Media Power Rankings for June

Jared Fogle, of Subway fame, has parlayed his pop-icon status into a budding friendship with retired NFL sack artisan Michael Strahan. AP Richard Deitsch's Mailbag Submit a question or comment for Richard. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

1. Scott Van Pelt, ESPN: Two years ago, Deadspin.com ran an item that featured Van Pelt, in full Jon Favreau mode from Swingers, leaving a message on an answering machine for a woman he had met at a bar. Back then, I wrote the item was hilarious, incredibly unfair or both, depending upon where you stood on the issue of public figures and privacy. After the Deadspin post traveled around the sports blogsphere, Van Pelt said he reached out to Will Leitch, the site's former editor, and the two exchanged emails on a number of occasions, though they never met in person.

"I thought it was chicken-sh-- that he did it because I didn't feel I did anything wrong," says Van Pelt. "It wasn't a Pat O'Brien moment. I didn't mention drugs, I didn't mention anything X-rated, I didn't cuss. Now, granted, it was far too lengthy and I was trying way too hard be funny. But my point to him was I didn't think it was worth it and I was amazed that anyone would care. ... He and I continued a back and forth as I have with a number of bloggers because, unlike a lot of guys in the mainstream media, I don't have my head in the sand on this. If I were 20-something years old, I'd be on the blogs all day and even now, I am an unabashed consumer of them."

In a remarkable bit of self-deprecating cool, Van Pelt mocked his famous answering message last month to honor the end of Leitch's tenure at Deadspin. "Why did I do it?" Van Pelt says. "To me it was a chance to skewer myself and my way of saying to him and his readers that, 'I'm fine, and you all had your fun with this.' Even I made fun of myself about it on the air. I've always thought you should be self-deprecating -- but genuinely self-deprecating. The real challenge was to edit myself. It would have been so much fun to go all Jeff Ross and totally go bonkers."

2. Jared Fogle, Fox Sports posse member: The biggest news from the recent press conference announcing Michael Strahan had joined Fox NFL Sunday wasn't that the network had added the garrulous Giant defensive end. It was that one of Strahan's occasional running mates is Fogle, the weight-loss champion from Subway. The two met during filming commercials for Subway and recently spent some time in Las Vegas together with Jay Glazer, the network's NFL information man who has a long relationship with Strahan and has become fast friends with Fogle.

"We went to Tryst [nightclub] in the Wynn Las Vegas and stayed for about 30 minutes," says Glazer. "I got the manager and waitress to help me out and come up with a fake bill and drop it on Strahan for $25,643.18. The bill should have been $500 max and he immediately says, 'Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, there's got to be a mistake!' The waitress said, 'Nope, that was the total.' Immediately, you can see he's getting pissed. He says, 'I had two bottles, this bill is for $25,000!' I step in and say, 'What are you, an idiot? You offered to pay for that table of Giants fans back there.' He starts to freak and now he's getting angrier and says, 'Shut up, Jay! What Giants fans, show me them! Where are these fans? I did not agree to this.' The waitress was awesome because she acted like they must've just left. He starts freaking more, asking for the manager, asking for security. He wants the boss down there. He's not paying.

"Jared and all the Subway execs are there with our agent, Maury Gostfrand, and Mike's girlfriend, Nicole Mitchell. So I step in again and say, 'Calm down, what do you want from the waitress? That's what you get for being a big shot.' To which he turned and yelled, 'I said, Shut up, Jay' and shoves me across our section. We all just lost it. We were dying. We were taping it on my camera phone but it didn't come out. At that point, he realized I nailed him. He'll get me back I'm sure and it'll suck."

Though Glazer has a history of procuring newsmaking tapes from Las Vegas, I'm guessing Fox Sports won't be airing footage from this unlikely Rat Pack anytime soon.

3. Danny Arruda, Craig Lazarus, Matt McCormick, Tom McCollum, Tom Rinaldi, Bill Roach and Victor Vitarelli, ESPN: Long-form features have always been a strength of ESPN and last month's piece on John Challis offered Bristol at its journalistic best -- a beautifully filmed and written tribute about a subject that deserved the attention. (Arruda served as the main producer alongside McCormick, while Rinaldi conducted the interviews and wrote the piece. Roach was the principal photographer. Lazarus, McCollum and Vitarelli added additional editing and guidance, with Vitarelli in the lead role.) The group first learned of Challis' story through this marvelous Mike White piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"At its center, John's story is about a young man who earned his wish to compete, to belong, to live alongside his teammates and friends, as any other high school senior might do, in any other sport, on any other field," says Rinaldi. "We are fortunate to work on pieces that at times stir reactions in folks, but the reaction to this piece has been especially powerful. Joe Maddon, the Rays' manager, reached out to Johnny directly after seeing the story on SportsCenter, to arrange a meeting with John and his team. Strangers have written to us to share their experiences with cancer, and how John's fight has touched them."

Rinaldi notes the inspirational Challis created a foundation, the John Challis Courage for Life Foundation, to help kids with cancer. Remarkable kid. And a remarkable piece of television.

4. Elizabeth Merrill, ESPN: Unlike many of her Worldwide Leader colleagues, I haven't seen Merrill debate Skip Bayless on First Take, yuck it up on ESPN Radio or kiss the ring of Mike Lupica on a certain Sunday morning chatfest. (Alas, the previous sentence just ended my own childhood dream of appearing on The Sports Reporters.) The woman doesn't appear to be a self-promoter, so I will gladly do it for her. Quietly, Merrill has produced remarkable work for ESPN's digital arm, including this tearjerker on U.S. Olympic softball team coach Mike Candrea and a lovely piece on Challis. Sure, she works for the competition, but she's the goods. Read her.

5. The Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society Of Gentlemen: When future Robert Penn Warrens examine sports broadcasting in the early 21st century, I hope these postmodern geniuses get their due. Few have offered more trenchant commentary on ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith.

"My friends and I have been heckling the NBA draft broadcast since the days of Tom Tolbert, who deserved it," says Martin Bell, the Ivy League grad who is half of the SASHS team (along with Brian Hughes). "Tolbert begat Stephen A., and two years ago I bought a video camera and happened to bring it into the Theater at Madison Square Garden. I had 10 minutes of tape and a half-hour of battery power to work with when I realized taping our heckling would be funny. We sent that one to Deadspin, it sorta took off, so we figured we'd try to keep it going. Our individual reasons for heckling are different. My heckling teammate, Brian, genuinely hates Stephen A. I merely find him incredibly amusing."