New at Reason

Tim Cavanaugh | April 13, 2005

What other phantom reporting has Mitch Albom been up to? Jesse Walker finds out in a thorough but life-affirming tax audit.

Comments

|4.13.05 @ 2:53PM|#

Hardy hardy har.

Is it actually unusual for a reporter to write a draft before the event, then fix the details at a later date? I've heard that all the wire services have obits ready to go for major celebrities.

|4.13.05 @ 2:55PM|#

Re: Obits at the ready.
Sure would like to get a peek a Albom's.
What a pantload this guy is.

|4.13.05 @ 3:07PM|#

Never hear of him before this. Is he a well known bete noire to conservatives?

|4.13.05 @ 3:20PM|#

Nah. he's not hated for political reasons. He's just a cheesy sportswriter who writes sentimental books and plays with all of the intelligence and insight into human nature of a cheesy sportswriter. He's got a pedestrian radio show too.

|4.13.05 @ 3:27PM|#

Ah Geez, I can picture him. Kinda like when George Will writes about baseball, except he's KEEPING IT REAL.

Sports "journalists" need to remember that they're one step above the guy who yells "Come on, ref, he's got a chair!" into the mic at a WWE event.

|4.13.05 @ 3:28PM|#

The "Tuesdays with Sorry" blog entry was funny. Now Reason is getting a little bit obsessive. Although I think this article was just an excuse to put Albom's dumb face on the Reason home page.

|4.13.05 @ 3:37PM|#

Way more heavy on the cheese than George Will. Think Oprah's book club, and gag-inducing stories about angels and shit. The sportswriting is often of the everything-is-too-commercialized, college-coaches-are-great-mentors-for-life variety. Dude's got a serious young Billy Joel look going on too.

Jesse Walker|4.13.05 @ 3:53PM|#

If you haven't read his stuff, the article probably won't make much sense -- it's supposed to be a parody of his prose style in general, and of Tuesdays with Morrie in particular.

I find his writing really insufferable, and I have no idea what his political views are.

|4.13.05 @ 4:11PM|#

I don't know anything about him, but he and Tuesdays with Morrie have been getting some slavish devotion from one of the guys over at NPR. I don't remember which one because I found I tune it out that sort of thing. Kind of a bull session inflated into earnest social commentary.

It's the kind of slavish devotion that makes me say "I really don't know why everybody thinks it's so important to keep NPR around. They're just another bunch of media whores".

|4.13.05 @ 4:19PM|#

Jesse,
Albom's politics can be summed up thusly:
He is a smug liberal, vaguely hostile to free markets. He presents his views as being "common sense" and therefore not needing further explaination or justification.

Isaac,
I can see why he is a darling of NPR.

|4.13.05 @ 4:54PM|#

Jesse,
What is it about Albom's writing that drives you nuts? Have you read "The Five People You Meet In Heaven?" That's really just a tender portrayal of a person searching for meaning in his life. I'm about half-way through "Tuesdays with Morrie," and it seems to be a chronicle of Albom's struggle to understand his life. I think "Five People" was masterfully written, and lovingly rendered. I really enjoyed it. Tuesdays has its smarmy points, but it's a solid piece overall.

Also, does what Albom did (incorrectly state that two people were at a game) really justify this level of scrutiny and condemnation? Come on, man, an entire parody devoted to this?

|4.13.05 @ 5:25PM|#

Albom's smug and condescending explanation of what happened certainly makes him deserving of contempt.

|4.13.05 @ 5:40PM|#

Sports "journalists" need to remember that they're one step above the guy who yells "Come on, ref, he's got a chair!" into the mic at a WWE event.

Um . . . no. Not so much.

One actually finds some pretty good writing in an average issue of SI. And many of the baseball beat reporters around the country are damned good writers.

Some sports writers even win Pulitzer Prizes. I know it's hard for people, including you, joe, to believe that things you don't like have value, and yet, there it is.

|4.13.05 @ 6:12PM|#

"Have you read "The Five People You Meet In Heaven?" That's really just a tender portrayal of a person searching for meaning in his life. I'm about half-way through "Tuesdays with Morrie," and it seems to be a chronicle of Albom's struggle to understand his life."

Yeah, that's pretty much why I hate him. I also happen to know that he's a dick in person. Of course, only a horribly cynic could foist such drivel on the public.

|4.13.05 @ 6:51PM|#

anti
How do you know he's a dick in person?

Do you really feel that he's a horribly cynic?

|4.14.05 @ 9:41AM|#

"I know it's hard for people, including you, joe, to believe that things you don't like have value, and yet, there it is."

You must have missed all the Patriots and Sox posts I've put up over the years. I know it's hard for people like you to believe, Phil, but you can both like something, and not prostrate yourself before people who make a living off of it.

|4.14.05 @ 12:30PM|#

Randy,

A friend of mine works for a company that published one of his books. Apparently, everyone hates to work with him, he treats "the little people" like garbage, etc.

|4.14.05 @ 12:33PM|#

Sorry, that should have said "horrible cynic." I just mean that he can't possibly believe in the schmaltz he writes, so he's playing us for fools.

|4.20.05 @ 11:06PM|#

anti-Albom, you are so right, Mitch is a cynical, manipulative hack. A person who knows Mitch well once instructed me to read "What Makes Sammy Run?" in order to gain insight into Mitch's character. That was in 1989