To say that Denver Post sports writer Adrian Dater isn’t a fan of the Worldwide Leader might be putting it mildly.

Dater posted this flaming indictment of The Worldwide Leader and what its done to sports journalism. Initially the post appeared on the Post’s website but was quickly removed but not before some readers made note and saved it.

Among the highlights was this jewel:

“You know all those stories that we broke with our hard work, with real reporting and real journalism? Yeah, ESPN decided it would be a neat trick to see it on the wire and call up their so-called “expert” in whatever sport the news broke and then put on the little scroll at the bottom of their screen that it was “ESPN’s so and so “expert” that reported that the news story someone else actually broke was really broken by our lackey expert here.”

Do you hear me, Ed Werder? Do you hear me, Rachel Nichols? Do you hear me, Chris Mortensen? Do you hear me, Marc Stein? Do you hear me, ESPN producer schmucks? You didn’t break JACK SQUAT. Some real journalist at a newspaper broke that story. You’re nothing more than a bunch of pathetic piggybackers, trying to fool that gullible sports audience out there – of which you have legions of the duped tuning in daily.”

I love this more than I could ever say. As a journalist at a newspaper, I hate it when I’m covering something and see some moron with a microphone, camera and a tripod show up. I know that what they’re going to give their viewers is a completely diluted, dumbed-down version of the story. I’ve actually had news stations, stations that will remain nameless, lift my stuff word-for-word without any attribution. That’s not journalism, it’s plagiarism. And I think it’s about time someone called ESPN onto the carpet for not attributing ANY of the stuff they steal from newspapers around this country every single day. Remember, talking heads are not journalists.

My new blog on my paper’s website.