Samer Kalif jumped in on the Rihanna fat blog controversy today. WHAT A SHOCK. Now before I address what he said let me just say this. Samer Kalif is the worst writer on the internet. He’s clickbait city. He’s a kid who grew up popping his zits at UNH idolizing me and then threw a tantrum when he wasn’t good enough to work here and has had an axe to grind ever since.

Jeez - UNH will admit just about anybody, won't they (like they did with me)?