Comments on: Approval Ratings – Dan Shaughnessy

By: Komodo Dragon

Komodo Dragon — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:48:18 +0000

haha, you can definitely tell that this guy is not gonna a go very far, lol, his approval rating is laughable.

By: mike b

mike b — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:02:25 +0000

It’s really not about criticism of athletes, OB, and you know it. It’s about lacking a spine. He’s for something/something one day, vehemently against it the next. It’s a wonder he can walk upright.

By: howzie

howzie — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:27:01 +0000

George, I’d love to click on it, but I don’t want CHB to get the clicks.

By: Fred West Lynn

Fred West Lynn — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:15:27 +0000

I’ve never understood this argument. If the sports writing (or news reporting or political reporting or investigative reporting, or the comics for that matter) are crappy in Carolina or Florida or (this is for you, “Duke”) Atlanta why should that have the slightest impact on what we should expect from our own local media? Dan actually seems not as bad as he is because the sportswriting talent pool has become pretty stagnant since the days of Ray Fitzgerald, Leigh Montville, and vintage Peter Gammons, Bob Ryan, and Charles P. Pierce. But viewed on his own merits (lazy, formulaic writing; virtually no reporting to speak of; shopworn bag of 80s pop culture references attempting to add “style”), he is dreadful on every level. The next insightful — never mind original — observation in a Shaughnessy column will be the first since “Werewolves of London” howled from the FM speakers of The Rock of Boston.

By: George

George — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:45:33 +0000

ObjectiveBruce, if you’re really interested in objectivity, here’s Exhibit A, Shaunessey;s most recent column from yesterday’s Globe:
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2008/05/28/rallying_point/

Looks like it probably took all of 10 minutes of effort. The column, about Garnett needing to take charge, brims over with cliches, commonplace references and mindless recycled analysis. Anyone who thinks he’s getting unfairly bashed, just READ THIS.
75% of the posts here are more interesting – and I’m not exaggerating!

If you happen to get through the whole article, note the “hop on my back fella’s” reference. You’d think, as a longstanding local, he could use Cedric Maxwell’s herioc leadership role on the 1981 Celtic team that won it all. Do you think he could break a sweat?

By: George

George — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:37:28 +0000

Sounds to me like you’ve never read the Boston Globe. I’ve read plenty of bad sportswriters from all around the US. However, most of them are not widely known and passing themselves off as experts as Shaunessey likes to do (and cash in on).

As many here have said, any talent he possesses as a writer is wasted. From a fan’s perspective, he’s a waste of media space that might otherwise be used by someone with something interesting to say.

BSMW has been totally fair and provides a vajuable service reporting on local media, If anything, BSMW often gives many media figures the benefit of the doubt in the spirit of professionalism.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:18:25 +0000

You forgot to call Shaughnessy ‘brave’, Objective Bruce. I’m sure you meant to.

Yeah, that’s why people don’t like Shaughnessy – because of “criticism of their sports heroes.” Because he doesn’t engage in “hero worship”. Because of how courageous he is – he dares tell us that the King has no clothes!

Had you not weighed in, I would have attributed the disapprovals to the push-button manipulative writing, the same tired cliches and long-held agendas, and the surly contempt with which he holds his customers.

But now I know its just that he’s not engaging in hero worship. I have also learned that because Bruce Allen lives in New Hampshire, he really has no standing to even comment.

Thanks for setting me straight.

By: ObjectiveBruce

ObjectiveBruce — Thu, 29 May 2008 09:36:11 +0000

I never cease to be amazed at how much people take criticism of their sports heroes to heart. It is as if he is a horrid person because he doesn’t engage in hero worship.

I do find it amusing that the Pride of New England’s Drag Racing Capital would fire off a phrase such as “formulaic columns, ripjobs and contrarian opinions” to describe the columnist.

Formulaic indeed.

By: brownszombie

brownszombie — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:52:34 +0000

Sounds like 99% of disapprovals have never been outside of 128. Read the Carolina papers or Florida or take your pick…..I don’t like the messenger, but outside of the once – in – a – while – mail – it – ins the message is there. What in his writing is more negative than the BSMW?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:10:31 +0000

Haughty, elite, and ‘bitter’ are three adjectives that describe this unhinged, angry man. Documented elsewhere, Shaughnessy is a sports media ‘gray-hair’ who falls in line with the rest of the cabal in deriding the Internet as a mortal enemy. The Internet in all its incarnations–blogs, message boards, and comments sections–has almost single-handedly ruined Shaughnessy’s ‘reason for being.’ He never passes up an opportunity to launch IEDs at the Internet and fans of same. His ongoing rant against ‘38 Pitches’ demonstrates Shaughnessy’s derangement perfectly.

While other flailing Boston sports media hacks have found ’safe havens’ within the same Internet that they purport to ‘hate’ (funny about that irony, huh?), Shaughnessy is limited to accepting guest appearances on Ryan’s ‘10.0′ in the same way that a pigeon waits for crumbs near a Boston Common park bench. Watch out for those dirty syringes, Dan.