Sunday, June 24, 2007

Is Bob Nutting evil?

Smizik on Bob Nutting:

Nutting is not a bad person. He is not dispensing social injustice. What he is doing is not illegal, unethical or immoral. What he is guilty of -- in the eyes of most people -- is running his business in a fan-unfriendly manner. He does not deserve to be boycotted and most certainly the people who work for him, be it at PNC Park, Seven Springs or his many newspapers do not deserve to have their jobs placed in jeopardy because the Pirates stink.
Smizik makes lots of good points, but I'm not sure I buy this part. Isn't it unethical and/or immoral to reward proven failure (e.g. extending DL's contract) and thereby knowingly subject hundreds of thousands of Pirate fans to watching awful baseball? If it's not fair to Lefty the beer man for a fan to stay away from PNC in protest of the baseball team, wouldn't it follow that it's not fair to Lefty that the owner and GM field a crummy team year in and year out and threaten his livelihood with the resultant general fan disinterest? And if so, then wouldn't Nutting's actions and inactions qualify as unfair, unethical, and/or evil?

No comments:

Post a Comment