Columnist Selena Roberts is leaving The New York Times and is headed for Sports Illustrated, which recently lost its star columnist, Rick Reilly, to ESPN.
The Bristol Stompers also were interested in landing Roberts, but she evidently resisted their charm$, something few newspaper sports journalists have been able to do in recent months and years.
At last Selena can join the recent Times alumni club at SI, which includes Damon Hack and Lee Jenkins.
Neither SI nor ESPN has made an offer to WatchDog . . . yet.
Comments (37)
Neil,
You convieniently don't mention if the NY Times has made you an offer...
mike/dog said they have big annoucement today. neil, what is it?
neil try to crack monday's announcement from mike and the maddog
Selena Roberts basically convicted the Duke Lacrosse guys in her columns (as did the rest of the Times). I won't be turning to the back page of SI for her drivel
Nice reference to the Bristol Stomp.
All I can say is I pity the poor editors at SI who have to wade through her metaphor-laden copy ...
she wrote incoherent nonsense anyway
"Michael Strahan, tightly curling around the offensive line ... like a red stripe on a barber's pole."
I agree with Melissa: If SI wants her overheated metaphors, they can have them. New York's loss is the nation's loss.
What prompts such angry, dismissive comments about Selena Roberts? She is a gifted writer and reporter, admired by all sensible editors and most of her peers. That she turns a mean metaphor is to her considerable credit, as it is to any writer's. That she got a swell new job is to be admired. Cleanse yourselves of envy and/or jealousy and wish her well. I know I do.
John:
No envy. No jealousy.And I do wish her well. I just think she doesn't trust that she has interesting things to say so she strains to make things sound interesting.
John, maybe it's because she wrote about the "irrefutable culture of misogyny, racial animus and athlete entitlement that went unrestrained that night” in her article on the Duke lacrosse incident...that turned out to be pretty refutable. Of course, the players are still waiting on that apology from her. Of course, I'm sure there are lots of other reasons. At least she and Lester Munson will probably get along fine.
Say it isn't so! One of the joys of reading The New York Times' sports page was seeing what was on Selena Roberts' mind. She wrote with intelligence, bite and a strong voice reminiscent of America's best columnists and critics.
Intelligent, provocative columnists are all too rare. Pauline Kael is long gone; Tom Shales has retired, sort of; and who knows how long before Maureen Dowd grows weary of the daily grind?
How will The Times replace Selena Roberts' distinctive voice?
Terry
I do not know how much money SI is paying Selena. I heard her offer from ESPN was in the range of . . . A lot. An annual salary of about two percent of the average annual salary of A-Rod's old contract. But I can't prove it one way or another.
The bright yellow tie around Charles Oakley's collar was the color of a caution sign. He had adjusted it, brushed off his slacks and headed for the Knicks' locker room door.
This was from a story about the Knicks losing some game years ago. I think she got to the score about 10 paragraphs into the story after she was done describing Oakley's shoes and his hair gel...
A piece of garbage in Reilly is replaced by a piece of toxic waste
in Selena Roberts. With her supposed "intelligence, bite and strong voice" will she ever mention the name of Crystal Gail Mangum? Trying to ruin the lives of three not-ver-bright but innocent college students has no repercussions.
Wonderful news, this really made my day! A hateful twit as intent on showing off her comic book metaphors as she is shining up her prejudices. It was very hard to understand why on earth the Times ever gave her a column.
Here's your hat, Selena, you must be going...
Fire this woman.
She is a race hustler, period. Her columns on the Duke lacrosse case were pure slander.
This woman shouldn't be writing for any publication.
Get rid of this con artist.
Hiring Roberts is a disgraceful act.
She is a quota hire. Like all corporations, SI is trying to increase diversity by hiring a woman.
In the world of journalism, hiring a woman means hiring an advocate of extreme feminism, gay activism and black nationalism. SI could have hired a traditional, church going, family oriented woman to fill the diversity quota.
Instead, in the the one dimensional world of diversity within the journalism community, SI predictably hires a vicious, incompetent ideologue to fill the female quota.
Hiring this slanderer is a vile, disgraceful act on the part of SI.
Well there goes my subscription to SI. I read what she wrote about Duke LAX 3 in the NYT. Just a pack of lies...and no apologies when she was proven wrong. I won't believe a word she write. SI must be desperate. How can SI hire someone totally without any moral fiber. I am very disappointed.
I get SI monthly in the mail. I won't be renewing. In fact, it will go straight to the trash. You hired a slanderous twit who can't tell the truth from a lie - does Duke LAX ring any bells?
I don't know what was worse her total lack of research regarding the Duke Lacrosse boys or her total arogance in refusing to apologize.
She is a real hack who's need to be PC outweighed her need to get it right. Never a good thing for a journalist, unless you are the Times. I can't wait to see how she will do in the real world where truth is still valued.
Gosh, I tracked the Duke case like a blanket. This knucklehead's
air, pose and her total reprehensible disrespect for the facts is beyond reproach. SI, I'm am totally without your mag as of now.
This reminds me of some of the G88 being hired by Cornell or the bubba (Pres.) at the University of Delaware saying that all of the incoming white freshman are racist. What ever happened to doing the "right" thing.
I watched the Duke case like a hawk. Selena has yet to respond to the actual facts of the boys being innocent.
This left handed knucklehead has no fiber or conscience of what is "right". SI, kiss my subscription good bye.
I watched the Duke case like a hawk. Selena has yet to respond to the actual facts of the boys being innocent.
This left handed knucklehead has no fiber or conscience of what is "right". SI, kiss my subscription good bye.
I'm not going to get into any sort of critique re her writing style-if SI likes that sort of thing, fine. As others have commented, I also followed the Duke lacrosse case pretty closely. Lots of folks, journalists and others, jumped the gun and got it wrong (real wrong) at the onset. Some of those folks have "seen the light" and made some sort of admission regarding their rush to judgement. Many others have not. Roberts was not alone in getting it wrong...and she is not alone now in apparently refusing to acknowledge her initial dreadful depiction of the incident. All of us make mistakes and most of us are more than willing to forgive one another for our mistakes. But first there must be an admission of wrong-doing. Nothing but silence from the likes of Roberts. A refusal to admit one's mistakes is simply arrogance-not a great quality in anyone, particularly a journalist.
This individual is a hypecrite and wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and bit her. She is a disgrace. SI goodbye!
I can't wat for her comments on the swimsuit issue!
I have enjoyed reading SI since I was a kid. I would grab my dad's copy as soon as he was done and read it cover to cover. Even today when it comes in the mail, I sit down and eagerly devour its contents. Alas, with the news of Selena Roberts hiring, those days are over. I can not support a periodical that allows such a noxious person with blatant prejudices and disregard for facts to appear within its pages. Farewell SI, hello ESPN The Magazine.
As in any corporate decision like hiring Ms Roberts...it's all about the money.
Clearly, SI thinks she has some sort of appeal that's why they hired her. She obviously has made many people mad over the Duke LAX case, but it remains to be seen how much of a negative impact that will have on SI.
Only time will tell...and oh by the way, I've bought my last copy of SI.
Time to check out on SI! Anyone who won't apologize when they are wrong should not be in the opinion business. Overheated prose, a rush to judgment and open gender/race bigotry do not qualify Ms. Roberts or anyone else for a promotion.
I grew up reading SI faithfully.HELLO ESPN!
A piece of junk writer. Roberts' writings on the Duke case blew all her credibility with any subject. Another nail in the coffin for the declining Sports Illustrated.
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Lot of "animus" in these comments, but they clearly show how Selena Roberts is viewed in the outside world. I don't have a dog in the Duke fight, but I will tell you that as a daily New York Times reader I find her work impenetrable. She overwrites every one of her columns to the point that they make no sense. I have never finished one of her pieces despite many hard tries.
I have always wondered how her pieces make it past the editors.
And I have always wondered how she can be in the same paper as Dave Anderson or George Vecsey or Murray Chass or William Rhoden or, dare we mention him in the same breath, Red Smith? (I know, he started with the Herald Tribune.)
And, as immediate examples of her tortured prose, can anyone tell me what these recent two ledes mean?
"There are few assets James L. Dolan adores as much as his own glorious head of hair, which he lavishly coifs to Mitt Romney perfection. But as with all of his loves, Dolan can turn on his follicles, too. Whenever he seethes, Dolan grabs his locks with his right hand as an alternative to someone's collar, providing a brief, if unsustainable, moment of anger management."
or
"One All-Star third baseman is thoughtful in two languages. The Red Sox' Mike Lowell has a hint of salt in his black hair, an earnest voice fit for a jazz D.J. and a few miles on wheels that roll more like the spokes of a stagecoach than the rims of a sports car."
Huh?
Good writing is clear, concise, evocative, simple.
Her departure to Sports Illustrated is a gain for ALL the readers of New York Times sports section, presuming, of course, the Times replace her with someone who writes in English.
I'll miss Selena's writing in The Times. She is a wonderful writer, and I enjoyed her stuff more than that of Dave Anderson, Murray Chass, Rhoden, etc. because they don't push the envelope. They are reporters more than writers. Yes, I know there is some Pulitzer history in there somewhere, but it's ancient history.
A lot of the animosity on here may stem from Selena's success. No, she is not a quota hire. The Times doesn't have to do quota hires. In fact, her gender brought a badly needed broader view to The Times, just as Maureen Dowd does in op-ed.
I assume most of the critics here are media types themselves, stuck in Hooterville because they simply don't have the gift Selena does.
Selena Roberts hired by SI ? I am definitely cancelling my subscription (which I have had non-stop for 40 years).
She is without a doubt the worst sportswriter in history! Can't even follow what she is trying to say. Horrible.
I am disappointed that she has left for SI as well. She is a superb and thoughtful writer, and while I sometimes would pass over a column by a guy like Dave Anderson, I would never miss one of hers. Not that I always agreed with her, though.
As for Duke lax, I think a lot of the posters have managed to miss the point of her columns. Regardless of vindication by the legal system--indeed, regardless of actual innocence of the alleged crime--the Duke lax team placed itself in the position where allegations, questions, charges, and/or suspicions could arise. A lot of the things that happened that night--from the "american psycho"-esque email to the straight-up demeaning use of women--are worthy of critique, even though they are not criminal.