A quick note on public criticism

[Beyond the Bets]

Over the last two days, a handful of folks (and likely dozens of others) have called us out for giving Pregame.com's RJ Bell a chance to write a guest post on our site.

Today, someone on Twitter "confirmed" that RJ paid us money to write the entry, which came in response to an unflattering (to Pregame) excerpt that appeared in our Deadspin post.

Let me be clear: RJ did not pay us money to write the post. If he did, it would have been appropriately tagged as "sponsored post," which is what we do anytime someone pays us to write content on our site. (Which is next to never, by the way.)

"Why give RJ the chance to write the post?" you might ask.

It's a fair question, particularly if you aren't fond of Pregame's operation, their business model, and so on. But ultimately, the reason is this: We criticize people and we criticize companies. Most of the people are touts (or pick sellers) and most of the companies are those who sell picks.

There is nothing worse than a critic who takes shots but is unwilling to go to the clubhouse to hear a response. Former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti used to write disparaging, mean-spirited columns about every team and athlete in the state of Illinois and then never gave the people he "covered" a chance to defend themselves.

Mariotti's colleagues lost respect for him. And deep down, I think Mariotti probably lost a bit of respect for himself, too.

Last week, shortly after the Deadspin post ran, RJ contacted us by e-mail and asked if he could write a response. He wanted to make a few points and to continue the discussion that we started at Deadspin and later continued here on the site.

We had no problem whatsoever - none at all - with RJ writing a guest entry. We thought it would spark an intelligent, thoughtful conversation, and it did. The same opportunity is open to anybody else we've criticized.

Again, it's only fair.

We've been critical of Pregame in the past and will likely be critical in the future. As long-time readers of the site know, there aren't too many pick-selling services that we approve of and there are fewer still that we're willing to endorse.

There isn't a sum of money that can be offered that will ever change that.

Our opinion can't be purchased.

[JSpauny]

Doubt never entered my mind BTB. I have enough faith that anyone you allow to contribute like that is here to tell their side of the story to help educate everyone on the flip side of the story. People might try to call you out for that stuff, but I see it as objective journalism which is pretty absent in the current world.