First off, let me start this by mentioning that I saw Bob Raissman's article in the Sunday NY Daily News yesterday.  I try to rarely rip on other people's article, unless they are both influential and deceiving.  Like Mike Lupica, or sometimes Bill Simmons (influential, often on point, but once in a while needs to be put in check).  Bob Raissman is insignificant.  His job is to criticize the media, which could be an important role, but instead he makes himself absolutely irrelevant.  He has nothing to say, and when he does say something it is generally silly.

Case in point: "HBO's Plan to replace (Larry) Merchant with (Max) Kellerman a mistake".  Bob, you got to be kidding me, right?  Nope... check out these choice quotes from his article:

"Moving Kellerman (33) in for Merchant (76) smacks of ageism at its worst."  

Your writing smacks of stupidity at its worst, Bob.  Ageism?  Not when you can't even remember who is fighting!  Larry Merchant repeatedly calls boxers in the ring by the wrong name.  His behavior reeks of drunkiness, too.

"This would be like replacing Picasso with the guy who sells the Velvet Elvises outside of Graceland."

And we have our first real candidate for most ridiculous line of the year.  Let's just get to the point... Larry Merchant is a senile old man.  He's also (borderline) racist.  I put borderline in that sentence just to be nice - more on that later.  He needs to go.  His long speeches, drawn out by long pauses for effect, were all too often pointless.  Larry hasn't said anything relevant in a long time.  He'll just pontificate, comparing the fight to a battle in ancient Greece, overusing the warrior metaphor.

"Merchant is the premier interview - under fire - in TV sports."

What?  The guy was a jerk to most fighters during these interviews.  Especially the minority ones.  Check out this post fight interview with Floyd Mayweather Jr. after he shut out Carlos Baldomir:

For the record, that's only the most recent example.  Merchant has gotten similar heat during post fight interviewers with former boxers Chavez and James Toney in the past, too. 

Say what you want, but Larry Merchant doesn't get along with his coworkers in the HBO booth, either.  A Roy Jones and Larry Merchant exchange during a recent fight:

Roy Jones: "...doing things to humiliate him in front of his crowd..."
Larry Merchant: "I think that is an overstatement..."
Roy Jones: "You haven't boxed before.  You gotta know boxing to know what's happening here."

Roy Jones is not the first former boxer in the broadcasting booth to say this to Larry Merchant.  George Foreman had similar exchanges - my recollection (hard to remember when and where):

Larry Merchant (defending his point): "I've see about 200 title fights in my life..."
George Foreman: "Seen?  I've fought title fights!"

That was in response to Larry Merchant's habit of trying to verbally bully anyone who disagrees with his take, even those who might actually know what they are talking about.

And finally there is the subtle racism that he spews.  It's not overt (though we always figured that his career would end one night when he would drink too much and accidently let something slip out that he shouldn't have), it's very low-key.  During broadcasts of the (white) Klitchko brothers' fight, he'll often refer to their "beautiful" style.  Over and over again.  He'll never say that about, say, Mayweather (a far better boxer both in style and technique).  Every fight there will be around a dozen of these examples. 

It may just be me, but I have yet to talk to a boxing fan who is black who doesn't dislike Merchant.  Ditto most other minorities, including myself.  I'm sure they are out there, but I'm betting they are outnumbered.  And I know there are plenty of other people who support Merchant, whether it's just because of the comedic value of having a senile combatitive broadcaster in the booth and conducting post fight interviews (Simmons seems to fall in this class), or because they actually value Merchant's "analysis". 

If other people feel that way, that's fine.  I personally think he needs to go.  He adds nothing to the broadcast, and takes away from my viewing of it, and I can't be alone on that.  Regardless, Bob Raissman's article is completely off-base.  Check out this ending line: 

"If it is (his last fight), everyone will know that HBO Sports' committment to journalism has been reduced to a lie."

This is pure hyperbole.  Reduced to what lie?  And nothing Merchant does is "journalism".  He's a broadcaster, and an interview.  He's poor at both.  For "HBO Sports' committment to journalism", might I suggest watching Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel?  

Anyway, I apologize for this rant.  Just wanted to get that off my chest....

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