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.