Sports Blogs And Insanity

This one's for the sports fans and internet aficionados. Earlier this week on Bob Costas Now, sports blogger and Deadspin.com editor Will Leitch faced off againast sportswriter Buzz Bissinger over the topic of sports blog and the internet. The video is available on Deadspin and is well worth a watch, particularly for those who enjoy seeing members of the old guard explode in a giant ball of rage over the very existence of all this new media. (It's also worth watching to see the third member of the panel, Cleveland wide receiver Braylon Edwards, not quite know what to say after Bissinger's tirade.)

I'm not a big fan of Deadspin or any other sports blogs, but I do like Will Leitch. He's been on Redeye a number of times and has always come across as intelligent and witty. Leitch does himself- and bloggers everywhere- a favor by maintaining his cool and refusing to get caught up in Bissinger's madness. You can check out Leitch's responses in his blog here and here.

I'm sure Bissinger was trying to make a point with all the anger and profanity, a literal on-screen depiction of what these terrible blogs are like. Except, they're not. Yes, comment threads on some blogs can get nasty, but that's public participation. From the video you get the impression that Bissinger doesn't even know the difference between a blogger and a blog commenter. Nor does it seem he recognizes the difference between a widely read blog and www.creedthoughts.com. (Hint- it's sort of the difference between a sports radio talk show host and the homeless guy ranting and raving on the subway about the Knicks.)

There's always a discussion to be had about the merits of various media, but it's hard to have that discussion when 1- you don't understand the media in question and 2- you're a raving lunatic.

(I got the scoop courtesy of Reason)