I Don’t Give a Damn ‘Bout My Bad Reputation

Growing up, I really liked reading Bill Conlin tell me why the Phillies were inept in the pages of the Philadelphia Daily News. And nothing could make me chuckle like Rick Reilly’s last page sarcasm in Sports Illustrated. And Jay Mariotti – awe hell who am I kidding, I can’t stand Mariotti.

The point is, there are a lot of well established writers out there – some of whom were a direct influence on my decision to go into journalism instead of something profitable like business or funeral home operations – who feel that bloggers are cheapening their once noble profession.

I find this troubling for a number of reasons. First and foremost, these are the guys I want to emulate, who before I was even aware of it were teaching me how to write. Until the day I die I'll site Reilly's column about Jayson Williams murdering his limo driver as one of the most infuriating and important pieces of opinionated journalism. And I still can't imagine getting through a Phillies season without Conlin's guidance.

But apparently they hate me and my ilk.

Some quotes from sportswriters:

"There's some good journalism, and some really horrible crap on [the Web] from guys holding down the couch springs in their mother's basement that have never been in a locker room but are pining on this and that. And this gives them cache, and then they're being quoted? What? This guy is in his underwear. They could us a Greyhound bus full of editors and it still wouldn't help them. So this is the 'new style of journalism' we gotta learn?”
- Rick Reilly (I feel it’s worth noting that Reilly is being paid $17 million dollars to write for ESPN, which hosts numerous blogs)

“Know what, pal? Bash this. . .Tell your bloggers, my career against theirs…”
- Bill Conlin in response to criticism from FireJoeMorgan.com

And other sports media personalities:

“It's fascinating to read what fans say. The Internet gives all these people a voice. What's the old saying, freedom of speech just makes it easier to identify the idiots?”
- ESPN Anchor (who hereto-fourth seemed like a cool guy) Scott Van Pelt

"It’s one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother's basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they're a pathetic get-a-life loser, but now that pathetic get-a-life loser can piggyback onto someone who actually has some level of professional accountability and they can be comment No. 17 on Dan Le Batard's column or Bernie Miklasz' column in St. Louis. That, in most cases, grants a forum to somebody who has no particular insight or responsibility. Most of it is a combination of ignorance or invective. It's just a high-tech place for idiots to do what they used to do on bar stools or in school yards, if they were school yard bullies, or on men's room walls in gas stations. That doesn't mean that anyone with half a brain should respect it.''

- Bob Costas (who clearly doesn’t understand his everyman appeal)

And Mark Cuban (via a Dallas Mavericks Press Release):

“The Dallas Mavericks will not allow ANY writer into the locker room areas pre-game and post-game whose primary purpose is to blog no matter what affiliation.”

If anything, I would say this is probably generational. Sportswriters like Buster Olney and Ken Rosenthal (who are both under 50) have their own blogs that actually utilize the format so that it informs in a way that a newspaper column could not (Rosenthal is so net savvy that he’s been known to post on fan hosted message boards).

ESPN - who once quoted a DeadSpin report in one of its stories and profiled DeadSpin in its magazine – is now in complete denial of the existence of Will Leitch et al. So intense is this mandated denial of the DeadSpinners that according to Leitch’s book, it is now punishable to mention the website either on air or in print.

And that right there is why blogs are so important. Yea, there’s a lot of crap out there, but it’s keeping the mainstream media on their toes (and despite what a lot of bloggers would have you think, sports fans desperately need the ESPNs and Sports Illustrateds otherwise we'll be left with...just bloggers). If the press is the fourth estate, bloggers are the fourth-and-a-half estate.

So memo to Bob Costas, Rick Reilly and everyone else who thinks I’m just a fat slob in his mother's basement sipping on Red Bull and writing my thoughts between innings: It’s the United States of Wikipedia, and brothers, you’re living in the past, it’s a new generation.