Tony Kornheiser vs. Jacksonville

Tony Kornheiser wrote a column in the Washington Post ripping Jacksonville as a Hooters-loving, foul-smelling, remote city of doublewides that only got the Super Bowl because Tuscaloosa was booked:

Jacksonville is where Pat Boone was born (sometime around the Martin Van Buren presidency), and where the Southern hair band .38 Special got together. Somehow it doesn't sound like hip-hop. It's more like I-Hop.

As a seven-year resident, I'm more offended by Kornheiser's laziness than anything he wrote about Jacksonville (though he should have included St. Augustine along with No. 17 at Sawgrass as the best perks of living here).

A recent Slate article maligned Kornheiser as one of the phone-it-in sports columnists who has been ruined by TV gigs. His column hasn't quoted a single source in four months, according to Slate, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anything resembling a work ethic in his anti-Jacksonville rant.

Kornheiser didn't even bother to skim the Super Bowl XXXIV Media Guide, where he could have found four much better local targets for ridicule: We gave the world Lynyrd Skynyrd, Limp Biskit, Slim Whitman, and David Hasselhoff.

Sports · Journalism · Jacksonville · 2005/01/28 · 19 COMMENTS · Link

Comments

I didn't get that Slate column when I read it a couple days ago. Kornheiser's column isn't about quoting anyone. Its about Kornheiser pontificating and making jokes about people. A guy I work with is from the Jacksonville area and he found the column pretty funny.

#1 · Oliver · 2005/01/28

Tony should not have taken someone else's thoughts and put them into the column. If he hasn't been here he does not have the right to talk. It's all true, but he does not have the right to talk.

#2 · bigdal · 2005/01/30

Just to let you know: Tony makes his living by cracking on people, teams, and cities (and NOTHING'S sacred, least of all Joe Gibbs). His columns are *humor* columns first and foremost. All he cares about is making people laugh. After he churns one out, it's gone from his mind.

Being insulted by this piece is like being insulted by a stand-up comic's act. You can say, "It's not funny," and be perfectly justified. But don't hold onto it and continue to feel angry at a man just trying to get a laugh. Let it go.

#3 · Jesse · 2005/01/31

Hey,
The fact that you morons in Jacksonville are so offended by what Kornhesier wrote demonstrates his point exactly: Jacksonville is a third-rate city. If some loser from Jacksonville ripped DC or NY, no one in those towns would give a rat's ass.

#4 · John Ridgley · 2005/01/31

I'll take Jacksonville over DC any day of the week. Relax people. Jacksonville is full of nice folks and Tony's town is full of criminals and crackheads... And don't get me started on the people that aren't even involved with politics!
Live by the beach in a friendly town or pay $1500 a month for a studio in a truly scary place? This one is a no brainer.

#5 · Mike Novak · 2005/01/31

I have been walking around this town the past couple of days. All these fools in Jacksonville are talking about Tony. Why? Are you this insecure? If some columnist from Jacksonville ripped DC, no one would care in DC. YOu people are idiots.

#6 · John Ridgley · 2005/01/31

mr. ridgley, you say you've been walking around a town full of idiots the past couple of days? lmao, who's THE IDIOT? and if anyone ripped dc no one there would care, it would be well deserved rippage.

#7 · justanotherjesuslandhick · 2005/01/31

Welcome to Jacksonville, John. Where are you from? Need any advice on where to stay and good places to eat?

#8 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2005/02/01

Jacksonville is a dump, I mean how many non NFL fans have even heard of Jacksonville. I mean it can barley be classifed as a city, a collection of like 50 trailors with 20 people in each home gets you in NFL team. I mean most of your residents have not even heard of a computer yet alone own one. The cheap redneck and white trash jokes are that just cheap. To be seriours people in Washington have been looking for a reason to get you garbage city back since you dumped us with Mark Brunell. When you make Joe Gibbs look like a looser you knwo your going to have an angry nations capital on your hand.

#9 · Brian Adams · 2005/02/01

I'm glad Kornholer wrote the article. He is just the kind of person we are trying to keep from moving down here. I moved up here a year and a half ago from Ft Lauderdale, and absolutely love it. I just hope the northeastern elitists in town for the game feel the same way Tony does.

#10 · jreich · 2005/02/01

Yea your right we are so much better then you stupid southern rednecks. We are smarter, funnier, and better looking.

#11 · northeastern elitists · 2005/02/02

"yea your right".... we are smarter etc etc... how about "yeah you're right" stoopid elitist?

#12 · ted · 2005/02/02

Fuck him

#13 · Mike · 2006/09/09

Jacksonville the city shouldn't be bashed, but Jags fans SHOULD be bashed for not supporting a consistently good team.

Northern elitists, shouldn't you be so busy that bashing Jax shouldn't be worth your time? Jax hicks, shouldn't you be having a beer on the beach and not have a CPU to make blog comments with? STEREOTYPES RULE!

#14 · MM · 2007/10/22

...because he's replying to comments from 2005

#15 · MM is retarted... · 2007/10/22

wow, the panhandle of Florida is probably the worst section of land in the world (yes, I did consider parts of Columbia, The Iraq, Iran, Syria, China, Darfur and North Korea before making that statement).

This section of Florida should be cut off from the rest of the state and made into a separate territory like something out 'the road warrior.' the motto could be 'shirt-sleeves optional.'

it's full of nothing but rednecks, hicks, and white trash that are so embarrassing that even the marble-mouthed crawdad brain sucking people from the bayou of Louisiana would be ashamed to be associated with you.

Get over yourselves and stop pretending that you and your grand pappy wear shoes.

#16 · die panhandle florida · 2007/10/22

Maps are your friend, buddy. Jacksonville isn't in the Florida panhandle.

#17 · Rogers Cadenhead · 2007/10/23

Hey stupid ass, learn your fucking geometry. Oh and by the way, Jacksonville is surrounded by two of the top 10 fastest growing counties in the country and also the 7th richest. Dumb, poor, rednecks?

#18 · JAX REDNECK · 2007/10/25

Hey jax redneck, i think you might want to tell people that they need to learn their geography and not their geometry. Unless you want everbody to know about angles.

#19 · n/a · 2009/09/14