N.Y. Post columnist Phil Mushnick is the sports world's
"self-appointed watch dog, sniffing out greed, hypocrisy and
bad taste," according to Nick Paumgarten of the N.Y.
OBSERVER. In Mushnick's 16 years of sports TV and radio
writing, he has "taken up crusades ranging from cable
companies' gouging of customers to the use of meaningless
statistics in football broadcasts." Mushnick was the "first
to make noise about Nike's exploitation of inner-city kids
and Nike pitchman Michael Jordan's complicity in it." Now,
his "pet causes" have been "integrated into the national
polemic over the degraded state of sports." Time Warner
Sports President Seth Abraham said, "People are afraid of
[Mushnick] in the sports business," and another network exec
said what makes Mushnick "unique" among writers is that "he
makes shit happen." The exec: "[I]t may take 10 years, but
eventually people listen." Paumgarten writes, "Everyone
sees his column, but not everyone heeds it." One network
exec said the "most often used expression among network
publicists is 'Did you see Mushnick today?,'" but another
said, "I'm not sure he hasn't lost some of his influence
because he's always in such a rage" (N.Y. OBSERVER, 3/13).
CHARGES OF HYPOCRISY: With the N.Y. Post owned by News
Corp., Mushnick is employed by CEO Rupert Murdoch, a man
who, Paumgarten writes, "in the eyes of many, [is] no friend
of journalism, sports or tasteful TV." Mushnick "admitted"
that, due to the N.Y. Post/Fox relationship, there have been
issues he wanted to pursue that were "looked at sideways" by
some superiors, and said that in the "early life" of Fox
Sports, there were "subtle pressures ... but they have
completely disappeared." ESPN's Dick Schaap, on Mushnick:
"Generally speaking, I share his instincts ... [t]he thing I
don't like is, I hate the newspaper he's in. Anybody
preaching journalism within those pages is tainted. ...
[Y]our statement is diminished when you accept a check from
Rupert Murdoch ... I don't think it's effective to scream at
the devil when he's standing right behind you." Mushnick,
in response, noted ESPN's coverage last year of an "obscure"
yacht race won by Roy Disney, and said "If Dick doesn't want
to be attached to bad journalism, I would suggest he resign
from ABC and ESPN" (Nick Paumgarten, N.Y. OBSERVER, 3/13).
