Always a fan of great theater, I decided to call in to the show this morning. I had no illusions that Carton would change his mind on the matter, and he most certainly did not. But rather than defend the booing on the merits — which I don’t think even he can — he decided to unload on me for being a blogger, not having a journalism background and all of that. Anyone who follows the media very much knows that’s the last refuge of someone with no argument, but there he went anyway. When I told him that Mike Lupica has a journalism background and he sucks he pulled a Francessa (sic) on me and hung up. Great theater — and basically what I expected — but telling all the same. – Craig Calcaterra NBC’s Hardball Talk
I have been predicting a Carton meltdown for quite some time and today it finally happened. You see, Craig Carton is a bully, plain and simple, who has made his career ambushing people on the air. Give Calcaterra credit, he gave up minutes of his life to converse with someone who is forensically incapable of intelligent discourse. Whether Carton was serious about the “journalism” comment we don’t know, but for him to take Calcaterra to task for not interviewing Yankees fans booing motives is abhorrent. Who did you interview Craig? The wannabe Real Housewife of New Jersey who thought Derek Jeter is a centerfielder on your show? Funny thing is this is the same guy that speculated Jose Reyes used Performance Enhancing Drugs just a few weeks ago. Does Carton have a degree in medicine that I don’t know about?
Personally, this meltdown was a long time coming. Carton has been addressing the blogosphere for a while and we all know it starts with the criticisms from this site. Since Carton is a journalist does his accusation against Reyes meet that standard? How about calling women “broads” during the morning show? How about his ambush of Jennifer Capriati? Do I need to go on?
Want to know Craig Carton’s playbook? Watch “Private Parts” with Howard Stern. He isn’t even changing it a little because it’s word for word. Having his parents on the air? Wonder where I heard that one before. At least Howard didn’t use sports as a disguise for what he wanted to do. This is a shame because Carton knows how to get good guests (or is it Boomer?), holds his staff highly accountable, and has moments where he is funny. The problem is narcissism always gets in the way. Maybe if he embraced Calcaterra he could have an interesting guest for a future show, but instead he decided to bully him on the air. The blogosphere could be radios best friend, but they choose to make it their enemy. It’s probably because they no longer can conduct their affairs with gimmicks, which ironically is all Carton knows how to do.
I feel for Boomer because if you gave him truth serum you have to think he cringes having been teamed up with this guy. Of course, I could be wrong since I don’t have facts and I don’t want to be accused of journalistic immorality.
Carton, why pick on Craig Calcaterra? You know it’s me and NYBD that you really don’t like. We weren’t in your blueprint? You never expected anyone to challenge your capabilities, but here I am telling you that you stink. I sensed the fear in your voice when Calcaterra called in. You finally met your match my friend, me and the blogosphere will not back down. Better make sure you start to live up to those words about journalism because I will come after you each time you don’t.
Living in glass houses and throwing stones is never a good recipe for success. I think you will learn that shortly.
Original Story:
http://nybaseballdigest.com/?p=23733
