Post Ombudsman Takes Umbrage With Tony Kornheiser’s Comments

Kornheiser Says Comments "Deliberately Over The Top"

The Washington Post “has had a good relationship with” columnist Tony Kornheiser and “encouraged his work on” ESPN’s “PTI” and “MNF,” but “that doesn’t mean that The Post should ever go soft on him — or anyone else associated with the paper — in a review of a book or a radio or TV show,” according to WASHINGTON POST Ombudsman Deborah Howell. Kornheiser on ESPN Radio’s “The Dan Patrick Show” last week said of a negative review on his “MNF” debut by Washington Post colleague Paul Farhi, “I thought my own newspaper would be kinder.” Howell added, “If Post reporters can’t cover the news or do reviews without fear or favor, then the paper will be known as pulling punches — and its credibility will take a hit.” Kornheiser said that he “‘never for a second’ questioned that Farhi had the right to critique his debut.” He added his remarks on ESPN Radio were “meant to be deliberately over the top to be entertaining. In print it looks a lot worse than it sounded on radio because you don’t hear the inflection” (WASHINGTON POST, 8/20). Kornheiser said that the “‘lesson I learned’ is that his on-air comments can end up ‘on a page, that what I say now has a 50-50 chance of ending up on a website’” (USA TODAY, 8/21).

COMMENT CARD: In N.Y., David Carr writes there are “indications that Mr. Kornheiser has risen to a status that may test his temperament and could create problems, along with a fair amount of buzz, for his employers.” His reactions to negative reviews by ESPN Radio’s Mike Golic and Farhi, both colleagues, “added some dark shading to his jocular public persona.” His “history demonstrates that when it comes to dishing it out without the ability to take same, he also has few rivals. It is not that he has thin skin; he has no skin.” Farhi added, “Taking on the paper seems loony. ... To suggest that the paper should just lay down for him questions the integrity of what we do.” But ESPN Exec VP/Content John Skipper said, “He makes his living casting a critical eye on the performance of others, so when we discussed it, he knew he was going to take some shots. And he is going to respond because of who he is.” Skipper added, “I didn’t see any reviews of ‘Sunday Night Football.’ Other people will have opinions and he will have opinions. He is a person of wit and irony and people shouldn’t take it too literally” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/21). Washington Post colleague and ESPN Ombudsman George Solomon: “Tony is very New York and Washington, and as you see every four years, the country isn’t” (PLAY, 9/ ’06 issue).