"Game Of Shadows" Authors - Respect - Work Ethic - Investigative Skills - Actual Threat Of Jail + Douchebaggery = Mariotti!

It was with considerable amusement that we read Jay Mariotti's column in the today. (Yes, yes, Jay, by writing about you, we're just making you more famous. It is our curse!)

Mariotti writes in defense of San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who will face a judge in about half an hour and could end up being sent to jail. A good cause, we think ... but Jay just can't leave himself out of it, aligning himself with the journalists and their profession though, as Jay The Joke points out, the guy hasn't interviewed an actual human in one of his columns in months. And then he tries to turn on fans, saying the reason they hate journalists is because they talk bad about the home team, a long time self-justification for why he himself is so despised.

And then, in an entirely unnecessary — and strangely self-loathing — aside, he tsks-tsks "Web sites [that] peek around corners like sewer rats, operated by weirdos who live in their parents' basements, [and] pretend to be experts." This just makes us sad. We're not so different, you know, Jay: Neither of us interview people — well, sometimes we do, actually, and we also don't have to worry about getting "mock raped" when we do it either — we both watch games at home (or, in your case, "in an underground bunker") and we're not particularly well-liked by people in traditional journalism. Shit, Jay, we even both have bad hair! There's absolutely no reason we shouldn't be friends. Seriously! Let's hug!

That said: If given a choice between being linked with Mariotti and going to jail, well ... we'd say Fainaru-Wada and Williams have a tough decision to make.

Media Freedoms On Trial In San Fran [Chicago Sun-Times] In Which Jay Tries To Align Himself With Actual Journalists [Jay The Joke]