Scoop Jackson (writer)
Encyclopedia
Not to be confused with former United States Senator Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson
Robert "Scoop" Jackson (born November 23, 1963) is an American
sports journalist and cultural critic currently contributing to ESPN
.com's Page2
and ESPN The Magazine
.
where he still lives with his wife and two children; he was born the day after U.S. President
John F. Kennedy
was assassinated, and Jackson was named after his uncle joked, "This boy scooped Kennedy. Put him on the cover of the paper." He attended Luther High School South
in Chicago, was educated at Xavier University (LA)
and received a Master in Arts degree from Howard University
before becoming a journalist. His father was a writer for the Rocky Mountain News
in Denver.
and hip hop magazines for over 15 years, and has edited SLAM Magazine
, XXL
, Hoop and Inside Stuff. He has also written for USA Today
, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune
, The Source
, and Vibe
and is a frequent guest on radio and TV sports talk shows, and is regularly featured on ESPN's Sports Century series.
Jackson's first article for SLAM appeared in the January 1995 issue titled "The Large Professor", a story about Shaquille O'Neal
. At one time, Jackson pushed SLAM publisher Dennis Page to put Allen Iverson
on the cover of the magazine while Iverson was still playing basketball at Georgetown University
, threatening to resign if this did not happen.
In addition to his regular feature articles for SLAM, in 2004 Jackson began to write a back-page column named "Game Point", in which he aired opinions on various basketball-related topics. Jackson continued to write for SLAM until the July 2005 issue.
He began writing for ESPN.com
on March 8, 2005 with his first article being a statement of his sporting views entitled "Scoop's Manifesto". In 2006, upon his one year anniversary with ESPN, he had a follow up article stating what he learned on the job. The article ended with him saying that he believes he is continuing Ralph Wiley
's legacy, and stated that "I hope that I am doing him justice." Consequently, this article led to a feud with now former ESPN.com columnist Jason Whitlock
, who criticized Jackson in an interview and called him a "bojangler" for portraying himself as the next Ralph Wiley. http://thebiglead.com/?p=1038. This led to Whitlock's firing from ESPN. http://www.simplyfired.com/blog/fired/archives/2006/09/jason_whitlock_drops_names_as.php
While writing for ESPN he often campaigns against injustices against blacks in America. In a Jan 10th 2008 article entitled "Time for Tiger to roar," Jackson called for golfer Tiger Woods to show outrage over a comment a friend and golf announcer made during one of Tigers matches. He also wrote an article entitled "The Willingham Question" in which he claims that Notre Dame exhibited racism in the firing of then head football coach Ty Willingham. http://sports.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=scoop_jackson&partnerTag=espn_topsearch_site&partner=index&src=m_page2
During the 2008 World Series, Jackson found himself surrounded by controversy after writing a column about Tampa Bay Rays
star B.J. Upton. Jackson argued that Upton (who is African-American) can be a role model to the black community because of his "propensity to be lazy". One writer for a Rays blog later said, "Could you imagine Scoop Jackson's reaction if Peter Gammons had written that paragraph? ... Good lord Scoop. We don't mean to yell, but did you eat paint chips when you were a kid? Of all the positive things Upton does on the baseball field that are worthy of emulating, Jackson picks laziness as why inner-city kids will gravitate to the Rays center fielder." http://deadspin.com/5064641/scoop-jacksons-column-continues-to-offend--jason-whitlock-demands-swift-editorial-execution
His first contribution to ESPN The Magazine
appeared in the May 8, 2006 issue titled "It's Time" which was a short article explaining why he was picking the New Jersey Nets
to win the 2005-06 NBA championship.
Having grown up with Tim Hardaway
, he interviewed him for a column that appeared on ESPN.com
on February 23, 2007, about Hardaway's comment, "I hate gay people."
Jackson is an avid fan of the Chicago White Sox
and the New York Knicks
.
Henry M. Jackson
Henry Martin "Scoop" Jackson was a U.S. Congressman and Senator from the state of Washington from 1941 until his death...
Robert "Scoop" Jackson (born November 23, 1963) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sports journalist and cultural critic currently contributing to ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
.com's Page2
Page2
Page 2 is a feature section of ESPN.com. The section contains humorous, opinionated articles on American sport, and regular contributors including "The Sports Guy" Bill Simmons, DJ Gallo, Jim Caple, Gregg Easterbrook, Jemele Hill, Paul Lukas and LZ Granderson. Chuck Klosterman also supplies...
and ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine is a bi-weekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut in the United States. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998....
.
Early history
Jackson was born and raised in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where he still lives with his wife and two children; he was born the day after U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
was assassinated, and Jackson was named after his uncle joked, "This boy scooped Kennedy. Put him on the cover of the paper." He attended Luther High School South
Luther High School South
Luther High School South is a private Lutheran high school in the Ashburn neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, near the village of Evergreen Park. From 2009 to 2010, the school was named Luther South Math, Science, and Performing Arts High School, with the name, the focus, and the primary source of...
in Chicago, was educated at Xavier University (LA)
Xavier University of Louisiana
Xavier University of Louisiana , located in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college with the distinction of being the only historically black Roman Catholic institution of higher education...
and received a Master in Arts degree from Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
before becoming a journalist. His father was a writer for the Rocky Mountain News
Rocky Mountain News
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...
in Denver.
Career
Scoop Jackson has written for basketballBasketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and hip hop magazines for over 15 years, and has edited SLAM Magazine
SLAM Magazine
SLAM Magazine is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994, published by Source Interlink. SLAM publishes nine issues a year to its circulation of over 500,000 readers worldwide.-History:...
, XXL
XXL (magazine)
XXL is a Hip-Hop magazine, published by Harris Publications.In 1997, XXL was founded by former Source staffers as well as other Harris Publication employees, who wanted to create their own magazine about the hip-hop music and culture using the model developed by the founders of The Source...
, Hoop and Inside Stuff. He has also written for USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, The Source
The Source (magazine)
The Source is a United States-based, monthly full-color magazine covering hip-hop music, politics, and culture, founded in 1988. It is the world's second longest running rap periodical, behind United Kingdom-based publication Hip Hop Connection. The Source was founded as a newsletter in 1988...
, and Vibe
VIBE
Vibe is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip-hop music artists, actors and other entertainers...
and is a frequent guest on radio and TV sports talk shows, and is regularly featured on ESPN's Sports Century series.
Jackson's first article for SLAM appeared in the January 1995 issue titled "The Large Professor", a story about Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal , nicknamed "Shaq" , is a former American professional basketball player. Standing tall and weighing , he was one of the heaviest players ever to play in the NBA...
. At one time, Jackson pushed SLAM publisher Dennis Page to put Allen Iverson
Allen Iverson
Allen Ezail Iverson is an American professional basketball point guard and shooting guard. He was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers with the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1996–97 season...
on the cover of the magazine while Iverson was still playing basketball at Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
, threatening to resign if this did not happen.
In addition to his regular feature articles for SLAM, in 2004 Jackson began to write a back-page column named "Game Point", in which he aired opinions on various basketball-related topics. Jackson continued to write for SLAM until the July 2005 issue.
He began writing for ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
on March 8, 2005 with his first article being a statement of his sporting views entitled "Scoop's Manifesto". In 2006, upon his one year anniversary with ESPN, he had a follow up article stating what he learned on the job. The article ended with him saying that he believes he is continuing Ralph Wiley
Ralph Wiley
Ralph Wiley was a sports journalist who wrote for various publications such as Sports Illustrated and espn.com's Page 2 section....
's legacy, and stated that "I hope that I am doing him justice." Consequently, this article led to a feud with now former ESPN.com columnist Jason Whitlock
Jason Whitlock
Jason Lee Whitlock is a sportswriter for Foxsports.com, as well as a former columnist at the Kansas City Star, AOL Sports writer, contributor to ESPN, and radio personality for WHB and KCSP sports stations in the Kansas City area.-College and sports:Whitlock was an all-state offensive lineman at...
, who criticized Jackson in an interview and called him a "bojangler" for portraying himself as the next Ralph Wiley. http://thebiglead.com/?p=1038. This led to Whitlock's firing from ESPN. http://www.simplyfired.com/blog/fired/archives/2006/09/jason_whitlock_drops_names_as.php
While writing for ESPN he often campaigns against injustices against blacks in America. In a Jan 10th 2008 article entitled "Time for Tiger to roar," Jackson called for golfer Tiger Woods to show outrage over a comment a friend and golf announcer made during one of Tigers matches. He also wrote an article entitled "The Willingham Question" in which he claims that Notre Dame exhibited racism in the firing of then head football coach Ty Willingham. http://sports.espn.go.com/keyword/search?searchString=scoop_jackson&partnerTag=espn_topsearch_site&partner=index&src=m_page2
During the 2008 World Series, Jackson found himself surrounded by controversy after writing a column about Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
star B.J. Upton. Jackson argued that Upton (who is African-American) can be a role model to the black community because of his "propensity to be lazy". One writer for a Rays blog later said, "Could you imagine Scoop Jackson's reaction if Peter Gammons had written that paragraph? ... Good lord Scoop. We don't mean to yell, but did you eat paint chips when you were a kid? Of all the positive things Upton does on the baseball field that are worthy of emulating, Jackson picks laziness as why inner-city kids will gravitate to the Rays center fielder." http://deadspin.com/5064641/scoop-jacksons-column-continues-to-offend--jason-whitlock-demands-swift-editorial-execution
His first contribution to ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine is a bi-weekly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut in the United States. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998....
appeared in the May 8, 2006 issue titled "It's Time" which was a short article explaining why he was picking the New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
to win the 2005-06 NBA championship.
Having grown up with Tim Hardaway
Tim Hardaway
Timothy Duane "Tim" Hardaway is a retired American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association and who in his prime was one of the league's best point guards...
, he interviewed him for a column that appeared on ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
on February 23, 2007, about Hardaway's comment, "I hate gay people."
Jackson is an avid fan of the Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
and the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
.