HBO has a show with Bob Costas and one of his topics last week was on sports bloggers versus journalists.
The panel consisted of a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist named Buzz Bissinger, NFL player Braylon Edwards, and Deadspin.com's Will Leitch. Deadspin.com is one of the most popular sports blogs on the internet and Bissinger is the writer of the book "Friday Night Lights."
I had never heard of Bissinger before this. From what I saw, he is a jealous and insecure old man who is threatened by people like me who write sports blogs. Bissinger was full of obscenities when he opened his mouth and showed his lack of class and professionalism. And this guy is supposedly a respected and award-winning journalist?
It is guys like him that the public hate and why people rather read articles and stories by bloggers than listen to the media. These guys have no credibility at all. Costas tried to imply that a cab driver can have a blog and that it would not be as credible as anything written by a media member. Hey Costas, I rather read an article by a passionate sports fan who knows his team than someone like you.
Costas showed his true ignorance when he said that blogs were cruel and had vicious posts. What he actually tried to say was that some of the "comments" made after a blog post
from readers were offensive or inappropriate. He kept on calling comments "posts" which showed everyone he has no clue about blogging or even the internet.
What is the difference between offensive comments made on a website like ESPN or a sports site ran by a blogger? People have the right to give their opinion after reading an article. Costas and Bissinger are two old men who just want to attack the blogging community because they are threatened by bloggers.
No one reads newspapers anymore and people get more of their information from bloggers than the press. Bloggers are a lot more credible than journalists. What makes journalists and the media think they are so highly credible? Who said the media was not cruel? They should point fingers at themselves before they attack bloggers.
The media portrays Tibet positively and China as the new Evil Empire. Everytime a black public figure makes headlines, it is usually due to something negative. When NFL player Sean Taylor got killed in a robbery, the media portrayed him as a thug who deserved to die. When rapper Juvenile's daughter got murdered, the media listed all his prior arrests instead of his awards. ESPN has a journalist who tricks Houston Astro shortstop Miguel Tejada into an interview and then forces Tejada to admit his true age. Does it matter that Tejada is really 33 and not 31? The interview came off very bad and the fans and public were on Tejada's side more than ever and it made ESPN look like the National Enquirer and Tmz.com rolled into one. It was tabloid journalist at its worst.
Bissinger may have won a Pulitzer Prize but that doesn't mean much these days. I am not impressed at all with that. One writer for the L.A. Times who won a Pulitzer Prize recently had to apologize for writing vicious lies about Sean "P.Diddy" Combs. Bissinger is a old journalist and a hater. He told Leitch that he thinks he is "full of crap."
Leitch seemed very likable and was not combative while making his points and defending his website. If I were him, I would have taken more of a stand, but he still came off way better than Costas and Bissinger on the show. Braylon Edwards did not talk much and did not have much to say. It is anyone's guess why he was on the panel.
Everyone has an opinion on this subject ,and I am sure it will be discussed more frequently in the media and also by bloggers. The truth of the matter is that the public respects bloggers and reads blogs, and the insecure journalists are afraid of losing their jobs and readers.
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