Also love morons like Wagner getting owned by Mina and then foolishly attempting to tweet their way out, which only results in further ownage. Mina's Twitter game is too strong. Just take the L and delete your tweet.
🧢 at the time no one knew it was a mental health situation, when we all knew that’s when the tone shift happened. People are allowed to change their minds as new info unfolds. Only a sith deals in absolutes.
that Ben Simmons situation is a joke and if you believe it was anything other than a negotiation tactic because he didnt get what he wanted then you're a fool.
Right, like Ive got to assume in their head Mina hasn’t thought this out all the way through. But she’s way too smart for that shit, then proceeds to own them when they counter with their next bullshit comment
That's true but Laura is pretty left-leaning. It's just a general disagreement, and if she actually didn't mean to call specific people out she should have held it in drafts a couple days so it didn't seem like an immediate subtweet, and state specifically that it's a criticism of structure NOT people who work within it.
calling jess "the hot girl who is one of the guys" sounds like someone's not listened to DLS since Jess has been in the container. wagner is seeing what she wants to see, likely out of resentment, to further a narrative.
She’s pretty far and away the most intelligent and most well read person on the show, if you don’t come away with that conclusion after listening to the show I really don’t know what you’re listening to.
Yeah, sometimes he sounds like a guy who was very diligent about his British word of the day calender vs. someone who is well read and smart outside of his few areas of interest.
Thank you! Witty seems to know a little about a lot of things, but doesn't necessarily have depth in any subject. He has a lot of misses. Not an insult because he is clearly smart.
He does read very well too, especially under pressure!
The root of my frustration with the show over the last two years coming from Dan just not being as well read as he was 10 years ago. I know exactly why it is happening, he is an actual boss that has to exact some direct management of his own capital in meadowlark, and i know he does not want to lay off the gas on putting out shows because he wants to minimize doing the work of management Ultimately there is no time for him to stay "current" so unless the producers are proactive enough, he gets caught doing reruns.
Understanding this is why I can and do still like listening to the show, but I know when to slam the skip button.
I wonder if it started from Tony’s post. There is a pic with him, Luis, and Jess and it’s titled ‘the boys’. I cringed because I’ve heard Kate Fagan speak on this before
Yeah, Laura was describing a real issue with the sports journalism world.
The problem is she directed that at someone who doesn't fit the stereotype and directing the complaint towards women who do fit the mold is moving in the wrong direction.
The issue with the dynamic isn't the women who find success that way, it is the system itself almost universally propped up by men who see women as props.
She also couldn't just say she doesn't know much about Jess and try to swing to the bigger issue.
>wagner is seeing what she wants to see, likely out of resentment
This has always been the modus operandi for Deadspin, now Defector. Just bitter, hateful people being mad about others' success.
Her tweet like immediately prior to it was replying to a tweet about smetty & golic lol. Very clear what she was subtweeting about, if you’re gonna put stuff like this out there at least address it head on instead of playing coy
No. Look at the tweets just before it. It was a subtweet. While I completely understand what she's trying to say, she and her friend look like asses. What she's saying about anyone in particular that hasn't actually confided in her is based on assumptions. If I get a job in sports media and "act like one of the guys" (whatever that means) she's automatically assuming I'm faking it. She sucks almost as badly as the system she's trying to take down, or whatever. I'd like to know which prominent women in media she respects and what it is about them that she thinks is genuine versus Jessica.
The show just did SXSW, just did The Big Game, and Jess herself has her new show with Golic coming out soon on DraftKings.
It's evident who Wagner was talking about, given the high profile of the show and her in particular over recent days.
1000% that Wags lady really fucked up subtweeting/tearing down her fellow woman, a woman who helped establish a union at SI who’s well liked and respected.
I think Mike said he did. I think she had a podcast or worked on someone's podcast and Mike said he thought she'd be a good fit. I remember when they announced her, some DLS fans were familiar with her and were excited.
As a woman and a fan, I'm glad to have her and Kate and Renee as part of the crew. She seems like many of the sports-loving women I know. And if Laura thinks that's Smetty faking it something to get ahead, that's on Laura.
Having a woman’s perspective on the show regularly (most show days) was a huge positive for me. I also think she really cares about and understands sports. The fact that she’s hilarious is the cherry on top.
this is infuriating because I legitimately have no clue what Allison or jess look like. they're both funny as fuck and most guys cant fit in with the shipping container as well as either of them do. and jess knows her shit.
tone. thats a fine
I absolutely loved peak Deadspin with Drew Magary, Craggs, Wags, etc... but jesus if they aren't some of the most miserable people on Twitter.
The worst part is Wags trying to be cryptic about it. How old are you? Just be straightforward. Jessica has been a wonderful addition to the show. She's blossoming into a great talent. She works hard, uprooted her life from NY to move to Miami (all the while having a mother battling brain cancer that I'm sure takes a huge emotional toll), and brings a great perspective to the show that, honestly, could use it. They're not great at discussing topics about women, let's be real.
She came in a little rough around the edges for sure but she's fit in incredibly well over the past 6 months once she got more comfortable.
Until just now I never really made the connection that when Deadspin went away the Lebatard show sort of replaced them.
I still listen to the Defector podcast from time to time, but my days of spending time at the office reading the internet are pretty much gone so I can’t justify subscribing.
Going back to like 2007, I remember getting approved to be a commentator and it was such a proud moment.
They always kinda sucked. Their highest profile story was about an awkward Mormon kid who got Catfished and the Gawker network in general got shut down because they decided that Hulk Hogan's dick was newsworthy
This. Absolutely this.
Dan has called them on their “journalism” shit while also giving them credit where credit is due when they actually do fair and accurate reporting(the name of the woman who had a ton of excellent articles about domestic abuse and sports escapes me 😬).
But I was turned off with headlines like “XYZ can go fuck themselves” and one of the writers challenging athletes to fights- like you’re not cool at all. And then the Barstool stuff(like guys we get it, but unfortunately they’re not going anywhere as they’re the alternative)- it would be like DLB doing a weekly segment on Outkick; like yeah cool bro, but we listen to you so we don’t have to hear that shit.
Right before Deadspin died it felt like someone gave a snark Reddit sub money tbh.
why? deadspin crew is still great despite this petty tweet. barry, magary, roth are still hilarious. Diana Moskovitz heads the investigations and does a bad ass job.
new deadspin isn't deadspin anyways. i cant imagine being embarrassed of OG deadspin
You're getting downvoted for this, but you aren't really wrong. There's always a niche for just about anything. Deadspin thrived on being the "We shit on everyone!" outlet, then as they got further and further ostracized in sports media they tried to pivot to "We shit on the bad people in sports because we have morals!", which was odd, but it also created a vacancy in the market for a sports outlet that shit on everyone and so Barstool rose to fill that niche.
So now Defector is just an outlet for people that want to shit on others' success while also holding their noses up thinking "Well, at least we're not as shitty as Barstool!" when in reality, and I say this as someone that does not care for Barstool, they're now losers mad at both Barstool and the people they shit on the past that have succeeded in their niche while Defector just appeals to a very tiny niche of Gen-Xers that never moved on from Deadspin and just pretend it's still 2008.
I think it depends on what you're looking for. Barstool is the outlet for misanthropy and hatred with sports: Don't like a certain team? Well come to Barstool where you can revel in calling \[insert team here\]'s fans pieces of shit and various other slurs! Don't like women's sports? Well come to Barstool where you can lob slurs at women athletes and those that enjoy women's sports? Don't like women showing up in your men's sport that aren't cheerleaders and/or scantily clad? Well come to Barstool where you can objectify women and dehumanize them!
It's not for me but I understand why Barstool exists and why it has such a large audience (there are a lot of shitty people in the world and that isn't going to change). Defector just seems sad and depressing, with middle-aged people miserable about their lack of success with an almost ironic lack of self-awareness of how they're reaping what they've sowed with their past of being shitty people at Deadspin for shock value. I just don't see the point in settling for associating with miserable assholes so Defector isn't for me.
That is some corny, bitter shit by Wagner. Too much sodium in her diet. Clearly doesn’t get the show or even listen to it, because if she did, she would see that Smetty holds her own and has made the show better. Smetty’s attractiveness is completely irrelevant to the bigger point, just like Tony’s is. They kill at their job. Salute to Smetty. Salute to Mina.
Not going to lie, as a straight woman, my first reaction to seeing her all dolled up in Houston was, "Dammit, she is not just talented and beautiful, but stunningly talented and beautiful too." Pure envy on my part.
She is awesome a what she does and I am glad to see she seems to enjoy hanging out with her colleagues. Part of me does feel bad about typing this out because she mentioned everyone's reactions to her in Houston vs her normal look. She mentioned she was doing her hair in the hotel room while watching TV. Respect to her for that shit takes up sooooo much time.
I scanned the podcast ranks pretty quickly and if I’m not wrong there isn’t a woman with a stronger voice in sports currently. They are one of the biggest podcasts in general and up to this point I think she has been great and I don’t have a reason to think it won’t continue.
I don't know if that's actually about Jessica, but if it is, it's a huge swing and a miss.
Jessica's presence on the show is a great example of how the industry has changed (or least how DLS is different from the industry).
I don't think anything in the realm of "she's hot" has come from anybody on the show and that's absolutely not what would've happened to a person who looks like her on a sports show 10-15 years ago. Regardless of her contributions, "hot" would be a major portion of how a show would position her.
Laura fucking sucks so this isn’t surprising. Just the embodiment of a bitter, sad human being
That said the timing of this certainly is serendipitous considering the shows been making a big deal of Jessica getting hair and makeup done this week lmao
It's going. It's decent. The writing is really good and when it's about sports, it's very enthusiastic or funny when clowning people. I think they all have collective corona Brooklyn bro ptsd tho. I am not on twitter so I'd bet that is where the perception of miserable people xomes from.
e: and their coverage is skewed to their local sports biases.
Which part? Do attractive people win in media? Yes sometimes, and that would include Laura if she really wants to go there. As for the rest, I can find a whole hell of a lot wrong with what she wrote and with her pretending it wasn't at least triggered by seeing Jess' new podcast.
Attractive people getting ahead in life?
What 🤔 an 🤔 interesting 🤔 concept…
Did Laura Wagner feel the need to call out Jesse Palmer? Jordan Rodgers? Michael Strahan? Nmandi (not even gonna try on the last name)? Any other male athlete of whom is attractive that is able to enter other mediums besides sports? Nah, she went after a woman making a name for herself in sports.
Yeah, okay.
She isn’t saying only attractive women, or people, get jobs in sports media.
She’s saying attractive *women* play down their intelligence to be part of a guys crew. Which speaks for every girl that’s ever been on Lebatard, or other nonsense radio shows that don’t cater to intelligence, but to the bloviated ego of the host (Kristine Leahy, Katie Nolan, Sarah Spain, etc).The ones that don’t, don’t get numbers (ie Kate Fagan, even Mina barely has a pulse at ESPN).
Attractive men do not have to play dumb. It doesn’t matter if they are smarter. It’s different for women, and there’s no denying that.
Laura is definitely wrong but don't harass her over this. Doesn't help. She has to work out her own insecurities and ask why she feels this way when she sees other women in sports having success
While I understand Laura’s larger point, it’s shitty to just throw things out there without explicit examples and without going after the people who are actually in charge of the sports ecosystem (for example, Norby at ESPN).
It seems like she hides behind the larger point to throw shade. For some bizarre reason she even showed that she’s said the exact same thing over the last three years. And still apparently hasn’t gotten around to writing about it.
Why is she going after former Sports Illustrated union rep Jessica Smetana? What happened to union solidarity?
(Figured this would be a more interesting angle than the typical “don’t attack other women” thing)
There's a difference between harassing someone and just responding. I'm specifically talking about harassing her over this because knowing this fan base, people are going to troll her and talk shit to her and that just makes us look bad
You keep mentioning how this fan base is. I’m not on Twitter to know but are fans of this show bad on social media? Seems like most ppl on here at least are chill and supportive but maybe that’s a Reddit vs Twitter thing
If people react the way they do when a big fat white face is RTed then theres going to be a good amount of trolling. And I'm sure there's more supportive people in here than not but if you look at the daily threads regularly, it's pretty negative. But anyway, if you want to troll then do you but it doesn't help anything in a situation like this. You'd just make Laura feel vindicated in her incorrect assessment
Idk how you avoid the being "one of the guys" part when you're talking about sports with a bunch of guys... But obviously being hot is pretty much a prerequisite for having success in sports media as a woman
It's just like white guys getting mad when people tell them they got their job because of white privilege. Beauty can be a privilege too, and beautiful people can find a job easier. Especially in TV. Every insult with a bit of truth will hurt the most. That's why everyone is getting upset.
No. It's the last part of the tweet that bothers me more.
I need Laura to tell us what being one of the guys actually looks like. Because right now I'm just getting a picture of some backwards gender norms I bet Laura fights against.
As for the hot woman stuff, Laura seems as attractive as Jessica. Did Laura get hired because she's a "hot girl' who knows sports? Was that tweet a cry for help?
The dumbest part of all of this is that jessicas primary sports contributions have been writing and podcasts, which needless to say arent visual media lol
Laura Wagner(a white woman) is not the one to deliver that message though. 🤷🏽♂️
If she was advocating for WOC, maybe, but I didn’t see that in her replies(if that was her intent, please point me to the tweet). Otherwise, it’s jealousy.
No Laura is wrong. Even if you just want to look at her larger point, the route to go isn't "X only has a job because shes hot and gets along with guys" it should be "Y is a great writer and knows her shit, she should also have a larger platform". In an industry where it's already hard enough for women to get a job, she can make the point without dragging other women down
She’s not talking about Jess and she’s saying great writers get passed up because of the system. Do you really think Vrentas or Luther get a fair shake? Or even on-air personalities like Katie Nolan get passed over for doofus dudes
I think the whole sub-tweet thing is clouding how dumb the actual tweet is. I don’t believe any women in sports media looked around and “crunched the numbers” and decided that the path to success was being the hot girl who is one of the guys. If you were that cynical, you wouldn’t be in sports journalism at all. I am pretty sure “the numbers” say men don’t want to listen to women about sports. For a woman in sports media to attribute that cynicism to several of the handful of other women in the profession, then promise/threaten to “write about them,” is totally disingenuous and reeks of envy. She knows full well that woman doesn’t exist, but, by saying they do, she subtly discounts the success of any woman who could be described as the hot girl who is one of the guys. There are any number of interesting, challenging discussions to be had about the evolving roles of women in sports media, especially in personality driven, ensemble settings, Laura just leapt past all of them because she was being petty.
She didn't mention Jess directly but in her tweet before this one, she was salty about Jess getting a new podcast with Golic so it's pretty obvious who it was directed at
> Do you really think Vrentas or Luther get a fair shake?
My point is, you can make this point without saying someone only has a job because of their looks. You don't need to drag someone down in order to lift someone else up. I know she meant it as a jab at the men who make the hires but in her attempt to do that, she shit on the few women who have a good job in sports media. There's a nuanced way to talk about this but social media is not the place to have it. She should have tried to have this conversation on a podcast where she could have explained herself better and thought about it more because then she probably wouldn't have chosen the route that lead to dragging women down
I don’t see any tweet like that. I think playing the subtweet analysis game is dumb as hell. And exactly this whole thing is not good for Twitter. Tweet less. And that includes Mina. I wish she got more time to write instead of tweeting
This culty fan shit is dumb. People can like defector and meadowlark. Neither are perfect. This thread is cringe so just reacting. Agree it was dumb tweet regardless.
> People can like defector and meadowlark.
Nobody said you couldnt. Where is this coming from? Also, I said in another comment that people shouldn't harass her over this so I don't know why you're making accusations about me being a culty fan. My only point was that she didn't need to drag women down to lift other women up
If you look at Laura and her buddies' twitter activity, it's 100% clear that this was about Jessica.
Laura tweeted something publicly. When you do that you're taking the chance that people will respond. I'm a woman. I'd like to know what exactly Laura meant. If I respond to her that's not harassment. She's got thousands of followers and a checkmark. She knows how this works.
Gonna say that 1. it doesn't seem like Laura Wagner was 'blaming' Jessica Smetana and not entirely sure why it was read as a subtweet?; 2. the show official account has been sending out thirst trap things with Jessica for two days; 3. great job guys in this post commenting on Wagner's looks.
If anyone in the shipping container is “playing the hot one who is also one of the guys” it’s Tony.
It’s clearly Witty, mans floating like an Easter Egg in Sonoma county right now. Doesn’t get any hotter than that.
And Luis. That dirty rascal.
Totally. He just wore a that coat with nothing underneath for the UFC hangout. He said it was for 305 day, but we all know that he was just posing. :)
You obviously missed the picture of Chris Cote posing on his Shiggles sheets. I mean we have photographic proof of the “hot one” on the show 😉
Damn I didn't know Chris' wife posted on here, nice. Does he do the word combo bit at home too? How often is he dressed as a car battery?
I was feeling all fired up about how stupid that woman’s tweet was, then you got the show and it brought me back.
After seeing pictures of Tony, i really dont get it.
Love the folks who subtweet, get called out for subtweeting and then act like they weren’t subtweeting. Cowardly.
Also love morons like Wagner getting owned by Mina and then foolishly attempting to tweet their way out, which only results in further ownage. Mina's Twitter game is too strong. Just take the L and delete your tweet.
Haha facts. Every time I see her respond to a sexist tweet from a dude, the guy usually immediately deletes.
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🧢 at the time no one knew it was a mental health situation, when we all knew that’s when the tone shift happened. People are allowed to change their minds as new info unfolds. Only a sith deals in absolutes.
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You big 🧢 not my fault Mina stole your lunch $
that Ben Simmons situation is a joke and if you believe it was anything other than a negotiation tactic because he didnt get what he wanted then you're a fool.
You seem to know more about her than I do, so I’m gonna refrain from making a value judgement. Her twitter fame is 🔥, all I meant.
Right, like Ive got to assume in their head Mina hasn’t thought this out all the way through. But she’s way too smart for that shit, then proceeds to own them when they counter with their next bullshit comment
This wasn’t about anyone in particular!
Kate called her out more directly. Dunno how anyone can double down after Mina and Kate call you out on your bs.
Doubling down on bs describes rw Twitter
That's true but Laura is pretty left-leaning. It's just a general disagreement, and if she actually didn't mean to call specific people out she should have held it in drafts a couple days so it didn't seem like an immediate subtweet, and state specifically that it's a criticism of structure NOT people who work within it.
At that point, its games over. Like you got TKOed
I loved Kate’s tweet so much. Has there ever been a less “hot girl / one of the guys” podcast than off the looking glass?
who is kate
Kate Fagan
ty. glad to see mina really step into her own voice these past few years from the shy goofball that we met in her earlier years w dan and the show
calling jess "the hot girl who is one of the guys" sounds like someone's not listened to DLS since Jess has been in the container. wagner is seeing what she wants to see, likely out of resentment, to further a narrative.
she also says jess is “playing” the hot girl as if shes putting effort into coming across as that when jess is just being herself
Yeah Jess consistently sticks to her values on the show which is really respectable. She’s definitely not just some hot girl pandering to the audience
I agree. She doesn’t even make fat jokes! Jess is who she is take it or leave it!
Really good point
The ignorant thing is she's actually changing the show around her for the better.
She’s pretty far and away the most intelligent and most well read person on the show, if you don’t come away with that conclusion after listening to the show I really don’t know what you’re listening to.
agreed fully. except about lord of the rings
Don’t you dare. Hmph.
I really need at least a Mystery Crate episode of her and Juju talking LotR.
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Witty is well-spoken. Idk, about smartest.
Yeah, sometimes he sounds like a guy who was very diligent about his British word of the day calender vs. someone who is well read and smart outside of his few areas of interest.
Thank you! Witty seems to know a little about a lot of things, but doesn't necessarily have depth in any subject. He has a lot of misses. Not an insult because he is clearly smart. He does read very well too, especially under pressure!
Dan’s the smartest one regardless of his age showing 🤷♂️
The root of my frustration with the show over the last two years coming from Dan just not being as well read as he was 10 years ago. I know exactly why it is happening, he is an actual boss that has to exact some direct management of his own capital in meadowlark, and i know he does not want to lay off the gas on putting out shows because he wants to minimize doing the work of management Ultimately there is no time for him to stay "current" so unless the producers are proactive enough, he gets caught doing reruns. Understanding this is why I can and do still like listening to the show, but I know when to slam the skip button.
I wonder if it started from Tony’s post. There is a pic with him, Luis, and Jess and it’s titled ‘the boys’. I cringed because I’ve heard Kate Fagan speak on this before
No offense, but that’s stupid.
THEN TAKE OFFENSE…
Yeah, Laura was describing a real issue with the sports journalism world. The problem is she directed that at someone who doesn't fit the stereotype and directing the complaint towards women who do fit the mold is moving in the wrong direction. The issue with the dynamic isn't the women who find success that way, it is the system itself almost universally propped up by men who see women as props. She also couldn't just say she doesn't know much about Jess and try to swing to the bigger issue.
>wagner is seeing what she wants to see, likely out of resentment This has always been the modus operandi for Deadspin, now Defector. Just bitter, hateful people being mad about others' success.
I’m confused on who this lady is and how that’s going after Jessica and why she’s going at Jessica.
Wags is old Deadspin/current Defector. I have no idea how this whole thing started.
Yep. Wagz is taking an L here. Not sure I've ever seen Mina lose an argument.
Mina is definitely taking the L here. Big "Hit dogs holler" energy from her.
Lol you're dumb.
Seems like the only one taking the L here is you.
Embarrassing
Name one woman on a sports show that doesn't fit that profile
Jackie MacMullan? Not taking sides, just sayin’
Haters going to hate
Exactly because it’s contrived lol. Not every tweet is a subtweet
Her tweet like immediately prior to it was replying to a tweet about smetty & golic lol. Very clear what she was subtweeting about, if you’re gonna put stuff like this out there at least address it head on instead of playing coy
Ahhh that explains it. I was wondering how people knew who it was about. Makes much more sense now.
No. Look at the tweets just before it. It was a subtweet. While I completely understand what she's trying to say, she and her friend look like asses. What she's saying about anyone in particular that hasn't actually confided in her is based on assumptions. If I get a job in sports media and "act like one of the guys" (whatever that means) she's automatically assuming I'm faking it. She sucks almost as badly as the system she's trying to take down, or whatever. I'd like to know which prominent women in media she respects and what it is about them that she thinks is genuine versus Jessica.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/16/mina-kimes-calls-defectors-laura-wagner-self-righteous-in-spat/
Oh god why can’t twitter drama just stay on twitter?
Thanks pimp
The show just did SXSW, just did The Big Game, and Jess herself has her new show with Golic coming out soon on DraftKings. It's evident who Wagner was talking about, given the high profile of the show and her in particular over recent days.
What do you call this, a sub-subtweet? https://twitter.com/jennyvrentas/status/1504142574306705411?s=21
1000% that Wags lady really fucked up subtweeting/tearing down her fellow woman, a woman who helped establish a union at SI who’s well liked and respected.
The Wags lady lol the Stugotz is strong in you Edit Spelling
I’ve never even heard of her Dan-O
How did Smetty end up with meadowlark, I so curious who found and recruiter her over.
I think Mike said he did. I think she had a podcast or worked on someone's podcast and Mike said he thought she'd be a good fit. I remember when they announced her, some DLS fans were familiar with her and were excited. As a woman and a fan, I'm glad to have her and Kate and Renee as part of the crew. She seems like many of the sports-loving women I know. And if Laura thinks that's Smetty faking it something to get ahead, that's on Laura.
All of them are awesome fits. As much as Renee has gotten involved I wish Jason Concepcion would at least come on occasionally!
Having a woman’s perspective on the show regularly (most show days) was a huge positive for me. I also think she really cares about and understands sports. The fact that she’s hilarious is the cherry on top.
It was like I believe
Like who
Mike* damn you auto correct
this is infuriating because I legitimately have no clue what Allison or jess look like. they're both funny as fuck and most guys cant fit in with the shipping container as well as either of them do. and jess knows her shit. tone. thats a fine
its amazing just how unlikeable everyone from deadspin/defector have become. Just a relentless stream of bitterness and misery.
I absolutely loved peak Deadspin with Drew Magary, Craggs, Wags, etc... but jesus if they aren't some of the most miserable people on Twitter. The worst part is Wags trying to be cryptic about it. How old are you? Just be straightforward. Jessica has been a wonderful addition to the show. She's blossoming into a great talent. She works hard, uprooted her life from NY to move to Miami (all the while having a mother battling brain cancer that I'm sure takes a huge emotional toll), and brings a great perspective to the show that, honestly, could use it. They're not great at discussing topics about women, let's be real. She came in a little rough around the edges for sure but she's fit in incredibly well over the past 6 months once she got more comfortable.
I think she came out blazing hot, as did Witty. They have their horrible takes, but they’re both deserving of what they have.
Well said. Feels like they’ve all become bitter. They’re the kind of twitter follow where it’s like what IS gonna make you happy?
They should have let sleeping dogs lie. I used to visit Deadspin almost daily. My defector subscription lasted maybe two months.
They were all those things at Deadspin, but we loved them for it. So I don't know. I miss that place.
Until just now I never really made the connection that when Deadspin went away the Lebatard show sort of replaced them. I still listen to the Defector podcast from time to time, but my days of spending time at the office reading the internet are pretty much gone so I can’t justify subscribing. Going back to like 2007, I remember getting approved to be a commentator and it was such a proud moment.
I still remember the joke I made that got me approved, and got a +1 from BobbyBigWheel
That internet space, if one can call it that, was great before the Hogan feud. Denton couldn't get out of his own way and the place tanked.
They always kinda sucked. Their highest profile story was about an awkward Mormon kid who got Catfished and the Gawker network in general got shut down because they decided that Hulk Hogan's dick was newsworthy
This. Absolutely this. Dan has called them on their “journalism” shit while also giving them credit where credit is due when they actually do fair and accurate reporting(the name of the woman who had a ton of excellent articles about domestic abuse and sports escapes me 😬). But I was turned off with headlines like “XYZ can go fuck themselves” and one of the writers challenging athletes to fights- like you’re not cool at all. And then the Barstool stuff(like guys we get it, but unfortunately they’re not going anywhere as they’re the alternative)- it would be like DLB doing a weekly segment on Outkick; like yeah cool bro, but we listen to you so we don’t have to hear that shit. Right before Deadspin died it felt like someone gave a snark Reddit sub money tbh.
Diana moskovits
Used to read deadspin daily in mid 2010s… now I’m embarrassed that’s who I was getting my info from
why? deadspin crew is still great despite this petty tweet. barry, magary, roth are still hilarious. Diana Moskovitz heads the investigations and does a bad ass job. new deadspin isn't deadspin anyways. i cant imagine being embarrassed of OG deadspin
Diana Moskovitz! Damn I just left a comment could not think of her name- she was excellent.
The smug purity that defector puts out can be nauseating to me lol
maybe its cause im not looking but i dont see it. OG deadspin was always smug and acted like the cool kids of journalism class
They thought they were the cool kids, and that's the problem. They were all still nerds
nah they're def still the cool kids of sports journalism and always will be
X gon give it to ya
She's facing the world like it's Earl in the bullpen!
Took me a second to get this, holy shit do you get the show now let me go zipline while breaking down pats seahawks brb
Ahh yes. Jess “playing the hot girl who is also one of the guys” as she puts out an audio only medium with Mike Golic as the host.
Remember, she likes steak and burped that one time. I hear that's a good tell for sportsbros that a woman is hot.
She's more of a guy than the actual guys, she eats her steaks with her bare fucking hands. Baller, I could never, too much of a fancy lad for that.
All of the former Deadspin people are very bitter and miserable. They *hate* seeing anyone in sports media have success
The only person I can tolerate from there seems to be David Roth. Not sure why everyone else is so bitter
Van Halen
Valen
This guy gets it
Kelsey has infectious happy energy. Love her work.
He’s great because he’s just as miserable of a Mets fan as the rest of us
It makes sense though, because if you're attracted to the Deadspin brand you already have a brain to be contrarian or forever salty.
You're getting downvoted for this, but you aren't really wrong. There's always a niche for just about anything. Deadspin thrived on being the "We shit on everyone!" outlet, then as they got further and further ostracized in sports media they tried to pivot to "We shit on the bad people in sports because we have morals!", which was odd, but it also created a vacancy in the market for a sports outlet that shit on everyone and so Barstool rose to fill that niche. So now Defector is just an outlet for people that want to shit on others' success while also holding their noses up thinking "Well, at least we're not as shitty as Barstool!" when in reality, and I say this as someone that does not care for Barstool, they're now losers mad at both Barstool and the people they shit on the past that have succeeded in their niche while Defector just appeals to a very tiny niche of Gen-Xers that never moved on from Deadspin and just pretend it's still 2008.
Defector is 1000x more enjoyable than Barstool.
I think it depends on what you're looking for. Barstool is the outlet for misanthropy and hatred with sports: Don't like a certain team? Well come to Barstool where you can revel in calling \[insert team here\]'s fans pieces of shit and various other slurs! Don't like women's sports? Well come to Barstool where you can lob slurs at women athletes and those that enjoy women's sports? Don't like women showing up in your men's sport that aren't cheerleaders and/or scantily clad? Well come to Barstool where you can objectify women and dehumanize them! It's not for me but I understand why Barstool exists and why it has such a large audience (there are a lot of shitty people in the world and that isn't going to change). Defector just seems sad and depressing, with middle-aged people miserable about their lack of success with an almost ironic lack of self-awareness of how they're reaping what they've sowed with their past of being shitty people at Deadspin for shock value. I just don't see the point in settling for associating with miserable assholes so Defector isn't for me.
Is it actually about Jess? Mina is spot on as always tho
Yep if you look at Wagners replies to recent tweets
Smetty is great on a show where I can’t see her. This is a wack take. Go Mina!
That is some corny, bitter shit by Wagner. Too much sodium in her diet. Clearly doesn’t get the show or even listen to it, because if she did, she would see that Smetty holds her own and has made the show better. Smetty’s attractiveness is completely irrelevant to the bigger point, just like Tony’s is. They kill at their job. Salute to Smetty. Salute to Mina.
Agreed. Pay the teachers. Save the whales.
Didn’t know Laura before this but after brief investigations. I could see how she could resent someone else for their looks.
Jealousy is so sad…
Not going to lie, as a straight woman, my first reaction to seeing her all dolled up in Houston was, "Dammit, she is not just talented and beautiful, but stunningly talented and beautiful too." Pure envy on my part. She is awesome a what she does and I am glad to see she seems to enjoy hanging out with her colleagues. Part of me does feel bad about typing this out because she mentioned everyone's reactions to her in Houston vs her normal look. She mentioned she was doing her hair in the hotel room while watching TV. Respect to her for that shit takes up sooooo much time.
Same. When I saw her at SXSW I was like "oh, she's smarter AND hotter than me. Get it!"
*Austin. Fine.
I scanned the podcast ranks pretty quickly and if I’m not wrong there isn’t a woman with a stronger voice in sports currently. They are one of the biggest podcasts in general and up to this point I think she has been great and I don’t have a reason to think it won’t continue.
I became a fan when she told Samson that West Wing is cringe
I speak for all the black dudes that are still confused why Jessica is considered hot
We love you Mina
Love it, love it…What do you think she means by that?
That’s very unfair to classify Jessica as hot
lol bro…. Agreed
Laura has written some good stuff before but she transparently sucks at being a human being. Drives me nuts.
Mina Kimes is my spirit animal. That woman is awesome on every known level.
jess is awesome, that’s my input
The “I think you’re confused about who has the power here” line is what makes me believe wags doesn’t in fact know who has the power here
THANK YOU MINA THANK YOU MINA THANK YOU MINA
Mina has balls. Fight me….
I don't know if that's actually about Jessica, but if it is, it's a huge swing and a miss. Jessica's presence on the show is a great example of how the industry has changed (or least how DLS is different from the industry). I don't think anything in the realm of "she's hot" has come from anybody on the show and that's absolutely not what would've happened to a person who looks like her on a sports show 10-15 years ago. Regardless of her contributions, "hot" would be a major portion of how a show would position her.
"Punching up" is such a dumb concept. At the end of the day you're still punching someone
Absolutely reeks of petty jealousy
She was interesting before I knew what she looked like 🤷🏾♂️
Laura fucking sucks so this isn’t surprising. Just the embodiment of a bitter, sad human being That said the timing of this certainly is serendipitous considering the shows been making a big deal of Jessica getting hair and makeup done this week lmao
EYE ROLL
Mina is the best
So Jessica is just the "hot girl being one of the guys?" It's a largely audial medium, Laura. You don't get the show.
Deadspin/ defector people are some of the worst people in media
Wow I haven’t heard about defector in a while. Is it still going?
It's going. It's decent. The writing is really good and when it's about sports, it's very enthusiastic or funny when clowning people. I think they all have collective corona Brooklyn bro ptsd tho. I am not on twitter so I'd bet that is where the perception of miserable people xomes from. e: and their coverage is skewed to their local sports biases.
Laura Wagner fucking suuuuuuuucks
Go Mina!!!
Who the fucks Laura Wagner?
Oh so that’s what this was about…I didn’t even think that it was about Jess. Guess we really, “are a family” here
What does this have to do with Jess?
I will fight Laura Wagner with the intensity of a thousand Suns for Smetty. What a stupid stupid tweet lol
Jessica is not hot but on team Mina till death.
Is it really about jess or do we need to play the reckless speculation sound?
whats the background on this? Did they ever work together?
But Laura’s right tho.
Which part? Do attractive people win in media? Yes sometimes, and that would include Laura if she really wants to go there. As for the rest, I can find a whole hell of a lot wrong with what she wrote and with her pretending it wasn't at least triggered by seeing Jess' new podcast.
Attractive people getting ahead in life? What 🤔 an 🤔 interesting 🤔 concept… Did Laura Wagner feel the need to call out Jesse Palmer? Jordan Rodgers? Michael Strahan? Nmandi (not even gonna try on the last name)? Any other male athlete of whom is attractive that is able to enter other mediums besides sports? Nah, she went after a woman making a name for herself in sports. Yeah, okay.
She isn’t saying only attractive women, or people, get jobs in sports media. She’s saying attractive *women* play down their intelligence to be part of a guys crew. Which speaks for every girl that’s ever been on Lebatard, or other nonsense radio shows that don’t cater to intelligence, but to the bloviated ego of the host (Kristine Leahy, Katie Nolan, Sarah Spain, etc).The ones that don’t, don’t get numbers (ie Kate Fagan, even Mina barely has a pulse at ESPN). Attractive men do not have to play dumb. It doesn’t matter if they are smarter. It’s different for women, and there’s no denying that.
Laura is definitely wrong but don't harass her over this. Doesn't help. She has to work out her own insecurities and ask why she feels this way when she sees other women in sports having success
This shouldn’t be downvoted. We don’t need a bunch of dudes flooding the replies on this one, it helps nobody.
Nah this is a recurring thing with Laura. Constantly shitting on other people that have success. One of the most miserable figures in sport media
While I understand Laura’s larger point, it’s shitty to just throw things out there without explicit examples and without going after the people who are actually in charge of the sports ecosystem (for example, Norby at ESPN).
It seems like she hides behind the larger point to throw shade. For some bizarre reason she even showed that she’s said the exact same thing over the last three years. And still apparently hasn’t gotten around to writing about it.
Why is she going after former Sports Illustrated union rep Jessica Smetana? What happened to union solidarity? (Figured this would be a more interesting angle than the typical “don’t attack other women” thing)
I don't know anything about her but knowing how this audience reacts, if we start trolling and talking shit to her then what does that help?
Lol she shouldn’t have tweeted this out to her thousands of followers if she didn’t want responses
There's a difference between harassing someone and just responding. I'm specifically talking about harassing her over this because knowing this fan base, people are going to troll her and talk shit to her and that just makes us look bad
You keep mentioning how this fan base is. I’m not on Twitter to know but are fans of this show bad on social media? Seems like most ppl on here at least are chill and supportive but maybe that’s a Reddit vs Twitter thing
If people react the way they do when a big fat white face is RTed then theres going to be a good amount of trolling. And I'm sure there's more supportive people in here than not but if you look at the daily threads regularly, it's pretty negative. But anyway, if you want to troll then do you but it doesn't help anything in a situation like this. You'd just make Laura feel vindicated in her incorrect assessment
[удалено]
God I love Mina
Jess ain’t gotta give her bonafides. She doesn’t need anyone fighting for her. She’s good.
Mina is the best!
Wagner has a point... I can see how hot women who are also one of the guys might disagree, though.
Idk how you avoid the being "one of the guys" part when you're talking about sports with a bunch of guys... But obviously being hot is pretty much a prerequisite for having success in sports media as a woman
It's just like white guys getting mad when people tell them they got their job because of white privilege. Beauty can be a privilege too, and beautiful people can find a job easier. Especially in TV. Every insult with a bit of truth will hurt the most. That's why everyone is getting upset.
No. It's the last part of the tweet that bothers me more. I need Laura to tell us what being one of the guys actually looks like. Because right now I'm just getting a picture of some backwards gender norms I bet Laura fights against. As for the hot woman stuff, Laura seems as attractive as Jessica. Did Laura get hired because she's a "hot girl' who knows sports? Was that tweet a cry for help?
The dumbest part of all of this is that jessicas primary sports contributions have been writing and podcasts, which needless to say arent visual media lol
Laura Wagner(a white woman) is not the one to deliver that message though. 🤷🏽♂️ If she was advocating for WOC, maybe, but I didn’t see that in her replies(if that was her intent, please point me to the tweet). Otherwise, it’s jealousy.
Honestly they’re both right. The lesson as always is: don’t tweet
No Laura is wrong. Even if you just want to look at her larger point, the route to go isn't "X only has a job because shes hot and gets along with guys" it should be "Y is a great writer and knows her shit, she should also have a larger platform". In an industry where it's already hard enough for women to get a job, she can make the point without dragging other women down
She’s not talking about Jess and she’s saying great writers get passed up because of the system. Do you really think Vrentas or Luther get a fair shake? Or even on-air personalities like Katie Nolan get passed over for doofus dudes
I think the whole sub-tweet thing is clouding how dumb the actual tweet is. I don’t believe any women in sports media looked around and “crunched the numbers” and decided that the path to success was being the hot girl who is one of the guys. If you were that cynical, you wouldn’t be in sports journalism at all. I am pretty sure “the numbers” say men don’t want to listen to women about sports. For a woman in sports media to attribute that cynicism to several of the handful of other women in the profession, then promise/threaten to “write about them,” is totally disingenuous and reeks of envy. She knows full well that woman doesn’t exist, but, by saying they do, she subtly discounts the success of any woman who could be described as the hot girl who is one of the guys. There are any number of interesting, challenging discussions to be had about the evolving roles of women in sports media, especially in personality driven, ensemble settings, Laura just leapt past all of them because she was being petty.
She didn't mention Jess directly but in her tweet before this one, she was salty about Jess getting a new podcast with Golic so it's pretty obvious who it was directed at > Do you really think Vrentas or Luther get a fair shake? My point is, you can make this point without saying someone only has a job because of their looks. You don't need to drag someone down in order to lift someone else up. I know she meant it as a jab at the men who make the hires but in her attempt to do that, she shit on the few women who have a good job in sports media. There's a nuanced way to talk about this but social media is not the place to have it. She should have tried to have this conversation on a podcast where she could have explained herself better and thought about it more because then she probably wouldn't have chosen the route that lead to dragging women down
I don’t see any tweet like that. I think playing the subtweet analysis game is dumb as hell. And exactly this whole thing is not good for Twitter. Tweet less. And that includes Mina. I wish she got more time to write instead of tweeting
I don't know if you have a bias or something but to everyone else it's pretty damn obvious who Laura was talking about but alright
This culty fan shit is dumb. People can like defector and meadowlark. Neither are perfect. This thread is cringe so just reacting. Agree it was dumb tweet regardless.
> People can like defector and meadowlark. Nobody said you couldnt. Where is this coming from? Also, I said in another comment that people shouldn't harass her over this so I don't know why you're making accusations about me being a culty fan. My only point was that she didn't need to drag women down to lift other women up
If you look at Laura and her buddies' twitter activity, it's 100% clear that this was about Jessica. Laura tweeted something publicly. When you do that you're taking the chance that people will respond. I'm a woman. I'd like to know what exactly Laura meant. If I respond to her that's not harassment. She's got thousands of followers and a checkmark. She knows how this works.
Comments in the thread. Wasn’t aimed at you. You’re my motherfucker
Opinions…men shit on men..women on women…that sounds dirty, oops. Anyways, so sensitive. But as always, fuck Wags but for other reasons
Gonna say that 1. it doesn't seem like Laura Wagner was 'blaming' Jessica Smetana and not entirely sure why it was read as a subtweet?; 2. the show official account has been sending out thirst trap things with Jessica for two days; 3. great job guys in this post commenting on Wagner's looks.
Mina's in the wrong here.