Monthly Archives: September 2009

I cant believe someone thought it would be okay to write a column poking fun at Jaycee Dugard. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped 18 years ago and repeatedly raped throughout those 18 years.  She walked into a police station last week.

On Monday, the OC Register printed a column by their sport’s columnist that uses Jaycee’s disappearance as the catalyst for a rundown of sports highlights over the last two decades.

It doesn’t sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page.Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year.

She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn’t high-fived in a while.

She was not allowed to spike a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey.

Now, that’s deprivation.

Can you imagine? Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido’s backyard. She was 29 when she escaped. Penitentiary inmates at least get an hour of TV a day. Dugard was cut off from everything but the elements.

How long before she fully digests the world she re-enters? How difficult to adjust to such cataclysmic change?

More than that, who’s going to explain the fact that there’s a President Obama?

Dugard’s stepfather says she’s going to need a lot of therapy — you think? — so perhaps she should take a respite before confronting the new realities.

So, Jaycee, whenever you’re ready, here’s what you’ve missed…

He then goes on with a rather lengthy list of things that happened in the last 18 years. He ends with this congragulatory remark:

And ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate.Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard.

I find this to be utterly insensitive and tasteless. I’m quite frankly appalled that he wrote it and that the editor allowed it to go to print. Maybe his intent wasn’t what is conveyed as you read the article, but they should have thought of that before they printed it.

*UPDATE*

I did a bit more reading about what people were saying on this issue, and my mind certainly isn’t changed on the issue. However, Mr. Whicker has apologized for his lapse in judgment and professionalism. And I found this piece that addresses the editors of the paper:

How did this column get past an editor?

Some readers criticized the editors who approved the column as much as they did Whicker. He said, however, that he didn’t get any calls from the newsroom after he submitted his column over Labor Day weekend.

Assistant Sports Editor Todd Harmonson said in a phone interview Wednesday that someone else filled in for him in editing the column because he was off, though he declined to say who. The column went through both a content and copy edit.

For much of Wednesday he fielded calls and e-mails from readers who asked why the paper ran the column. “I understood why some people would be concerned, but I also know Mark well enough to know that he had no ill intentions,” Harmonson said. “He’s the ultimate professional, and if he missed the mark on this one, he’s made up for that with decades in this business.”

He said the sports management team asked Whicker to write a response to readers, and Whicker offered to apologize.

“I probably learned to be a little more clear and specific about what the intent of the column is, rather than assuming everyone is going to see it the way I do,” Whicker said. “I don’t think I’ll be writing about kidnapping victims anytime soon.”