FanHouse JohnSterling

Tabloid journalism is here to stay, which is a damn shame. Every inch we devote to the latest Alex Rodriguez-Madonna gossip pushes the real, hard-hitting, investigative reporting that we should be reading to the margins. We should be paying more attention to the important stuff ... like the media's dirty eating habits in the press dining room! From Page Six:

YANKEES radio announcer John Sterling is being called out for foul behavior in the stadium's press dining room. "Sterling has made a habit of walking over to the dessert table and dipping his finger into the ice cream barrel," one stadium worker told us, adding that the play-by-play vet has also used the same tablespoon to repeatedly take samples. During the Boston series, "He wandered over to the cake and pie section, broke off a piece of a cake slice, ate it and wiped his grimy hands on the linen tablecloth, leaving the remainder of the slice for someone else to eat - which indeed happened," our spy continued.

Yeah, that's disgusting. That's like putting your whole mouth in the ice cream! There's a lesson to be learned: don't use your hands at the buffet table always tip the wait staff. Granted, I'm guessing the workers in the Yankee Stadium dining room aren't even supposed to accept tips, but believe me, this kind of story wouldn't have happened if Sterling had bothered to drop a fiver every now and then.

Stay tuned for more hard-hitting media criticism, including unconfirmed reports that suggest that the real reason for Mike and the Mad Dog may be splitting up is because Chris Russo double-dips!

Not content with hosting his own show on MSNBC and appearing as part of NBC's ensemble for Sunday Night Football, Keith Olbermann still has his eyes on another job. From Sports Business Daily's one-on-one interview with Olbermann (via SbB):

Q: Is there any aspect of broadcasting you haven't tried that you would like to?

Olbermann: I've always wanted to be play-by-play voice for the New York Yankees. That was my original intent in this business. If that opportunity ever arose down the road -- I don't expect it to -- but I always thought that at some point I might just toss all this stuff out the window and say, "You know, I'm going to go do the Durham Bulls games or something for a season on radio."

Tread lightly, John Sterling, tread lightly. I don't actually see this happening, but when Sterling does eventually step down, you know the Yankees will at least consider going after a big name. Olbermann may be a bit too polarizing simply because of his (very public) politics, though he makes a good point elsewhere in the article that he makes a distinct effort to keep his personal views out of play when he's doing a sports broadcast.