This is a scan from Sports Illustrated's baseball preview issue. That's a funny quote from John Amaechi, right? But I feel like I've seen it somewhere before… but where? I just can't quite put my finger — oh yeah, that's right. About two weeks ago I spent a night out on the town with Amaechi.
I quoted him on several different topics, but I tried to make it clear that it wasn't a journalistic endeavor on my part, since I didn't write anything down at the time, then I went out and got mildly drunk that night, then I wrote a whole day's worth of posts before getting to the Amaechi story. So, while I'm confident that I correctly communicated Amaechi's sentiment, I probably didn't get his words 100% correct. (Editor's note: John saw the post and told me he enjoyed it, so I didn't get anything too wrong.) Anyway, here's how I quoted him on the Bible thing:
He was also confounded by people who pick and choose what leftovers from the Old Testament are and aren't sins: "It also forbids eating shellfish. If being gay is as bad as going to Red Lobster, I'm not really worried about it."
Wow, that's suspiciously similar, isn't it? And by "suspiciously similar" I mean "word-for-word." Listen, I'm not going to say SI lifted a quote from a completely journalistically irresponsible blog, but… wait. Yes. Yes, that is what I'm saying. The funny thing is, if they had just added "as quoted by the website WithLeather.com," I'd feel all special inside and think SI was totally awesome. Instead, SI is now dead to me.
Well, except for the swimsuit issue. That still rules.
Stealing-stuff UPDATE: Orson Swindle from EDSBS writes, "Check out page 22 of Sports Illustrated–they have a ripoff of the Fulmer Cup competition called… 'Campus Leaders' or something like that." Oh, so I guess I'm not special. It must have been uncredited blog material week for SI. Also, I need to thank Big Daddy Drew for the scan, and Henry Abbott for being the first to point the quote out to me. Look at me! Giving credit to people is easy!
Non-requisite clarification: As ***always***, I'm not serious. SI isn't dead to me. What's there to be upset about? They used a quote — it's not like I own those words. But it's either a nice little step forward for blogs or a sad step back for print media when I'm being trusted as a news source.
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/photo/226/thumb)
![[image]](http://cdn.wl.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/08/tim-hardaway-gay-180x180.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.wl.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/08/usmc-tattoo-180x180.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.wl.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/03/dan-snyder-180x180.jpg)
![[image]](http://cdn.wl.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/01/aj-daulerio-180x180.jpg)
Even the swimsuit issues is dead to me–gorillamask provides better stroking material on a daily basis for nothing, and they don’t ask me to read Peter King. Who, by the way, is sure to work in a shout-out to Red Lobster next week.
So they have blogs in paper form now? Weird.
And I didn’t get credited for giving Ufford the scan! What a terrible cycle of abuse.
You may be on some SI blacklist and Peter King refused to allow your site the mention it so clearly deserved.
Ever since they annointed Ray Lewis God’s personal mule I tuned the fuck out.
Does this mean posting a picture of Peter King’s daughter is fair game again?
A well worded letter should get you some freebies from their “please don’t sue us” department. You know, like the sweatshirts they give out. Or a towel. Those things are awesome.
You are the fucking big time!
SI Sucks
It’s good to know that the everyone over at SI is just as big a douchefucker asPeter King. I wonder if anyone over there has seen “Saving Private Ryan” yet? I hear it was pretty good!
Amaechi’s repeating the same stuff over and over. It’s what old people do. I know I talk to them and sh!t I look in the mirror and at some point I got old. It’s possible you were plagiarized but more likely Amaechi is hitting the same talking points over and over and over. Wait til the guy is 70 and poolside at some condo. You’ll hear about his doctor visits over and over verbatim.
As a make-good, I think SI should have to include you on one of their swimsuit shoots next year.
WE FOUND IT …. IT WAS SENT INTO US ….
Cocksuckers, all.
I’m thinking Ufford is going to replace Rick Riley eventually.
I hate to play all “devil’s advocate,” but maybe there was an SI representative at the book signing? I mean, John’s wearing the same clothes in both SI’s photo and your photo. Just sayin’.
That whole update was just an excuse to start dropping names.
Blog Spot should have a weekly feature called The Ron Borges Minute where they expose media outlets that lift uncredited info from blogs.
Grimey, the photo in my post wasn’t taken at the book signing.
For the Devil’s advocates… What’s more likely: a random SI staffer went to Amaechi’s signing (when the next day Amaechi gave interviews to REAL media all day long) and got the same maybe-accurate quote I did word-for-word? Or that someone at SI saw my well-circulated blog post?
Occam’s Razor, people.
Wait a minute, why aren’t we getting credit for reading this? If no one reads the post does it really exist?
Is it possible that Sports Illustrated didn’t want to attribute a quote to a gay man from a “Leather” website? I know you didn’t go with Amaechi to the Blue Oyster or anything, but I guess people could get the wrong idea.
Matt, I hope this makes you feel better: I haven’t subscribed to SI since 93, and I come to this site 5 times a day. Also, fuck SI, ESPN, and the rest of em.
In case anybody misses my obscure Police Academy reference:
[en.wikipedia.org]
I’m sure this guy spews (he he!) the same publicist-written lines over and over again while he’s on a press tour.
This just in….even though you were in SI, Sam Smith still thinks you live in a basement and wear your underwear all day.
The Scott Pollard telling kids to do drugs blurb in the scan could’ve also come from this site.
SI has run that segment for as long as I can remember (it’s always on the same page as “This Week’s Sign of the Apocalypse”; yes, I still subscribe to the magazine) and I’ve never once considered that they were trying to pass the quotes off as their own. I think it’s obvious that someone there was reading With Leather, said, “Hey, that’s pretty funny,” and managed to get it into the magazine.
I see where you’re coming from – I’d be annoyed as well, were I in your shoes – but it’s not like one of their writers used it in a story and tried to say it was his or someone copied actual content from your site.
Of course, SI can fix this and any other future problems by putting a little “Source:” line directly below the quote box. It’s a little surprising that they haven’t done it already.
To add to what Brian said … SI pulled one its “signs of the apocolypse” off Deadspin (probably) recently. It was the story where the West Virginia fan took a dump in the Georgia Tech band section at the Gator Bowl.
I say probably because the meme started by pictures and a story posted on a GT fan message board, which was then picked up by EDSBS, then by Deadspin, and finally by SI. Isn’t it fun how news works?
You’re right, they didn’t go to the Blue Oyster. They went to the Gothic Asshole.
It’s funny, when SI did a bit on Heath Shuler campaign (and also included a bit on the Stop Shuler site), they included the stat that the Redskins were 4-15 in games he played in. ([www.stopshuler.com]) Later, as I was making some changes to the site, I realized that I made a mistake and it was actually 4-13. Which means that they took my goofy blog’s word for Shuler’s career stats instead of actually looking it up. They did give me a photo credit for the logo, though…
SI has liften Ben Maller’s website word for word for many months for the SI “Rumors and Notes” piece. SI appears to be what one might call an habitual offender.