This is an ex-candidate

Probably the funniest and most accurate article written about the state of Hilary Clinton's candidacy.

What's the matter with Hockeytown?

In an earlier post, I mentioned the disconnection between bloggers and the sports they write about. Since most bloggers aren't in (or allowed in) the press box or interview players, they rely on reporters to get their information.

Well, that disconnection works both ways. As the latest round of the never-ending NHL playoffs got under way, Detroit Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom chided Detroit sports fans for not selling out the Joe Louis Arena for its playoff games. Gee, isn't this Hockeytown? He says.

Well, as other bloggers note, Hockeytown is having a tough time.

This probably doesn't concern Albom, since in addition to the Free Press gig, he also makes his money talking on sports radio stations, ESPN, and as an author. And he gets a press pass. He's not likely to spend $500 or so for tickets, driving, parking and drunks and/or snacks for s sporting event, and if he does, that's not as big an economic deal to him as it would be to people who have no job, or have their hours of work cut, or who are scared of losing their job and the financial hardship that comes with it. In that cased, it's pretty easy to see what choice even the most die-hard sports fan is going to make. If you're fearing for your job, you save your money and watch the game on cable. The Wall Street Journal illustrates this.

And, as several Detroit area bloggers point out, the Wings have higher ticket prices than most clubs and a marketing staff that apparently treats their customers with contempt.

If Albom were still a good journalist, he'd be asking those questions. But he's apparently as out of touch with Detroit fans -- and the problems that they face outside the JLA -- as much as the players. Instead, the bloggers are doing his work for him.

EDIT: this columnist from a competing Detroit newspaper says it a lot better.

Your Conservative Party ... tough on crime ...

Crime fighting the best way they know how.

Tip of the lynch lid to Canadian Cynic.

Blogs and sports

There's an interesting debate going on about sports blogs, a fallout from
this. Simply put, there's a lot of sportswriters who fear the blogging world, as if the fact that fans can say what they want in the blogosphere is a danger. Well, they're probably saying the same things in the stands. They just have an audience now. As do the sports writers.

So, what's the sportswriters' problem? Can't stand the competition? Or are most sportswriters more interested in protecting their sources, or wanting to bask in the reflected glory of the athletes they cover -- athletes they make into demi-gods until they're disposed of like yesterday's newspapers -- and aren't willing to call them on their bad behaviour. People will read, say, Kissing Suzy Kobler or With Leather because you're more likely to hear what people really think of Roger Clemens's cradle-robbing, booty-calling, steroid-pumping, narcissistic, and lying a$$ than you are from the mainstream media. However, journalists are legally bound by libel and slander laws: many bloggers act as if such legal niceties are as archaic as horse and buggy transportation. At least until they're on the receiving end.

The relationship between the mainstream media and the blogosphere is much more symbiotic than either side is willing to admit. Most blogs (well, maybe not this one) are written by people who couldn't cover a nude midget with a king-size duvet, let alone a news story. The heckler would be lost without someone to heckle.

Hello, I must be going!

There's been a couple of times that I've tried to keep a diary in my life, and those efforts have failed. But these aren't the old times.