The Orange County Register sports columnist really should have thought his Jaycee Dugard column through

SCOTT JACOBS

Being of the mindset that opinions make sports all the more entertaining to debate, I usually welcome controversial views with open arms.  Afterall, I once bashed an entire continent because I said that London and Europe for that matter didn’t care about the NFL, and thusly there should be no games played there.  Needless to say that I was wrong, and blasted ruthlessly for it. So when I say I welcome a little heat in my kitchen I mean it.  But the column Mark Whicker wrote the other day, in the OC Register was not just a controversial piece.  It was insensitive, ruthlessly out of line, and so far out of bounds that its hard to believe it ever saw the light of day.

The column was in essence dedicated to Jaycee Dugard, who had been abducted back in 1991, and didn’t get reunited with her family until just recently.  The heartwarming return, combined with the awful traumatic things she went through made her return a huge national story.  Whicker decided to write to her, letting her know everything she missed in the world of sports in the last 18 years.  The column would have been hilarious if he had been talking to someone who had come from another planet and/or lived under a rock the last 18 years.  I would have even found it a fun read if the column was merely devoted to someone who wanted to catch up on the last 18 years in the world of sports.

But Whicker instead choose to talk to a girl who had been missing for EIGHTEEN years.

The column was so offensive and so out of line that it was lauded by some as one of the worst columns ever written.  Ever.

So today I took a look.  I read it all the way through the end.

And I too wanted to throw up.

What in the world was Whicker thinking?  Using unfunny sarcasm, and a timeline of events that were probably the last thing this poor girl (who is now a woman) cared about, he structured his column almost making a mockery of this poor girl’s situation.  To review: Jaycee was abducted from her hom at a bus stop close to her house when she was 11.  She was reunited with her family, and her two kids last week.  And Whicker had the gall to dedicate a column to her, where he basically insulted her situation to an unfathomable extent.

But give credit to Whicker.

In addition to offending nearly his entire viewership and making national news for all the wrong reasons, he also managed to come across as partly racist and completely insincere.

“Can you imagine?,” he wrote. “Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido’s backyard. She was 29 when she escaped. Penitentiary inmates at least get an hour of TV a day. Dugard was cut off from everything but the elements.”

What?!?

How could he write that?  Moreover, how could that line alone have gotten the green light from his editor?  Or editors?  Who does that?  Even drunk frat boys during a football game have more class than that.  TV?  You really think this poor girl was worrying about what was on the boob tube or what the score of the Giants game was, as she was taken away from her family and friends?  You really think that as she was being abducted her first thought was, “o crap, I hope I don’t miss this weekend’s game.”  Ugh, no.  More likely, she was horrified, mortified, scared beyond comprehension, all the usual feelings and then some when someone gets abducted.  But sports?  Whether she was a huge sports fan or not, that was probably the last thing on her mind.

Sports are valued highly in this society.  I remember after 9-11 being devastated that sports were cancelled for a week, and didn’t understand how my escape could be taken away by some psycho terrorist nut jobs.  But this is a girl’s life we’re talking about.  She was 11 when she was taken from her home, and when her family next saw her she was 29!  She had two kids.  Two!  Just let that settle in for a second.  This is not a normal story.  This is a story that is disturbing on so many levels.

So to say I’m perturbed by Whicker’s bumbling idea of a light column is putting it nicely.  To say he picked a horrible subject to tone down down is just the tip of the iceberg.  To say he should be fired for it– well, that’s another debate entirely.

And people have called for Whicker’s firing.  If a coach can get fired for using the “N” word during a timeout maybe Whicker should be canned for using a total lack of judgement towards a very sensitive situation.  If a coach can get fired for running up the score, why not fire a sports columnist who basically did the same, only with journalism.  There are ethics in journalism, well, at least there used to be.  I remember the huge packet I once read through.  This stuff isn’t supposed to be taken lightly.

But to Whicker it was a great opportunity to pounce on the defenseless.

Whicker issued an apology.  It felt about as sincere as Plaxico Burress’ remore in his ESPN interview a few weeks ago.  Translation: he hardly even sounded sorry.

“It’s impossible to unring a bell or to bring back a column that has already been transmitted,” he said as part of his apology. “In many ways the damage is done. I’m hopeful that I can be forgiven for this lapse of professionalism by those who were affected most profoundly.”

I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I want to say he screwed up– it happens– everybody does it.  But this wasn’t a sports blogger accusing an old athlete of using PED’s.  This was a professional columnist finding a sick and twisted amusement out of a horrifying story.  This crossed the line.  In a country of second chances many would say– he should keep his job.  But when your credibility as a writer and as a person dies as quickly as Whicker’s did with this column, isn’t it time to cut the chord.

“For 22 1/2 years at The Register, I feel like I’ve had a good and
direct relationship with our audience and I think most of the regular
readers know how I go about reporting and commenting on sports,” he wrote.  “This column appears to have disconnected that bond with at least part of our readers. For that I apologize.”

Few really cared about the sports part Mr. Whicker.  It was the context that he put sports in that offended people.  Grouping this poor girl and her lack of sports knowledge on the last 18 years is not just a simple, “oops.”  It’s a humiliating mistake.  A career killer.  The type of column that ruins any last inkling of respect that people have for you in both a professional and personal capactity.

It’s hard to earn respect in sports writing.  It takes years, and followers, and people who believe that what you are telling is indeed the truth to become someone in the field.  And in a moment of sheer ignorance, Whicker wiped 22 years of dutiful sports writing service down the drain.

Photo: Reuters

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