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…in case you missed it last night, Will Leitch of Deadspin.com took part in a ‘roundtable discussion’ about sports blogs 
alonside Pulitzer Prize-winning author Buzz Bissinger (Friday Night Lights) and Browns WR Braylon Edwards, hosted by Bob Costas, live last night on HBO’s CostasNow, which also featured separate but similar discussions with other guests regarding print, talk radio and television…
To hear from Leitch, check out his post at Deadspin.
…first off, i feel badly for will – not that he needs my sympathy – but this was not a discussion…it was a firing line…he was clearly ambushed…costas and the show’s producers seemingly put him on the panel with the lone goal of interrogating him, defaming him and embarrassing him – none of which happend…
…instead, the Pulitzer Prize author, bissinger, came off looking like a paranoid and angry sports writer, who, despite being a smart man with obvious talent, is afraid that he will soon be marginalized by a business and audience who, for better or worse, no longer crave his skillset…
“I think that blogs are dedicated to cruelty, they’re dedicated to journalistic dishonesty, they’re dedicated to speed…It is the complete dumbing down of our society,” said Bissinger.
…my biggest issue with the discussion – if you can even call it that – was that buzz and costas essentially defined the blogosphere as being just Will Leitch, who, though i admire him and enjoy his work, does not represent every blog or blogger…
…there is ‘the blogger,’ which is a person at a keyboard, and there is ‘the blog,’ which is a communication tool…they are two different things, yet always seen as one…
…in reality, the blog tool is used by Presidential Candidates; it is used by corporations for internal communication, like GE or Google; it is used by athletes, like Curt Schilling, to circumvent reporters; it is used by team owners, like Mark Cuban, to speak directly to the fans; it is used by beat writers working for news outlets to report information more quickly than they can on paper; it is used by me, a fan, to express thought-out, pragmatic opinion and information, which has earned me the ability to gain interviews, press credentials, a large readership, a bit of notoriety and a full-time job doing what i love…
…and so, to frame blogs and bloggers as just one person, one style, one agenda, is flat-out ignorant…it is ignorance in its truest form, in that bissinger seemingly had no interest in learning about what a blog can do, why they’re popular, or how they represent a useful form on communication…he ignored this opportunity while remaining only interested in continuing a one-way conversation with the preconceived notion that blogs are bad and only contribute to the dumbing down of society…which is so simplistic it hurts..
…frankly, their discussion could have used a dash of Peter Abraham, who is a beat writer for the Journal News, and who does a brilliant job - not just with his newspaper report, but also with his blog about the Yankees…in fact, i would bet – knowing what i know about newspaper and blog advertising – i bet pete is more valuable to the Journal News as a blogger than he is as a newspaper man…
…pete and i are the perfect example of how sports blogging can be better than what newspapers provide – and by ‘newspaper,’ i mean the physical object that is flung on your porch roughly 24–hours after actual news occured…
…if a team’s beat writer only filed his information on his blog, and did not do so in a newspaper, would it make him any less credible?…no, it would not…he is still a reporter…it is still his job to gather information so you and i have a better, more well-rounded view of what is happening with the team…sure, i do not need him to tell me what happened in the game, which i watched with my own two eyes, but it’s nice to know why things happen and what may happen, and he collects that insight – his work is important and will never be irrelevant…however, how his information gets communicated to the public is just a vehicle…if that vehicle changes - as it will – from a rolled up collection of paper to a one-page scroll on a computer screen, what is the difference…also, why does the reporter have to be employed by a newspaper, or some old-school media outlet…if a writer writes well, is respectful, professional and does her job well, why does it matter who signs her 
paycheck…
…Buzz Bissinger is clearly nervous, and he should be, as he admitted to being…however, to me, the reason he and people like him are nervous is because of limited thinking…they are only seeing the on-coming train from one, violent angle…and, sadly, if they do not get out of the way, unable to unlock themselves from their frozen point of view, he’s right, they will be totally run over…
For more, check out Final Score, Fire Joe Morgan and Alan Sepinwell from the Star Ledger, and watch the following clip from last night’s show:
I was actually in the audience last night, and Bissinger was FUMING even after the panel (ironically, he sat next to Leitch in the audience for the remainder of the show - 3 rows directly in front of me). Very strange to see someone of his caliber act in such a fashion. For his part, Leitch managed to maintain (relatively speaking) his poise during the Bissinger/Costas two-pronged attack.
I think your points, Matt, are extremely valid. There will always be room for solid journalism; there is also plenty of room for blogs. Bottom line is that this is the beauty of the internet - it puts all the information out there and lets the public decide what, when and how they consume information.
As I said to my friend after the show, Bissinger and Costas fancy themselves artists, which is fine, but you’d never see a true artist try to belittle someone else’s work in such an aggressive, vitriolic way. An honest effort is an honest effort, and for those of us who embrace it, what a wonderful time it is.
They said the same thing about television when people started getting them for their living rooms. It was the downfall of humanity, etc etc. A blog is just a cheaper, faster and more effective form of print media used to communicate with the audience. The blog scares print journalists that do not understand it.
It’s true that a blog is only as good as it’s author (and you can have poorly written blogs built upon bad intent), but the same was true in the early days of print as well. Over time, things will sort themselves out.
Excellent post, Matt.
Really, the smart sports jounalists (and other savvy journalists - like some political writers) have and will continue to adapt to the new technology and integrate their own blogs into their traditional coverage. Matt has linked to several excellent blogs by a couple of the local Mets beat writers. Other writers don’t do a very good job of supplementing or enhacning their traditional coverage in the blogosphere. And they are frightened. They should be.
There is also a great post on this over at firejoemorgan. It basically brings up the point that the blog post is different from the blog comments.
Look at the post of today’s game. The Blog posted the lineups and info about the game. The comments on the other hand….I don’t even want to know what spewed on in there…
Actually, the comments were fairly good natured and “gallows humor” type messages during the debacle.
How is it a bad thing when fans decide for themselves what to think, instead of being pounded with ceasless muckraking from tabloid hacks desperate to sell more papers than the next guy. Is Wallace Matthews an artist? Mike Vaccaro? Bob Klapisch?
These guys are all bitter, pathetic losers who went into sportswriting so they could buddy up to their heroes, only to spew a lifetime of bitterness when those same heroes refuse to acknowledge them on any equal footing. They are like the losers who don’t get into the fraternity but still try to come by the parties.
I’m almost stopped reading sports columnists…all the game is now is to try to out-do each other with ludicrous, controversial angles. Jose Reyes is Rey Ordonez? Defending Roger Clemens? Delgado snubbed all of New york? If this is art, count me out.
I agree totally. The reason the readership and viewership previously devoted to the traditional sports media is turning to blogs is because the traditional sports media is populated largely by braindead slobs. Flip on ESPN; the shrill morons yelling at one another on that network are, for my money, ten times more coarse and abrasive in manner (if not language) than the average Deadspin comment, which, while profane, is offered in good humor 95% of the time.
Bissinger is, ironically, a great example of somebody with actual talent who made piles of money in traditional media (books) because he is not a clown like the guys you mentioned, dave27.
Even Chipper Jones thinks Mr. Bissinger is a little too old for his nickname.
Matt–
I was at the taping last night and I think you really missed Mr. Bissinger’s point, which was both startling and refreshing. Instead you have taken his criticisms personally resulting in the above post that almost entirely misinterprets what he said and meant. This is pure irony, given that Mr. Bissinger’s main criticism of blogs was that, because their creators are untrained, unsupervised and unaccountable, they often pass along misinformation that is often tainted by the blogger’s personal biases; as your earlier post today in fact was.
To characterize Mr. Bissinger as some angry old man, only worried for his job, totally distorts his comments for your own gain. You also totally neglected to address that both Mr. Costas and Mr. Bissenger qualified their remarks, on numerous occasions, by saying that there are a number of blogs that do an excellent job and do not fall under the criticisms they were doling out.
Mr. Bissinger was correct in making the argument that while blogs, and the internet in general, allow many voices to be heard, they negatively affect the quality of those voices. Truth be told, blogs represent and inspire the awful usage of the English language. Further they inspire laziness and stupidity. Your readers come to you to give them a synopsis of the articles written by better trained and more accomplished writers so that they do not have to read them themselves. This is not a good thing. This is highly representative of the dumbing-down of America, where people are to busy to truly inform themselves, and instead want quick information spoon-fed to them.
As for the quality of writing found in blogs specifically, Mr. Cerrone, you may think you are a fine writer, but sir, you most certainly are not. While I value the information you pass on, and often your opinions that accompany it, your post are not fine examples of the English language. Currently, on my nightstand I have a large book containing the collected sports writing of one Mr. Red Smith, who was an exceptional writer, so much so that I am intrigued to read his accounts of ballgames that occurred decades before my birth. I highly doubt that the collected works of Matthew Cerrone will soon replace it.
You seem to be perpetuating the false point that there is some sort of ‘training’ required to engage in a discussion - the essential purpose of blogs.
Do I need to be qualified to discuss the Mets over a beer in the bar anymore than I need to be qualified to write my thoughts here? I don’t think so, but even if I did, I’d take my chances on both, kind sir.
You’re correct - blogs don’t perpetuate the ‘King’s English’, as it were. But I’d argue that American Idol doesn’t exactly perpetuate the musical lineage of Mozart, Sinatra and the Beatles. On some level, participation of the masses is what’s important. That said, if I knew where the point of diminishing returns was, I’d be a much richer man.
Making persnickety remarks about people’s writing styles and/or abilities isn’t really relevant to the discussion. If you don’t like how people write on blogs, go read the New Yorker (which I do as well, but for different reasons than I read Metsblog). Blogs will not render ‘real’ sports writing obsolete, anymore than American Idol will render true musical talent obsolete (at least, I hope).
Still, I think your argument demonstrates that this is not an actual “argument” - where you have two sides debating the relative merits of a single issue - rather, a perceived threat that really has no relevance. People will read blogs. People will read ‘true’ journalistic pieces. There will be a lot of overlap. The sun will continue to rise. Why such hostility?
how are you doing buzz?i admit it is awful for someone to have an opinion and wish to express that point somewhere where others might see it and spark some conversation.
bdwyshaps, take that stick out of your ass for a second, and think. You yell at Matt for putting words into Buzz’s mouth one second, then put words into Matt’s the next.
The fact is, blogging was never meant to replace all other forms of literature. I don’t think that’s the objective or focus of any blogger out there. Blogging is meant as a supplement. Do I go to metsblog to read a artistic description of the finer subtle points of the game? Or to hear someone wax poetic on the romantic sides of it? No. If I want that, I’ll pick up a book or read an article by the type of writer you’re defending.
Blogging has grown so popular and so pervasive because it represents the fans point of view. Believe it or not, it’s easier to know what a fan wants to read when you’re a fan yourself.
As someone who’s been in a Major League press box, I completely agree that when you’re there, you’re writing for a different audience with different considerations, a different focus, and a different tone. Yes, there is a time and place to write about the things the average fan doesn’t get to see, but that surely doesn’t mean that there isn’t a time and a place to write about what everyone gets to see, because it’s what people do get to see that they grow curious about. A fan won’t wonder what happened when the cameras are off. They’ll wonder about the things they did see and need to be rationalized or explained.
The fact is, I can get more information on the Mets by going here than I can pretty much anywhere else. Does that mean this is all I read? No. But it does usually mean it’s the first thing I read.
What Bissinger and those of his ilk don’t understand is that blogging has gained in popularity in large part due to its ability to focus on the things that fans want to hear, and writers, from their point of view removed from the fan base, forget about. I want to know how someone who’s a fan reacts to the ups and downs of their team, and I get that here.
Buzz Bissinger was so far off what is relevant and what is important in this issue, it’s scary. Blogs are more popular because they give people more of what they want. I read deadspin for its humor, for its fresher take on things. I have read books by Buzz Bissinger as well, but for a different reason, and both have their place. It’s very clear though that Buzz was threatened by blogging. He has taken a point of view that if he doesn’t like it, it’s filth, and that is EXACTLY what it wrong with people like him. Bloggers don’t pretend to be all that matters. They don’t try to take over conventional media. They don’t feel like if it’s not what they do, it’s inferior. But people like Buzz do, and it’s that elitism that is exactly what deadspin talks about when they describe why people turn to blogs. That is what turns people off and alienates their readers, and I hope Buzz loses a considerable amount of respect from his reader base for his actions there. This was no less than a completely unwarranted attack, and it was disgusting. It’s amazing how much more rational and intelligent deadspin came off in that segment than Bissinger.
Boy I hope that post was satirical.
Somehow I doubt Matt considers himself Shakespeare. This is such a strawman argument. Matt is not trying to write like Red Smith, he is trying to collect Mets information in a single place while giving us his perspective as a fellow fan. If you don’t like it and would rather read newspaper columnists than just don’t type metsblog.com into your browser.
Some of the best sports writing is considered editorializing and therefore subjective and not as reliant on “getting the facts straight” as some might suggest. The reason people come to places like Metsblog is because baseball is a sport that is enhanced by discussion, debate and comparison. The pace of a baseball game itself is also well-suited for it as Bob Costas suggests in Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary.
Reading the newspaper does not allow for that sort of exchange to occur, you’re left to digest the egos of these writers right along with their insight (Mike Lupica, I’m looking in your direction.) I prefer a less didactic way of keeping up with my favorite team and Metsblog reminds me that this is a game of the people. Thank you Matt.
bdwyshaps, you have to be kidding….
Bissinger’s opening salvo: “I’m just gonna interject because I feel very strongly about this. I really think you’re full of sh*t. Because I think that blogs are dedicated to cruelty [and] they’re dedicated to journalistic dishonesty….”
Talk about “misinformation . . . tainted by . . . personal bias.”
He then proceeded to attribute a series of comments by anonymous internet posters — stated completely out of context, by the way — to Leitch. Journalistic integrity at its finest!
Bissinger made himself look like a fool. The more he rambled, the worse it got. I lost a lot of respect for him and, to a lesser degree, Costas for allowing the entire charade to play out.
It was disgraceful.
Hi Buzz!
Unfortunately, sir, you are part of the old guard. The mainstream media is a DISGRACE to discourse.
The mainstream media does not inform, as you recklessly imply. Instead, it is the source of the very “dumbing” you speak of. With that said, it is a common misconception of idealistic fools to believe that there was some historical glory period of thought and theory among the common people of America.There was not. If anything, people are more aware of topics of interest BECAUSE of the internet, not in spite of it.
You may sincerely believe that you are correct. It is easy to be confused. There are a lot of stupid people. But they have always been. And to use standard English as a stepping stone to claim intellectual superiority is not only foolish, but intellectually troubling. Human communication is not limited to those with training in petty rules, and the internet is leading the way on that front.
As someone who grew up with the internet, I understand things that perhaps a person from an older generation, like yourself, may not fully comprehend. That doesn’t make you a cranky old man, just a confused old man who channels his confusion into incoherent and inaccurate rants.
maybe you need to read faith and fear in flushing.
Micah Owings pinch hit for Arizona and hit a 2 run homer!
Maine beware.
Okay, he hit 4 HR in 60 AB last year. I guess it isn’t that suprising.
I’m sorry, but if a manager sends a pitcher up to pinch hit, you’ve got to put the ball up in his kitchen.
so is this guy costas or bissinger? I can’t tell…you don’t like blogs, there’s no reason you and buzz, and the rest of the technophobes can’t avoid them and pick up the paper. There’s still some fine work out there.
when i want prose i’ll read walt whitman, he’s on my night stand. what a snob.
By the way, does anyone know where I send my Bissinger hate mail to? I’d like to let him know that his ignorance has cost him a reader.
Bdwyshaps,
Wow. While I’ll admit that I often think Matt could use a proofreader or an editor, that was excessively harsh.
Also, there are plenty of poorly-written and highly biased traditional sports columns (see, e.g.: Matthews, Wallace).
Again, the savvy sportswriter will adapt by integrating the Internet side of things into his repetoire. Such a savvy sportswriter can easily enhace his traditional reportage by utilizing his own blog. Other sportswriters will fail to adapt. They will be left on the side of the road of progress.
Frankly, too many of the complaints of Mssrs. Bissenger and Costas (and now you) smack of the lamentations of the horsewhip manufactuere and blacksmith upon the widspread production of the automobile.
*enhance See, there I go dumbing down America with a typo!!
I just don’t understand the argument. No one is forcing anyone to read any blog. Are they trying to argue that the common person without press credentials shouldn’t have the right to write something other people can see? If they were as good an valuable as they think they are, they shouldn’t have a problem. There’s no reason why a great writer can’t have a place in a world with blogs.
if i was there… i would have booed buzz.
I know he had a bad day, but you’ve gotta support the guy. Booing him isn’t gonna make him come around and like blogs. The only way to get him to like blogs is to cheer him, constantly, no matter how badly he rails against them.
Wow….this may end up resulting in one of the longer threads ever posted on Metsblog….(an intelligent one,I hope)….Only 2 weeks ago, Matt stated that his intentions with this blog were not that he be recognized as a journalist. I come to Metsblog for news, accurate up-to-the minute news…and for the comraderie of loyal Mets fans…Newswise, I consistently find what I”m looking for here. Honestly, I don’t often read the comments, as they sometimes tilt towards emotional rants, demanding impulsive decisions. I buy newspapers for the writing, which is sadly , slowly dissolving into MTV/USA Today snippets of high school journalism.
I guess, today, people read books for prose and great writing. Newspapers no longer feature that….columnists have bent to gossip and sensationalism, perhaps at their editors insistence.
Deadspin certainly should not be asked or stated to represent “blogdom”…it is satire and National Lampoon type of humor….no one goes there to get sports news.
I feel that we get great, accurate info, and a dedicated, consistently fair line of thought and commentary here from Matt, et al.
I will have to respectfully disagree.
I seriously doubt Buzz Bissinger, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, is worried about the blogosphere.
Don’t get me wrong, I love blogs. I read them almost everyday ranging topics from baseball to law to real estate. Heck, I even have a blog myself. But blogging and writing a novel or a full length book are two different kinds of skills. Sure they both fall under the umbrella of writing, but they’re different kinds of writing.
Sure, some guys can do both, Malcolm Gladwell or the Freakonomics authors come to mind, but in general, I do believe that, for the most part, writing a blog and writing a book involve different writing skills.
Basically, I doubt Will Leitch could write a book on par with Friday Night Lights or Three Nights in August (I’ve read both, although I’ve only read excerpts of God Save the Fan.) However, I doubt Buzz Bissinger would have as entertaining and well written blog as Deadspin either.
So I do not intend to denigrate either types of writers. Just saying they’re different and I think there is room on the market for both.
But I will agree with Matt on one thing, beat writers need to be very afraid. I often find the insight of team bloggers, who are usually actual fans who actually watch the game to watch the game, rather than watching the game to write a story, have better and more knowledgeable insights than beat writers.
Trust me, and I can tell you this from personal experience, traditional media is terrified of the internet, newspapers especially.
Blogs serve a different purpose than long-form journalism, and they can be a great thing. But blogs can, in their own way, encourage a stripped down discourse because of their format and delivery method.
I love metsblog.com and read it every day, but I wouldn’t call the act of blogging journalism. Matt’s not a terrible writer, but I don’t know that I could call him a good one either. At the least, what gets published here could benefit from some proofreading.
The same can be said of the New York Post and the Daily News. I find typos practically every morning.
I would think the newspapers go through much more proofreading and editing than most anything that comes up on a blog.
By the way after listen to Leitch try to articulate his points, with “like” interjected before like, every fourth word, I have to say he represented himself very poorly. Not like Bissinger made himself look good with his steady stream of curses and his inability to let Leitch respond. Edwards sounded better than both of them.
Recently, the NY Post Mets’ beat writer wrote that Jose Reyes slid head first into Eric Bruntlett’’s knee and was shaken up. Problem was, it was Chase Utley who Jose crashed into. The writer had this inaccuracy both in the blog portion of the website, as well as in the news story published on the site. I left a critical message for him in the comment section of his blog entry. A couple of hours later, my message was gone and the blog entry and story were corrected.
That was a big inaccuracy, and I find them almost every day in stories put out by the mainstream NY media outlets. That’s in addition to the typos and grammatical errors you’ll also find littering the stories.
it’s on right now on HBO. If you tune in now, you’ll have missed strahan telling chris russo off, pretty priceless.
Mr. Bissinger’s main criticism of blogs was that, because their creators are untrained, unsupervised and unaccountable, they often pass along misinformation that is often tainted by the blogger’s personal biases
This is so ironic after a hot stove season in which a blogger — Matt Cerrone — was the only one in any medium reporting the status and developments in the Johan Santana sweepstakes accurately. While the NY Times, the Daily News, the NY Post, ESPN, and every other established media outlet in NY and around the country were reporting downright inaccuracies or an incomplete picture regarding the Mets and Santana, Cerrone for weeks was the only one giving Mets fans an accurate and more comprehensive idea of what was really going on.
It may be true that more established media outlets have stricter standards for employing writers, but that doesn’t make the stories they produce immune from “misinformation” tainted by “personal biases.” One can find instances of this almost every day in the mainstream media. Wallace Matthews is one name that easily comes to mind.
What I think irks the Buzz Bizzingers of the world is that more people might read the writings of bloggers such as Matt Cerrone and Will Leitch in a single week than they do the words of a conventional media writer such as Buzz Bizzinger in an entire year.
As for bdwyshaps’ criticism of Cerrone’s writing style, it is totally inappropriate, petty, and off the mark.. The nature of Red Smith’s role as a newspaper columnist lent itself to a more leisurely pace with which to produce commentary and opinion. The nature of a blog such as Metsblog dictates a more fast-paced style designed for quick consumption. The message and how well it’s understood and received is what’s most important here. Not the way it’s constructed. Besides, writers like Red Smith are a rarity today, even in the hallowed newsrooms of today’s most established newspapers. English is a living, breathing language that is always being transformed. For someone to take issue with the language of today’s blogs is to be terribly narrow-minded.
Blogs certainly can be a vehicle for the rapid dissemination of misinformation. But eventually the truth gets sorted out. Even on blogs. Just as it does in the mainstream media when they goof up with inaccurate reporting, which occurs quite frequently. To think that the consumers of blogs can’t sort these things out for themselves is an insult.
Blogs are here to stay and will only grow in prominence in the coming years. If people like Buzz Bizzinger insist on maintaining an elitist attitude, they will only be left behind in the dust, with fewer and fewer of their own readers.
“when i want prose i’ll read walt whitman, he’s on my night stand. what a snob.”
Walt Whitman wrote poetry, which is not prose.
That goes up there with Vince McMahon as one of the most uncomfortable Bob Costas segments ever. My biggest problem with Buzz (besides the fact that he was coming off as a pompous jackass) was that he was judging blogs by what the clowns who write in the comments section add. Most successful blogs (such as Deadspin) offer great up to date news on all kinds of sports topics without holding back. I agree, there’s something to be said about professional sports journalism, but I feel that blogs will have the positive effect of cutting back some of the high horse crap that we have to be force fed by the media. It’s a nice little check.
By the way, I would like to suggest to Mr. Bissinger that he should look up A-Rod’s psychologist to address those anger issues. He may be in dire need of TLC… hahahaha
“The complete dumbing down” of society comment is quite amusing, considering if you venture a few steps over onto another topic - politics, a legitimate (and correct) argument could be made that the mainstream media is the source of the dumbing down, and that the blogs fill the void of nuanced and pragmatic discussion. Of course blogging, as whole, which - by the way - talking about blogging as a whole is insanely stupid, but blogging as a whole certainly has a high variance in terms of quality. But I’d personally put up with five stupid blogs to get to that one good one, rather than have ALL bad ones in the mainstream media, which is what currently exists.
This is a debate we had in journalism school back in undergrad, about whether blogs are real journalism.
I can’t compare them to newspapers or the so-called “reputable” news outlets because the fact is their function is completely different. Blogs are there to get information and opinion to the reader, many times as quickly as possible. Witness Metsblog, which is a rumor mill many times, and in most of the posts is an opinion expression. That’s fine, but Metsblog.com is not ESPN.com.
I only just started watching the (yes, seeming) assault on Leitch. I really enjoyed “Friday Night Lights” and I think Bissinger is 100% right when he says in the blogging world, you can’t get the same effect you would from W.C. Heinz and the other masters of the keyboard. Those exceptional writers pen phenomenal pieces that, I agree with him, evoke much greater emotion than what one finds on the typical blog.
BUT, in today’s day and age, sadly, people are so eager to get information as quickly as possible (Blackberrys, cell phones, al day news networks), that that enjoyment of the well-written word is lost on people.
I read the newspaper, and I read some blogs. Invariably I find the work that goes into writing a newspaper article and the result much more worthy of my respect than blogs. Each, however, serves their distinct function.
I did not know someone could possibly come off as being such an arrogant, ignorant jerk on national television. BUZZ though has definately proved it is very possible to do so. Matt you run one hell of a blog that is greatly appreciated by all of us METS fans on here. (Pardon the he**, BUZZ might be offended)
If mainstream sports journalism wasn’t such garbage, we wouldn’t need blogs. Deadspin, FJM, and Metsblog fill a void. If Buzz was truly concerned for journalistic integrity he would be calling out the garbage on ESPN. And what is being threatened by blogs? Certainly not guys like Heinz and Halberstam, who are revered by the very bloggers he attacks. It’s guys like Plaschke and Wallace Matthews who have business writing fortune cookies, let alone sports columns. I’d rather read any of the comments on here or Deadspin than the drivel in the print media.
the irony is that metsblog and deadspin are about as different as highly successful sports blogs can be, and if costas had an agenda that wasn’t openly hostile to the blogosphere, he would have had matt or someone who writes a serious sports blog as well.
also, i would love to know how many new hits deadspin got after that panel aired. shrewd move, leitch.
Did anybody say Max Mercy?
Yikes! What a disgrace that clip is
It’s painfully obvious Buzz Bissinger is an old man out of touch with the society in which he lives.
He’s also got zero class
The funny part is Bissinger can kick, scream and team up with his tight assed lil buddy Bob Costas to ambush Will Leitch all they like but the future is here and it’s called the internets!
Personally I’ve found there’s a segment of people in the worlds of newspaper and book publishing who are very threatened by the blogosphere… and quite frankly they should be because this new media format is quickly rendering many of them irrelevant
later for you Buzz
Let me start off by saying, I’d much rather read Metsblog’s recap of a game than the Post or Daily News. Matt offers a fan’s perspective and a cool rational head. He’s not going to push a controversial topic like some radio shows we all know. The grammar may not be 100% correct, but who cares. The idea gets across. I’ve followed Metsblog for a long time and over the past couple of years Matt has worked extremely hard to make sure this is not a rumor site like mlbtraderumors.com (nothing against that website I love it too). All this information has probably been triple checked for accuracy before posted, you’ll never find Matt jump the gun on a bogus trade rumor. I’d like to end by saying the written word is not dead, I love to read in my spare time but I find sports blogs offer much more information, faster, and with a better perspective than newspapers.
Often people complain about the idiotic comments on Metsblog and often they’re right. However, if Bissinger and Costas read the comments posted here, they’ll read many well made, well (probably hastily) written arguments in a forum that allows for zero editing. The quality of this discussion is a credit to Matt and to his readers.
I never heard of any of these guys before (other than Costas). I never heard of DeadSpin before, but a quick look this morning has convinced me it’s not for me. I have zero interest in reading anything that Bissinger has written.
It’s ironic that in order to make his point about how abusive and cruel blogs can be, he had to get abusive. I would bet that most of the blog posts and comments he doesn’t like are written by people who are very similar to him in character and temperament.
Blogs serve many purposes, as many above have pointed out. For me, Metsblog (& and other Met blogs) gives me a chance to ‘talk’ about the Mets with other fans. I’m thousands of miles from Shea and there are few baseball, let alone Met fans, over here. It’s part of what makes the internet great.
It’s perhaps ironic that Buzz railed against the “dumbing down” of our society, yet apparently subscribes to the television theory “louder” = “right.”
Or maybe it’s not ironic. Whatever. How Leitch kept his cool in what was clearly an ambush I’ll never know, but he wins major respect points from me.
well, buzz providing him with some of the most effective advertising he’s ever had probably smoothed it over.
You lost me after “Costas”….
seriously, he may be the only person in sports broadcasting that makes Joe Morgan look humble and intelligent.
I’m honestly torn between the the 2 sides. B/C I see the good and bad in both.
Deadspin, I do believe, displays more negativitiy and frat boy nonsense than it does worthwhile information. It is a “dumbing down” of information. Will is not a good writer. But he is very good at shotgunning thousands of bits of “news” items at us that are primarily for entertainment. It’s paparazzi sensationalism for the most part. And It’s certainly not art.
But the good in many of these blogs is that
1) they create a communication forum for fans. Sports writers are no longer the only voice; and
2) it asks a very good question to the sports writer esatablishment…”who the hell do you think YOU are?”.
I take high offense to the old boy network in the press room and broadcasters booths that have shaped our opinions and perceptions of our athletes and teams for decades. So much of it is biased. And they can do so b/c their industry has a very high boundry to entry. These guys have a sense of entitlement just b/c they went to school and ‘put in their time” without ever playing or being good at the sport in the first place. They have a lot of power, are arrogant, and even determine accolades (like HOF entry). Deadspin and other blogs do a very good job at calling out these guys who have not been held accountable (other than by their editors, perhaps) for nearly a century. And I appreciate that.
So when an educated, dedicated, and refined artist like Buzz, spending months to years worth of time to research and produce a well-written book, finds that he sells just as many copies in one month as Will gets viewers to his site in 2 hours….he gets pissed. I don’t blame him, b/c he sees the general public giving Will’s lesser refined material as much legitamacy as his. Buzz was certainly protecting his backyard on the Costas program, but he was also trying to protect the integrity of the sports writing world. Because one thing is certain, Will could care less about journalistic integrity and is much more like a vulture going for a story regardless of it’s effects on the main character. Buzz does not want his kids going down much cheaper avenues (provided by Will) to acquire information which is so heavily scewed, vulger, and far less detailed. Very legit point.
To defend his right at the table the best possible way, I would have like to see Will say one thing to Buzz that would have put the demand and popularity for Deadspin in perspective. That would have been this: “Buzz, it’s your exact arrogance and inflated opinion of yourself and your contribution to this society that results in Jim Rice still not being elected into the HOF. B/C writers like you have far more power than you should, and you refuse to vote for deserving players simply b/c they don’t want to talk to the you. That’s an abuse of your position, and it serves only you.”
Fact is….both Blogs and writers both have to clean up their own backyard.
One take-away for me after this show is this….I will NEVER again get on Matt Cerrone’s case for being too positive on MetsBlog. Because a positive blog with high integrity appears to be a very rare thing.
So Matt, as I stated in my email to you yesterday…..hats off to you, my man.
Ah the fall of Danny1986. I never thought i’d live to see it. Danny my man, give negative infantile blogs a chance!
Two words best describe for me why blogs have become ascendant: “Budweiser Hotseat”
first off….where the hell have you been? Missed you, my man.
hey …I am all for the opportunity granted to anyone to go out there create a blog and state your feelings/opinions to a broad audience. I think it is fantastic. As I said, it is unfair that this privledge has historically been granted only to a chosen few (reporters). So I appreciate the concept of blogs and the door they’ve kicked open. It is revolutionary.
But we should also scrutinize them just as much as we scrutinize anything else. Many of these people are opportunists who will defile anyone for personal glory. I do see Will Leatch in this light more so than I don’t. There is a lot of crap out there that, for the most part, is far substandard to what I read in the newspapers. I am just grateful the blog I go to the most is the superior MEtsBlog, which is the best media avenue for Mets fans on the planet.
Don’t get me going on ESPN. I will take any blog, negative or in a foreign language that I can’t comprehend, over those Disney clowns.
You know where I “live” Danny. I don’t post much here anymore, but it’s nice to see you’re back in the saddle.
There is still an obvious benefit to reading more intelligent, edited, and informed scribblings. I’m sure you won’t agree, but for me the writing is far better in the NYTimes than any blog I’ve seen. When a story is picked up there, for me that means its a real story. The writing is better, but not far funnier, however, which is where i think the true value of sports blogging is. The Deadspin type material is still far less mean-spirited than the other entertainment blogs, as we in the sports world have still yet to resort to pictures of cellulite and nipple slips.
As in the early days of Metsblog, the main value of the best blogs is not in their quick distribution of “information,” but in combining this with the community that forms around common purpose of following this maddening team. Gallows humor is tough to pull of all alone. We Mets fans are lucky to have some terrific blogs, all with different personalities, and Matt played a big role in that.
As for “opportunists who will defile anyone for personal glory” I sometimes agree with you. But athletes too, get incredible privileges in this society and they know their images are liable to take some abuse when they slip up. And the smart print journalists will look to get in on this trend, or already have, while the others sink into the tar pit of low circulation. If the print guys are looking for a scapegoat for the massive loss of credibility and stature of “real” journalists, I’d say ESPN would be where I’d go.
I go on at length on this topic elsewhere. regards…
Nothing wrong with a witty, sarcastic, intelligent, informative and even irreverant blog.
In this case though i agree with Costas and Bissinger. Though Buzz handled himself poorly. They have a point,
Deadspin and other like minded ilk are trash and were correctly identified as continuing with the dumbing down of America.
Deadspin is trash.