In 2006 DEI and Dale Jr. paid tribute to Dale Sr., forever the Man in Black (Getty Images/Andy Lyons)
Not a day goes by lately where I do not find a story about how the daily print media continues to write themselves out of relevance. This week’s main offender is the Wall Street Journal and reporter Amy Chozick.
Her article, “NASCAR’s roots may go way back,” is not only a contrived story idea meant to lure in NASCAR readers, but is particularly offensive to NASCAR fans and members of the NASCAR media, such as myself.
Using a picture of Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash at the 2001 Daytona 500 is such an offensive act that there are almost no words to describe it. To be clear, this reporter is so ignorant of the trespass she has just committed that she should not be writing about NASCAR in the first place.
On top of that the picture's caption -- “See some highlights in the history of stock car racing” -- seems to imply that the death of Dale Sr. is a highlight in the history of stock car racing. Let me tell you something right now, Ms. Chozick: The death of this NASCAR legend is one of the greatest tragedies this sport has ever had to survive. If you do not understand that, you are completely ignorant to this sport and you need not be writing on this subject.
It really is that simple.
Let us NASCAR media professionals write about the sport we love, instead of you wasting time writing about something that you obviously have no knowledge of. Even my wife, who hates NASCAR and the amount of time NASCAR takes up in my day, knows better than to use a picture of this tragedy to promote some ridiculous content. Even she found this article ridiculous and the picture offensive.
Instead of drawing NASCAR fans to the Wall Street Journal the paper has effectively alienated the core of the NASCAR fan base. A quick look at the comments section of this article reveals that I am not the only one who felt this story was a contrived piece of garbage. Ms. Chozick has not only made enemies of NASCAR fans, but of sports fans in general.
In an even worse trespass, this article’s slide show depicts Dale Sr.’s nickname as The Black Knight. A true NASCAR fan knows that is completely inaccurate and a total forgery. Earnhardt’s nickname was the Man in Black, or the Intimidator. In fact, there is a minor league baseball team in Kannapolis, North Carolina named the Intimidators in his honor.
The Black Knight? You have got to be kidding me. This is now what passes for journalism from the Wall Street Journal.
Comments
For starters I completely agree with you about the use to Dale SR.'s picture in the acticle. I did miss the pictures caption though and whether it was missed placed or not well thought out...it is wrong.
As for that article, I actually read it last night and all I could think the whole time is .......
WHAT IN THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT?
LMAO - Jousting and NASCAR parallels? WHAT?
Instead of horses there is horsepower?
I was lost. 1 parallel might be "a sport". they are both sports.
Other than that.....that lady is out there...way out there farther than the shuttle crew is right now fixing that satellite.
I truly regret getting sucked into reading that one. Don't think I made it to the end.
So Dale Earnhard is the new Mohammed? No one should ever show a picture of his wreck, even though fiery crash highlights make up the majority of all NASCAR highlights in sports news? Let's be reasonable.
i've been a fan of racing my whole life, and i don't agree with the use of that picture or the newspaper writer not checking to see if the black knight was one of Dale's nicknames...
but this article is not meant to be an informed person's take on nascar, but draws a parallel between modern day festival behavior and those of medieval times. it is not saying that the sport of jousting is similar to the sport of auto racing in terms of what the athletes do, but in the effect it has on bringing people together to watch the event.
come on...you're as guilty of twisting someone else's words to attract attention to yourself as they were of taking liberties with nascar to attract attention to themselves.
Using a picture of Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash at the 2001 "Daytona 500 is such an offensive act that there are almost no words to describe it. To be clear, this reporter is so ignorant of the trespass she has just committed that she should not be writing about NASCAR in the first place."
First of all, Josh, I don't know how you can be a reporter and not understand that the reporter doesn't have control about what pictures are put into the story and how they are captioned. That job is the editor's.
Second, and more importantly, you don't even claim what the trespass is. Is it covering the news? Someone tragically dies and it can't be covered? Congratulations, you just made media more irrelevant than an article that supposedly transgresses on the sport of NASCAR. Using your standard (which I am assuming at this point, I really have no idea because you don't articulate it), the following events should not have been covered by the media:
- 9/11 (more than one person died tragically)
- Pearl Harbor (more than one person died tragically)
- USS Cole bombing (more than one person died tragically)
- The NYC crane collapse (more than one person died tragically)
- JFK's assassination (his death is certainly more important and tragic than Dale Earnhardt's)
Furthermore, Earnhardt's death was the impetus for league-wide installation of HANS devices. So it's important in that regard.
Whatever journalistic integrity you had was lost when you wrote such an inarticulate, pandering piece.
Matt, did you even read this article? Where did he say it can't be covered? There is a difference between covering the crash and alluding that it is a "highlight" of the sport.
You wasted a significant amount of time expressing your misplaced indignation. Sadly, you commissioned that high horse for nothing.
I was going to races in the early 50's. Reading her article and being from the South, I had a good LAUGH--
Thank you for posting the link to that story... it sure gave me a laugh :) I am amazed that someone got paid to write that garbage! I understand that every journalist wants to have a good angle to their story but comparing NASCAR to jousting was just stupid! And whether it was the writer or the editor who used the picture doesn't really matter... what matters is that it is extremely disrespectful! There are billions of other pictures they could have used... I am disappointed that the Wall Street
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