Back Porch FanHouse http://backporch.fanhouse.com Back Porch FanHouse http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://backporch.fanhouse.com/media/feedlogo.gif Back Porch FanHouse http://backporch.fanhouse.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Kornheiser Takes Washington Post Buyout, Retires as a 'Newspaper Guy'http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2008/05/14/kornheiser-takes-washington-post-buyout-retires-as-a-newspaper/http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2008/05/14/kornheiser-takes-washington-post-buyout-retires-as-a-newspaper/http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2008/05/14/kornheiser-takes-washington-post-buyout-retires-as-a-newspaper/#commentsFiled under: , ,

Tony Kornheiser announced on his radio show this morning that he has accepted a buyout from the Washington Post, effectively retiring him as a newspaper writer/worker.

Kornheiser has been at the Post since 1979 and for a pair of generations -- ours and our parents -- is probably considered the most important sports journalism voice from the Capitol area. Kornheiser sounded (as transcribed by Dan Steinberg) melancholy about his departure.
"All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer," he said, which is likely not something that anyone under the age of 30 will ever say again. "This other stuff is great, but I don't care about it," he continued. "In my mind that's what it says on the headstone, it says 'newspaper guy.' "

But he also said he signed the papers to take the Post's buyout last night, after working here for, I believe, 29 years. He said he still might contract with The Post to do his Talking Points videos and his Page 2 excerpts, and he said some people in the leadership asked him to stay but didn't really insist, and even though he'll keep doing PTI and the radio show and MNF, he said he feared he'd never have the moral high ground again.
Wow. I know that last sentence is not word-for-word from Tony's mouth, but what does that say about his relationship with ESPN? Lacks moral high ground but involves a ton of money? Maybe. If that's the case, and I sense that plugging every ABC/Disney product in sight is not his idea of "moral high ground", then it's kind of sad to think that Kornheiser will eventually be known for that work and not his WaPo writing.

Don't get me wrong -- this has been coming fro some time now. TK has always been a "superstar" sports journalist in the print world, but he didn't become a household name until he and Michael Wilbon brought Pardon the Interruption to the brain numbing airwaves of future generations in 2001. So to think that the the Post could keep him on forever, especially with his activities there dwindling in comparison to his work at the WWL and budgets at newspapers getting consistently trimmed, this is no huge shock.

The sad thing isn't that the Around the Horn evil-spinoff-spawn type shows and the Monday Night Football announcing will taint Tony's legacy. I don't think they will. The sad thing is that America, because we have short attention spans and are obsessed with this "final legacy" idea, will remember him as a TV guy simply because his career will end at ESPN instead of the Washington Post.

Kornheiser Takes Washington Post Buyout, Retires as a 'Newspaper Guy' originally appeared on Back Porch FanHouse on Wed, 14 May 2008 11:20:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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]]>Michael WilbonMichaelWilbontony kornheiserTonyKornheiserWill BrinsonWed, 14 May 2008 11:20:00 EST