I agree with everything said here. Just to add one more point, I think that the mainstream sports journalists do have some value when it comes to giving us insight into teams\sports that we don’t follow closely. If Wilbon gives me his insight into the Hornets-Lakers matchup, then I’ll probably listen. I’m not going to spend my time reading up on other teams in the blogosphere. As soon as they start spouting off about the Giants or Yankees, then I tune them out. They simply do not have as much insight into my teams as we (blogging community) do.

Also, great point on the average reporter jrs. MG is very good. If these guys want to stay relative, then they’re going to have to work their butts off for it instead of cruising along.

I quit reading the local newspaper when the local sports guy incorrectly spelled the hometown name. The next week he incorrectly spelled the county name. How can he cover the college/high school scene if he can’t spell the name of the street on which they play? I know there are editors and spell checkers and such, but that is simply horrid.

And as for the ‘big guys’ , if you took 3 pieces of dried – up monkey crap and glued it to a piece of plexiglass, you’d have something worth more than the credit I give most sports analysts.

realize that the days of the great sports journalists are over as far as I can see, guys you read every day because they knew what they were talking about and wrote like angels.

famously said that “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

Up until recently, that freedom was the province of a select few. Nowadays, anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection can set up their own virtual printing press.

And thank god for that. No longer am I solely dependent on the likes of Mike Lupica or Steve Serby when I’m jonesin’ to read some commentary on my beloved Giants, Knicks or Mets. I can now reliably find insightful, well-reasoned analysis of my favorite teams on at least a half dozen blogs that I regularly visit.

The best bloggers – at least the ones I most enjoy reading – are fans whose love of a team or the game is their primary motivation for writing. Guys like Lupica and Serby are more in love with their own words or their role as media personalities than they are with the subjects they cover. Ed is spot on when he writes that these guys “are less important than they used to be.” They’re not used to sharing the limelight with writers who are their equals – or better – in talent and smarts. Gotta gnaw at their guts a little, I reckon.

Warning – Very META – not about sports at all, but rather about media and communications -

It is also a plea for Net Neutrality If you value this blog, and others like it, learn about Net Neutrality .

The history of communications has always been a battle between those who want to control information and those who want information to flow freely.

Back before the Guttenberg invented the printing press, only the church leaders and nobles could afford to have scribes. They basically controlled the flow of information

In the years after the printing press was invented, the technology spread, and by the time of the American revolution, almost anyone could afford a press. There were hundreds of “pampleteers” at the time of our revolution, Thomas Paine being the most famous and influential. They were, essentially the bloggers of the time.

Over the next two hundred years, the ownership of the media in this country became more and more concentrated – A small number of large corporations control what you see on TV and read in newspapers and magazines. They have control the political discussion, and set the agenda.

Then came the explosion of the internet. It is almost like the printing press revolution in high speed – suddenly, the “powers” can’t control things anymore. It not only threatens there control of information, it also threatens the revenue stream – As I have noted before, I own a small business (small shameless plug – we sell great organic chocolate. if You haven’t sent mom a mother’s day gift yet, now is great time) . I hardly advertise at all in print – almost 100% of my ads are online.

The large corporations want to take control of the conversation again, and protect their revenue. That’s why net neutrality is such an important issue. I really urge you to learn about it

Save the Internet


Net Neutrality on Wikipedia

Hands Off the Internet

Your comparison to the printing press is very true.

FJM’s skewering of Bissinger is worth your time too, for those who want to read more on the subject.

I think they summarized it very well when they said:

Picking a random blog comment and wielding it as a club to bash “blogs” is like picking a random romance novel off an airport bookstore shelf and saying, “This book sucks. Fuck you, Tolstoy—your medium is worthless!”