If there was an award for a columnist who receives the most hate mail, Mark Morford who writes for the San Francisco Chronicle, would defiantly need to prepare an acceptance speech.
For as many people who are obsessed with his columns, there are twice as many people who absolutely loathe him, but they just can’t seem to stop reading ...
Here is a peek at some of his hate mail, that he published in one of his articles:
“Maggot, bottom feeding swill sucker..” - Charles G
“I despise liberal values, your cowardice and blind stupidity. We will finish you off. You are a danger to the country and with the help of talk radio we will destroy you. You are cockroaches, nothing else. Reading your newspaper is like paying the cops to beat you, then thanking them.” - Steven S, Lincoln, Calif.
“You are a filthy liar...” -Michael
Oh, and I can’t leave out my favorite,
“Your article made me puke. If I could e-mail that puke to you, you'd have a very messy lap right now..” - Rob O
Now if that doesn’t want to make you read Morford’s stuff, than I don’t know what will.
Morford started writing for the Chronicle full time in 2001, he writes about love, politics, God, sex, Brittany Spears, Karl Rove, war, deep sea things, commercials and so much more!
When interviewed by Steve Outing in 2003, and asked about his column Morford said,
“My column is an odd mutation, a sly serendipitous Frankensteinian thing I invented from scratch. And thanks to very tolerant bosses and another terrific mentor at SFGate in its early days, I was allowed to experiment, to develop a voice.”
Morford also described his column as, “In short, writing that is (hopefully) wry and sexy and fun and incendiary and thoughtful and winking and open-thighed and highly literate and well-informed and self-deprecating and well-lubricated and happy to buy you a drink.
I aim to be a writer first and journalist, well, about 27th, right after idea-monger and trickster and contrarian and satirist and pro-sex advocate and wine enthusiast and dog lover and book fan and clothes junkie and yoga teacher and tattoo advocate and spiritual deviant and did I mention the part about the sex? Boring writing makes my soul curdle.”
Morford can make you laugh and cry, and look up words in the dictionary. He can depress the hell out of you, and then fill you with hope, all the while informing you on important current events, and that’s what a great column should be about.
Check him out here!
(Morford received first place for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for best online columnist in 2003 )
Morford’s Notes and Errata column appears every Wednesday and Friday on Sfgate.com, and in the date book section of the San Francisco Chronicle.
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1 comment:
So far, this is the best lead on one this set of columns. (Out of 10, so that's good enough to say the writer is in the top ten columnists... Wait, I'm starting to write like Mark Morford now, too...)
I think the column is written well with good quotes and by embedding some links to Morford columns certainly lets the reader grab ahold of a portion of who this columnist might be.
It seems a little short, in length, and also missing a few details that might be pertinent. There's no reference that gives us an idea about his age or life outside of his writing.
Also, while the 2003 reference is interesting, it's pretty dated and, while not entirely honest, I believe saying the following would be better...
“My column is an odd mutation, a sly serendipitous Frankensteinian thing I invented from scratch. And thanks to very tolerant bosses and another terrific mentor at SFGate in its early days, I was allowed to experiment, to develop a voice.” Morford told writer Steve Outing a few years ago.
Mark Morford is one columnist that - as the writer noted - people love and hate sooooo much that I rarely send his columns to my normal email lists as I have a few people who get nearly violent over his ramblings.
Good choice of columnist to profile...
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