The Popcorn Stand: Wished I was like Cosell

As the headline states for this Popcorn Stand, I wished I could be more like Howard Cosell, at least in a way, I guess.

I don’t mean I really want to be like Howard Cosell. I mean he could be a downright ugly, cruel human being at times. In our first take of Six Degrees of Separation of the Porterville area, 1964 Strathmore High graduate Larry Stewart found out just how cruel Cosell could be.

Cosell was also a bully. Stewart, of course, went onto a distinguished journalism career. He’s most known for his Friday Tv/radio column that appeared every Friday in the Los Angeles Times sports section.

But in the early 1970s Stewart was still a young sportswriter at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He was at a function in which Cosell attended and he wrote about his encounter with Cosell in his book “My Up-close View.”

Cosell’s disdain for sportswriters was no secret and he decided to pick on Stewart to really dress him down. A colleague at the event later told Stewart to not worry about the incident as Cosell seeks out a young sportswriter to dress down everywhere he goes. So I guess in a way, Stewart, should have been flattered as Cosell must have been threatened by Stewart, otherwise he wouldn’t have sought him out.

Anyway well-known sports journalist Rick Reilly also once talked about an encounter he had with Cosell. In another take on Six Degrees of Separation from the Porterville area, Reilly also worked with Stewart at the L.A. Times.

Here’s Reilly’s impersonation of Cosell when he called him, seeking to do a feature story on him for Sports Illustrated:

“WHO IS THIS? RICK REILLY? SPORTS ILLUSTRATED? NO INTEREST, NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER.” Cosell then proceeded to hang up the phone.

I have to admit there are times in this business I wished I could just tell someone “No interest, No interest whatsoever.”

Like public relations people. There’s no doubt in my mind at colleges all over the country in some public relations course, the professor is telling the students “And make sure after you send a press release to call a day or so after to ask if they received the press release and if they have any questions.” NOOOOOOOO!

If I was teaching a public relations class I would tell the students, “Under absolutely no circumstances, do you EVER, EVER call someone to ask them if they’ve received the press release you’ve sent them.”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve received the “followup” call asking me if I’ve received a press release, well I’d have maybe a couple of dollars, but that’s still lots of times.

Public relations people who send out press releases and don’t hear back from me should just accept I “Howard Coselled” them and move on. I had No Interest, No Interest Whatsoever in what they sent me. And I have to admit when I receive the “follow-up” call from some public relations person, I wish I could say: “Yes I received it. No Interest. No Interest Whatsoever.” And then just hang up.

But I know that would be rude. So normally I do the song and dance, stating I haven’t had the chance to look at it or I don’t know if I still have it, or something or other, and ask the person to resend the press release so I can totally ignore it again.

Another one of my pet peeves is people who don’t do their homework. When I worked at the Nevada Appeal in Carson City, Nevada, I don’t know how many times we received invites to cover something in Las Vegas and many times on extremely short notice just because Las Vegas happens to be in Nevada too.

That’s like asking someone from San Francisco to cover something in L.A., it’s about the same amount of distance. By the way, Carson City is actually WEST of L.A. Look it up on a map, or er, I guess nowadays on your phone, and you’ll see Carson City is west of L.A.

Another thing that bothers me, although not that much, is when people send me press releases and refer to me as “Chris Whisnand.” I don’t think a guy named Chris has ever been referred to as “Charles.”

Reminds me of another take on Six Degrees of Separation of Porterville involving John Madden, who I’ve written before in this Popcorn Stand about his less than enjoyable time in Porterville when he coached at Allan Hancock College.

Madden was particularly sensitive about the notion Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis was the “real” coach of the team when he coached the Raiders. After a particularly tough loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers after the 1975 AFC Championship Game, a reporter referred to Madden as “Al” when asking him a question.

“Well my name is John,” Madden replied. “And what John thinks...”

And what “Chris,” er, Charles thinks is the follow-up phone call has to go.