Welcome to the New World
Published May 1st, 2008Are you reading this on a piece of paper that was delivered to your door? Have you forgone delivery to your door for digital delivery of your favorite newspaper? Do you ONLY read a mainstream news source and never any other sources? Apparently Buzz Bissinger would prefer you not read anything but content that has been sanitized for your protection. See, Mr. Bissinger is an Old Media type of guy, and by many accounts, a very talented write and columnist. I have never read any of his work, so I will not comment. However, he is downright disgusted by anything on the internet. And willing to attack a blogger, live and in person. He verbally assaulted poor Will Leitch (with a dumbfounded Braylon Edwards looking on) during a show hosted by Bob Costas on HBO. Will is the founder of one of the top sports blog sites on the net, deadspin.com.
The HBO excerpt is worth watching, though long. Bissinger, and to an extent, Costas as well, believes that almost all blogs are written by unqualified hacks that spout venom and exist only to write cruel words. Leitch, of course, disagrees with this. Bissinger believes strongly in journalistic integrity, whereas Leitch unabashedly admits he is a fan first. This is a legitimate discussion on the meaning of “journalism” - because it is changing.
One of the supposed hallmarks, a sacred cow, of journalism is neutrality. Leitch makes a good point when he says that if you weren’t a fan first, why did you get into sportswriting? And once you did - why do you have to stop being a fan? This sort of mentality is spreading across journalism and causing problems for everyone. Is neutrality important? Do you know anyone who truly believes that Fox News, or the New York Times, are fair and impartial news sources? I don’t. Same goes for sportswriting - many of the new columnists, internet columnists, are fans first. Bill Simmons on ESPN.com is a prime example. He makes no bones about being a fan of his teams. And for me that’s OK - I have no problem with a journalist being a fan first - as long as he admits it. That’s where I, personally, have problems with biased news sources - they act like they aren’t. But let’s be honest - sports don’t matter like news does. Sports is all about being a fan. So if I read someone who is a fan, as long as I know it, I can enjoy it. In fact, I feel I learn more about a sport, a team, a player, a game from someone who is an actual fan of the participants. Bissinger mentions WC Heinz and his ability to paint an emotional picture of a game. That’s great - but the reason it’s talent is that he paints an emotional picture from the standpoint of no emotional attachment in the first place. He creates something out of nothing. For a fan - it’s not hard at all. They start with the emotions, and simply need to communicate them to the reader. That’s talent too - a different kind.
Blogs are full of venom and opinion - this is true. They expose athletes for being real people by showing their (supposedly, at times) private moments. Now we can debate all day about what is acceptable to report and what isn’t. And that’s a valid debate. But for years sportswriters had deals with the devils themselves - they protected players indiscretions in exchange for “insider” access. It was unlikely those secrets would be out in the world, sportswriters were the gatekeepers. But now, if you are a public figure, you are a public figure. Some athletes forget this - this is part of their deal. They will become rich and famous at the price of their privacy. You don’t like it - go be an accountant. People are watching. Braylon Edwards mentioned that they aren’t doing anything different than athletes 40 years ago. He’s right. It’s just that now - the public WILL find out. You can no longer exchange access for protection.
This is very much the case of putting toothpaste back into the tube and getting exactly what you wished for. For years reporters ran human interest pieces on athletes. They’re human! They’re just like us! They’re not robots, they have feelings! Charles Barkley famously said “I am not a role model” - and this is why. Athletes are not the gods they were assumed to be in the mid 20th Century. They struggled to prove it. Well, now we believe it. We know it. You don’t need to run a human interest piece - we KNOW athletes are as human as the rest of us. And we have the cell-phone pictures to prove it.
None of this is going away. This is the new world. If you don’t want to be caught doing something - DON’T DO IT. Otherwise, you’d better be prepared to embrace it. Some people have - Paris Hilton launched her career off of this. She’s famous for being famous. Others have crumbled under the glaring eye - Britney Spears for example. I’m sure if you followed ANY parent around you’d see them do something that would make Dr. Spock cringe.
Bissinger is upset because there is no accountability for bloggers. He’s dead wrong on that. Bloggers are not accountable to organizations or the subjects of their stories, but to their readers. If they are consistently wrong or idiotic - they won’t have any readers. Plain and simple. Credibility, once destroyed, is VERY difficult to get back on the internet. Any thing you say will quickly be followed by links to your previous incorrect posts - assuming anyone even cares anymore. While anyone can say anything on the internet, it doesn’t matter if no one is listening.
The internet and bloggers aren’t going anywhere. Journalists are NO LONGER THE GATEKEEPERS of information. With the internet, ideas can be shared. The conversation has grown. It has exploded. And it cannot be ignored. It’s time for the old media types to figure it out - they’re not quite getting it yet. Instead of getting cranky - try starting a blog. See how hard it is. See what it takes, and look at why some are successful and some aren’t. If you’re the talented journalists you claim to be, then you’ll be able to figure out. But the competition has changed, and there’s more of it than ever before. That’s great for the reader, and terrifying for the writers who previously had a captive audience. Instead of complaining that someone is stealing your audience - steal it back.
For further reading, I recommend starting with Joe Posnanski’s take, as well as that of Will Carroll and Scott Long. And don’t miss Leitch on Best Damn Sports Show. Jason Whitlock takes a somewhat middle road, though he clearly has a personal beef with Leitch and deadspin. I’m not familiar with the particulars, so I won’t venture to comment. One of my favorites, Voros McCracken, weighs in.
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