As I sat (with the car in park on the 10) on the way to my job this morning (doing new media things for an old media company--that makes me a Daywalker, right?), I wondered what it would take to get someone, anyone, in a prominent MSM position to point out that there are terrible columnists in a position to do much more profound and widespread damage to the national discourse, that for FUCK'S SAKE Mitch Albom still gets paid to write, that we just watched one of the brightest stars of a new generation of sportswriters get poked in the chest on national television by a grown man named Buzz, and that the millions of readers a day streaming through aren't a blip and are sticking around because we're giving them what they want, in real time. The breadth and eloquence of the responses from Will himself, from Spencer and AJ and Brian and Ken (and Drew with his own particular brand of articulacy) has been captivating to watch. Will it make a dent? What's it going to take?
Things you miss while stuck on a plane...sheesh
Posted by: Conquest Chronicles at April 30, 2008 10:38 AMSports Blogging = The Devil
Kept getting the flashback to Sandler's Water Boy. Will Leitch is the devil, Foosball the devil.
Ironic that Costas blames Leitch for the tone of Deadspin comments, also assigning authorship of all Deadspin comments to him, while he sits on the set of a teevee show (bearing his name) prodding Bissinger to personally attack Will.
Classy move, big guy.
Agree completely. Most mainstream media types cannot conceive that the "abusive tone" and "profane" works they condemn online are just as prevalent in the work of their own colleagues.
Albom, Lupica, Skip Bayless, and their ilk have bigger audiences and do more damage to athletes on a regular basis than any blogger could because of that larger audience.
If you're looking for someone MSM-ish, check out Joe Posnanski's take here:
http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/04/30/prayers-sometimes-get-answered/
And speaking of KC columnists, supposedly there was a decent Jason Whitlock piece, but I haven't read it.
Posted by: Devin McCullen at May 2, 2008 01:23 PM