Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Dave Zirin is Not a Fan of Paul Shirley's In Your Face Stupidity

Paul Shirley wrote some stuff on the Haitian relief effort, wherein he suggested that giving money to aid efforts is a waste and seemed to suggest that nation-wide poverty was a lifestyle choice:

While the earthquake was, obviously, unavoidable, the way in which many of the people of Haiti lived was not. Regrettably, some Haitians would have died regardless of the conditions in that country. But the fact that so many people lived in such abject poverty exacerbated the extent of the crisis...How could humans do this to themselves?

This angered Dave Zirin, for pretty obvious reasons, and Dave wrote a quick scorcher, and it's a fun little read. Please enjoy a smart man ripping apart a dumb one.

update 1/27/10: ESPN didn't find it funny either. "The views he [Shirley] expressed on another site of course do not at all reflect our company's views on the Haiti relief efforts. He will no longer contribute to ESPN."

3 comments:

Jess said...

Ew. I can't believe I used to have a writer crush on Paul Shirley. That was a long time ago, but still, I feel like I need shower.

Muumuuman said...

So, ESPN has higher standards for its journalist than Fox news. I salute you ESPN.

Andrew Wice said...

The quotation from Shirley turned my stomach. What's worse is the comments section. There's some ugly crap in there, poorly-spelled.

I fear that the "comments" sections will completely undermine what's left of our language (syntax and spelling).

Comments sections -- and I am aware this is one -- are to writing as toilet paper is to my butt.