Be Peace

Mizzo

It’s not really fair to turn this into psychoanalysis, but the more I read from Bissinger on this subject, I think his real issue is with “The Death of Newspapers” in big capital letters. He is looking for something to blame and blogs are a convenient target.

What is interesting is that newspapers were dying before blogging took off, and - if anything - blogging may be helping to stem the bleeding a bit. I go to WashingtonPost.com far more since Steinberge moved there than I did before. I check out more columnists now thanks to links on various blogs than I did before.

I guess my biggest bewilderment is that bloggins is still a distant foirth in importance in driving a story. I would say right now it is:

1. ESPN
2. Talk Radio
3. Newspapers
———- huge gap ————
4. Blogs

It just seems like the level of vitriol is far too great for the subject.

Okori, since the AP is a syndication service… should that be relevant? Shouldn’t the author or authors put their name on it anyway? A rare exception was the AP article on Sean Taylor listing him playing hookie in the 3rd grade while he lay on his deathbed. Since the author was known, we were able to address that person specifically. The AP needs accountability

and of course…… Chris Osgood is human.

I told you about the Sharks didn’t I? they have absolutely no concept of how to finish a team off.

Nice work. You hit the ball out the park on this one!

themajestyofwrestling.blogspot.com for it.

Myron: He’s blinded by his own belief that instinctively everything of his generation is automatically more honorable than this one’s. Look I’m 26 years old. Age-wise I’m probably what you would consider the median age for Deadspin. And I have my own blog, which i am going to start updating tonight with a really interesting post on a topic that might be near and dear to TSF hearts.

But back on the point: There has been some great investigative reporting done by blogs. And to somehow imply that this blogosphere, flawed though it might be in some quarters with low-grade sophomorism (which is Turn-your-brain-off fun once and again) and J-school quality writing, does not have the same amount of potential to find stories that no one covers is frankly insulting. There are many writers talented enough to write for the Post-Gazette out of Pittsburgh, or the LA Times, who choose not to because the luxuries of blogging appeal to them.

I have a full-time job. If i wanted to travel the world, chasing down the origins of what I blog about, I couldn’t. But the chance that I can research that information, and find out knowledge that would not fit in a newspaper’s narrow definiton of what journalism is, appeals to me. That’s the majesty of blogging to me, and it’s what Buzz didn’t understand at the beginning… and is only beginning to understand now.

You can see his blind spot when he reflexively defends Stephen A. who hasn’t been a real journalist in years. I would have liked to seen him answer more questions about the Marriottis and Paiges and Wilbons and other journalists who are far more concerned about face time on tv than they are about meeting a deadline. Does it bother him that someone like Gammons works for a show where hosts are instructed to make predictions they don’t believe in to “stimulate debate?” (John Kruk has admitted to as much). Isn’t a journalist going on tv and making up an opinion as bad as anything in a blog - where one assumes at the very least the writer believes what he is writing.

To your point about sports radio, i couldn’t agree with you more! Unlike blogs, there is absolutely nothing good in sports talk radio to balance out the garbage. It is dreadful. I stopped listening to it in 2004 during the summer olympics when there were hateful, vitriolic, and racist exchanges about the mens Olympic basketball team. It was the last straw for me… It was a mental health decision. …Bissinger should have cursed out Chis Russo in the first segment… At least Strahan handled the situation quite well with this classic line:

“The last time you had a uniform on is when you were trick or treating when you were five.”

I think that Bissinger’s mistakes in his delivery are agreed upon by all — including himself — so it is time to turn the page. Bissinger got an ass-whooping in the blogoshere and it is time to look at ourselves as blogs and give Bissingers underlying points credence — and that is what this interview does.

Now i don’t agree with all of Bissinger’s positions (for one I don’t believe that athletes have an obligation to the media), but the man deserves some serious respect — and not just for writing Friday Night Lights). If nothing else, he is completely authentic which makes his admitted shortcomings forgiveable. Secondly, the man does his research and his homework, so while my initial reaction is to disagree with him on Mumia — the fact is that he has read the entire transcript of the court proceddings, and I haven’t. So I don’t necessarily feel compelled to argue until I’m on equal research footing. Bottom line: if Buzz has an opinion, right or wrong, he has invested his time, energy, and analysis into the subject first. And you gotta respect that. Or at least I do.