I Can’t Abide Awful, Hypocrite ‘Journalists’

And so I started my own Substack to call a few of them out.

Should Joe Goodman apologize to AU Coach Bryan Harsin?

In my second Substack article, I wrote a piece listing the reasons I was “champing at the bit” to start this newsletter. One of these reasons was to expose how “awful our mainstream journalists are.” Today’s piece is the first of many to come that provides evidence to support my thesis.

Joe Goodman is the lead sports columnist for al.com,  the largest and most influential news organization in my state of Alabama.

I decided to highlight the writing of Goodman because he’s almost always wrong on the big issues, he’ll never admit when he’s wrong and he’s often a hypocrite.

Like almost all of today’s journalists and opinion writers, he poses as more-virtuous-than-thou, berates people who don’t think like he does and eschews journalism that would challenge harmful, dangerous and false narratives. He also refuses to acknowledge that he and his colleague at al.com  have never displayed an iota of skepticism about any of the “authorized” Covid narratives.

It pays to email journalists ….

However, I do appreciate one trait about Joe -  he sometimes responds to reader emails, a habit he might discontinue if he reads the words that follow.

It had been a while since I emailed my favorite email sparring partner, but I did yesterday after I wrote a piece pointing out that Pfizer is now a “corporate sponsor” of the SEC. My reason for writing was to suggest that Joe might write his own story on this topic, which I thought was newsworthy.

I also reminded Joe that two years ago he had previously berated Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin because the coach refused to get vaccinated (and/or refused to publicly admit his vaccination status).

“Have you perhaps reconsidered your support of vaccines for student-athletes (and coaches) given that it’s now widely acknowledged that these shots do NOT prevent infection or spread? I remember the column you wrote where you heavily criticized Coach Harsin for refusing to get a vaccine. Is it at least possible his reasons for not doing this were valid or understandable?”

Joe responded almost immediately:

“Hadn't heard about Pfizer and the SEC. That's interesting if true,” he wrote.

From this short reply, I can make a couple of points: 1) The leading sports columnist in Alabama “hadn’t heard” this news … 2) like myself, he thinks “that’s interesting” 3) “….if true.”

Well, it is true. A Pfizer spokesperson confirmed this to me and, now, four days later, so has the SEC. As the leading sports columnist in our state, Joe has far better contacts with the SEC than I do.  League officials, I thought, might respond to questions from Joe Goodman that they blew off when sent by Bill Rice, Jr.

As I told Joe in a quick follow-up email:

“I wrote in the hopes that you might follow up with the spokespeople for the SEC and ask them about this sponsorship. I included my questions in the Reader Comments of my Substack.  Maybe they will answer your questions, but if they don't, why won't they? Should they?”

Joe did not reply to this follow-up email, leading me to believe this is not a story he nor any of his colleagues will pursue. Those great questions I came up with and still want answered are just queries in the wind.

Are many stories really off limits?

If I’m correct that Joe won’t follow up on my journalism, this would illustrate one of the main reasons I decided to start my own Substack newsletter.

Namely, my goal was to write stories the mainstream press won’t write. Another goal, just as ambitious, is to prove that many important stories are off limits to today’s crop of “group-thinking” journalists. That is, Americans need to know that many important stories are taboo even for tough, “skeptical,” truth-seeking journalists like Mr. Goodman.

Here’s another question I asked Joe that he didn’t answer:

“Do you know of one al.com staffer who is a skeptic of any of the ‘authorized’ Covid narratives?” I added a personal opinion:  “Ya’ll need at least one.”

I admit I was seeking evidence to further substantiate a pet theory, which is this: Public officials - but also mainstream journalists - do not answer questions that might expose their true character.

Joe had previously written several columns, stating (as fact) that the vaccines are life-savers, columns where he also castigated “selfish” people like myself who refused to get vaccinated.

So I wondered if Joe himself has already gotten his updated booster. In the the email response I received, Joe wrote:

“People should definitely get micro-chipped I mean boosted before the holidays.”

So Joe, like the leaders of the SEC and Pfizer, thinks everyone should “definitely get … boosted.”

That is, Goodman disagrees with my opinion that the SEC and its 14 member institutions should not be pushing its millions of fans to get a vaccine that doesn’t prevent infection nor spread and that won’t prevent its athletes from getting a “severe” case … because no SEC athlete has ever had a “severe” case.

Since Joe is a prominent public figure in our state, I tried to get him on the record regarding his own booster status.

“Have you gotten the booster or will you? If so, what's your reason?”

At least so far, Joe hasn’t answered these two simple questions. Which is his right, but he certainly wasn’t a happy columnist when Coach Harsin of Auburn wouldn’t answer the same question.

Should this journalist apologize to Auburn’s coach?

This is from a Goodman column published Oct. 26, 2021:

“Vaccinated or not, it’s unacceptable that (Coach Harsin) would rather evade questions than answer honestly in public when a simple explanation might save Auburn so much shame, and, more importantly, probably help save lives in Alabama, too.”

In the same column, Joe informed readers of his superior virtue.

“Every person needs to do their part … The vaccine isn’t about the individual. It’s about protecting everyone around them. It’s about all of us.”

Re-stated: Joe wants to save lives, but people like me do not.

Joe also wants Alabama children to get vaccinated, and if they don’t, they should not be allowed to attend school.

“Alabama schools require proof of immunization for many diseases, and this latest plague of the earth, COVID-19, should be no different.”

From these excerpts, Goodman makes clear his view on the vaccines: If a citizen doesn’t get these shots, this citizen is jeopardizing the lives of his fellow citizens. Leaders like Coach Harsin who don’t get vaccinated, or who are not willing to  “promote vaccination,” bring “shame” to themselves and our state.

Goodman also noted the “precedent” of Washington State’s head football coach being fired for refusing to get vaccinated. Clearly, Goodman would have supported the dismissal of Auburn’s coach for making the same personal choice.

My guess would be that Goodman also supports the dismissal of a friend of mine in the Alabama National Guard who was recently fired for not getting his shots. If the body count caused by the virtue-signalers is significant, so be it - it’s for the good “of all of us.” The glee the more-moral-than-thou derive from compelling fellow citizens to forfeit their incomes and benefits should be duly noted.

Being spectacularly wrong doesn’t matter

It also never ceases to amaze me that columnists like Goodman never face any repercussions for being spectacularly wrong in their previous scoldings. Do they even know their columns are archived on the Internet and that people like myself might one day throw their sanctimonious words back in their face?

If they know this, they don’t care. Nor do their editors and bosses, who apparently extol their star writers to keep the disinformation coming. “We’ve got an important job to do; we must protect the narrative …”

I must be among the nearly-extinct breed of journalists who think our profession’s most important job is to be skeptical of the pronouncements of important and powerful figures. This would include trusted and always-honest executives of Big Pharma as well as infallible officials in government, up to and even including Anthony Fauci himself (or SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey).

But Joe thinks he is one of those skeptical journalists. I saved another email he sent me a while back.

“I will always be skeptical,” he shared with me in this email. “I've seen the value in cynicism diminish with age, heartache and experience.”

When I read this particular email, I think I spit my Folgers Morning Blend all over my computer screen.

Here I go back to a question I posed in my latest email to Joe: “Do you know of one al.com staffer who is a skeptic of any of the ‘authorized’ Covid narratives?”

As noted, Joe didn’t provide one example of one colleague who had been “skeptical” of any of the 20 or so bogus or dubious Covid narratives … in a publishing time span extending almost three years.

Diversity of thought is not tolerated

The reason Joe didn’t answer this question is because he can’t provide such an example. He knows that the “pack” of journalists at al.com all sing from the same narrative hymnal. The groupthink is 100 percent. Diversity of skin color, gender and sexual orientation no doubt exists, but diversity of thought is not allowed.

Joe would no doubt disagree with this harsh assessment, but I believe it’s true: Every “journalist” who writes articles for al.com (or really every mainstream news organization in our country) is probably considered one of those “useful idiots” we’ve all heard of, the people the world’s elites depend on to promulgate all the dubious narratives that control our lives.

That is, if the goal of our rulers is to get American citizens to comply with their myriad edicts, the Joe Goodmans of the world are quite useful in advancing this vital goal. Not only will they be useful in this task, they’ll do it with unbridled enthusiasm and passion. And if you happen to disagree with the official narrative, watch out, brother.

Don’t writers know their columns live?

I’ll end this critique of Joe and my state’s largest “news” organization with an example where Joe did repeatedly display some skepticism. He did this in at least four columns written between July and October 2020 (here, here, here and here) where he shared his view that allowing sports in a pandemic was “obvious(ly)” a “bad idea.”  Not only would this put the “health and safety” of student athletes at risk, it would put grandmothers at risk, Joe assured his readers.

What follows are 10 Goodman-penned statements I saved just for this article. I saved my main point - the predictable kicker - for the post-script.

al.com's leading columnist on the impending Covid ‘disaster’ …

“We probably shouldn’t be playing football this fall … It’s starting to look pretty obvious that it’s a bad idea.”

“We so badly want there to be college football this season, but it’s hard to see that happening now. The simple fact that it’s even still being discussed is just another example of what’s wrong with the sport.”

“… If we play football this season, it’s really going to be a miserable experience for the unpaid players who are risking their health to save it all.”

“ … It is all so desperate and sad, but what’s worse is that the players are being treated like lab mice in a cage.”

“… We might play college and pro football this fall, but no one should be pretending like we can do it safely and without significantly increasing the risk of outbreaks during a pandemic.”

Author’s note: Joe overlooked one factoid in the above sentence. In Alabama, probably 40,000 kids played high school and junior high football that fall … and all survived (and none were forced to get a cotton swab shoved up their noses four times a week).

“In the end, the college football seasons needed to be canceled in the Big Ten and Pac-12.”

“… It didn’t have to be this painful, or maddening.”

From an Oct 15, 2020 column after Alabama Coach Nick Saban “tested positive,” later revealed to be a false positive:

“This game seems so unimportant now, this season so unnecessary.”

“… This season was already an asterisk in the history books. It’s turning into a disaster.”

“… Saban has COVID-19, so the question needs to be asked, is it really that safe to be doing this?”

About that season which shouldn’t have been played ….

The postscript to Goodman’s effort to get college sports cancelled is that college sports were, of course, not cancelled. The Big 10 and Pac-12 rescinded their decision to cancel football. The season was played. In fact, the pride of our state, the Alabama Crimson Tide, went on to win a national championship that season.

As it turned out, those “lab mice in a cage” didn’t mind being in said cage. No player or coach died. The season was not a disaster.

The only negatives from this season were that many games were cancelled, not because hospital wards of players became “sick,” but because of the silly and unnecessary quarantine rules implemented by Protocol Czars like SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.

The games were also played in largely empty stadiums - stadiums, I might add, that were full the next season …. after everyone had been vaccinated and “cases” were much higher.

Still, the fact this “unnecessary …  asterisk” of a season was played gave Joe Goodman the compelling material to write his very first book, a book which celebrates Alabama’s unforgettable season - a season Joe Goodman did everything in his word-smithing power to make sure didn’t take place.

The book might be Pulitzer-worthy, but I’m not going to buy it. On principle, I refuse to support any non-fiction written by authors who routinely traffic in fictional narratives. Journalists who I’ve come to believe are shallow, juvenile hypocrites - those who won’t admit they were wrong when they clearly were - won’t get a dime from this citizen.

I concluded my introductory Substack piece with these words:

“Our mainstream journalists are awful and are taking a pass on the most important stories of our times. I don’t know if I can play even a tiny role in changing this, but I’m damn sure going to try.”

So I’m trying.