Suddenly sports finds the fans have a seat at the table again. After being pushed aside and trampled by the greed of athletes, owners and the media the fans suddenly have a voice and it roars. It isn't the processed cheese voice, massaged, manipulated and served in sterile bite size media chunks; it's a seething roiling ocean of discontent fueled by scandals, con men, and criminals guised as owners, players, and the press wading through obscene amounts of money.
It's a voice from Pandora's Box unleashed, unchecked, unfettered by considerations of programming and advertisers that once kept it in perfect order. It's a voice that lampoons pro-athletes for turning into fat, waddling ####, eunuchs of greed unable to stop stuffing their egos at any price or carpetbagging owners who squeeze every last nickel out of fans and taxpayers alike. Prior to the internet a fan was a boozy lush in the stands with an audience of none. After the internet, he is an anarchist who reaches hundreds, thousands, and millions and doesn't care if he displaces convention.
All the huffing and puffing about the internet by the old media isn't working. Jason Whitlock's latest online column for Fox is a perfect example. It follows an interesting passive-aggressive form. First he professes a love for bloggers and says to the effect, "Some of my best friends are bloggers." Fair enough, but for all his blog love the real Jason Whitlock managed to bleed through his camouflage. Take this sentence; However, they normally save their venom for more important targets than leaders of the online paparazzi.
Online paparazzi? So bloggers are a pack of insensible money-grubbing celebrity stalkers waiting to snap the next #### shot of a celebrity skank? Maybe we are. I know one thing I don't think it's very ethical to share a cab and then out the conversation in an article. Whitlock tomahawks Buzz Bissinger just like a blogger I know who sandbagged Philadelphia Daily News writer Bill Conlin in an email exchange. In both cases it's designed to gain notoriety wrapped in a thin veneer of pseudo-piety. We call it dry gulching where I come from, shooting a man in the back.
The article dissolves in what I'd call an exercise of coy blog bashing. Deploring deadspin's blogging about a broadcaster cheating on his wife. Imagine that? Is that why every traditional and not-so-traditional media outlet recently showed so much sensitivity to Roger Clemens, Mindy McCready and John Daley's ex-wife? Because affairs are off limits? Whitlock even chucks in the race card for good measure. Good. I wouldn't want any controversy to pass without filtering it through skin pigment. Still pretty tame stuff for Whitlock, who usually provides plenty of foaming at the mouth moments in his fine scribble. I guess defending bloggers is harder than it looks because we aren't very homogeneous. Plenty of us are bad, offensive, rude, childish, and out of control. We don't need you to defend us Jason. To who? For what?
Newspapers and magazines are buggy whips, bloggers have stormed the gates and the rabble is in the Bastille. There's no going back, just the fading whispers and echoes of an by-gone era that's passed as surely as the dinosaurs. I'm not going to get upset by haircuts on HBO hating bloggers, or even a guy like you Jason damning me with faint praise. Call me paparazzi, call me rude, heck, call me Ismael, but speak up, you're fading like an old photograph in dusty box. Did you know they once printed sports on paper?
Update: This post is a reaction to the content and ideas expressed in one single article scribbled by Jason Whitlock it is not an indictment of his body of work, his character or his ability to passionately express himself as forcefully as he does. I've blogged here and I've worked for FoxSports, they don't censor anybody, they are outstanding individuals in my book, without exception. They do have standards of appropriate conduct and decency they take seriously. If enough comments cross those lines they can and will take swift, decisive action. It's not censorship. I too have appropriate standards for my blog. If a comment crosses them, it's gone. I'm not censoring anyone but like Fox I apply that standard equally to all.
Amen Ed. Good article. I just wrote a counter article regarding Fox's censorship in removing the comments section from Whitlock's article after it was getting bombed by negative sentiments towards his writing and ideas. See it here:
http://community.foxsports.com/blog s/Cygnus/2008/05/01/Whitlocks_Blogg er_Article_Fox_Censorship
You mean that Jason Whitlock is not a blogger? Is he really a journalist? The only thing I have ever read from him is black-white opinion rants disguised within an actual media event. I thought that was purely opinion. There is no editorial content to anything he writes. No investigation or research. He is first and foremost, all about the glorification of Jason Whitlock.
C'mon ed, just give it up. We been had. We bloggers have been exposed by these brilliant professional media types, and we must come clean regarding our diabolical plot to overthrow the sporting media and sporting news establishment.
Yes, it's true. Bloggers are trying to push sportswriters and journalists out of the sporting world one gigabyte at a time, but believe us, we're only doing it to protect the sports we love. We have only the best of intentions. I swear ....
.... nah, I'm only making stuff up again. Never trust a blogger.
Anything that helps to water down the media's influence works for me!
Who are these media people appealing to with their rants anyway? We, the unclean, uneducated masses? I for one am fed up with these egocentric media people. Give me the uncontrolled bloggers. We are becoming the voice of the people, hell, we are the people!
ed...I understand your point. A blogger sees a text message on an important sportscaster's phone, and he blogs it. The journalist/writer finds out about the Clemens/Daly/McCready scandal, and writes about it. But the blogger is bad, and the journalist is doing his job. Uh oh. I see the kettle being called out.
Personally, I think the real reason why journalists/writers hate bloggers is because journalists/writers starved for years to hone their craft, while bloggers can go ahead and type on a keyboard with no deadline, no ED and no accountability. Read- JEALOUSY.
No worries Ed, you are well respected by all of us, and are no "online paparazzi."
I really didn't know that much about Jason Whitlock so when I read your blog I went and read his article before typing this. I sent him a letter talking about the difference in bloggers and stupids whose only ability is to say things like KOBE SUCKS or Cowboys SUCK.
I also told Jason Whitlock since he claims to read sports bloggers he should read you, J-Dizzle and Lisa if he wants to know what a real blogger is.
Nique, if Whitlock read the good bloggers he'd never admit to it. He'd rather just throw out a blanket statement to rile up the masses, like he does with his race related comments. I don't doubt that there's grains of truth to what he's saying, but he always blows things way out of proportion to how they really are. His motivation is strictly to get clicks, and get paid per click.
I used to like to read Whitlock, a couple of years ago. Then I figured out he doesn't believe what he writes. He just throws out the opposite opinion that the majority believe in. Just to get readers to leave comments. This shows Fox how valuable he is. He is a great writer, just his gimick is sooo stale now.
I haven't read him in awhile. All his stories were looking the same anyway.
One thing I'll say for him...he does answer his email. At least somebody replied from his address, I guess it was him.
I'll give Whitlock credit for recognizing that there are good bloggers out there and that the mainstream media has made mistakes. Still, it's obvious that he doesn't completely understand us.
moseby,
I think it's more a matter of Whitlock pushing every button when he lands on a topic. I'm not race sensitive, a person can no more help their race than they can bend a spoon with telepathy. So a lot of what he scribbles eludes me. He defends bloggers with backhanded compliments and digs, but really who is he defending us against? The forces of anti-blogger-dom?
For my job, I visit many area printing press operations. The newspaper industry is a dying one. Every press has cut back its staff drastically. The ones that expect to survive are fully investing in their websites. The ones who are too arrogant are withering quicker than the rest.
The hubris of Whitlock and his ilk are killing their entire industry.
I'm not sure what a blogger is, I'm actually a scribbler, I started this blog to take a break while writing a pulp fiction novel on spec...and from what I see you are every bit the bloggerer I am...always glad to read your scribble...everyone should you do a damn fine job.
D-fat,
Jason is alright with me, I just disagreed with his article which I'm sure I wasn't a first for him and I'm darn sure not going to be the last. He is a damn fine scribbler.
Hanahan,
I'm not sure being a contrarian is such a bad thing if you want to motivate readers to read your scribble. We've all been guilty of that, or at least I have. I try to judge scribble on the merit of the arguments and so I read lots of these guys and there are two camps the gushing groupies like Bill Simmons or the contrarians and not a lot of middle ground.
ed...he was remiss. Email him...maybe you'll get an answer! I emailed and got squat, however Stevo did. (where's my hankie to cry tears?)
I like Whitlock, but don't always agree with him. I didn't like his paparazzi reference, it stung, but there are a lot of bloggers who do fit that mentality. Basically, he lumped us all in a group. Hmm...should we start a march to protest the inequality of bloggers rights? It is May Day...
Hoffman,
Listen carefully to what Buzz says and then see how well that applies to Mark Twain. A glib, humorous, anti-intellectual writer who influenced Hemingway, Faulkner, Wolfe, White and virtually ever great writer who followed in the 20th century.
He then Freudian slips and says it's dumbing down writing. The irony of his own remarks is lost on him.
I might not be the best scribbler who ever lived but I'm not the worst and quite frankly for a guy who penned Friday Night Lights, I missed the parts in his scribble that elevated my intellect. Well done, thanks for finding that clip.
You sir are tough to beat, you get the door prize for catching the Ricky Watters reference, well played sir, well played...your Gong Fu is equal to mine...
Thanks spsv and please stop by again and share your insight...you have a perspective that underscores the hysteria Buzz brought to that show, as for Whitlock, I think for once he tried to find the middle ground and will take as many shots from his colleagues as he will from bloggers...unfairly I might add he's entitled to his opinion as I am to disagree.
This is the 2nd blog I have read covering Whitlock's article. I have to say - I disagree with both. What is more troubling to me than going against the grain of my fellow bloggers is finding myself in agreeance with Whitlock, for the first time ever, on what should be accepted as a non-issue and nonoffensive to bloggers. Jason basically called out a guy for callusly ripping a blogger.
I stopped reading Witlock after the Sean Taylor death story. The story was a self promoting opportunity to play the race card (as always), but he chose a dangerously wrong time to do it. He lost all credibility, in my eyes, with that post.
This story is a non-issue. Whitlock states that the host was wrong - over the top wrong - in his assessment of bloggers and the modern era blogging age in general.
It seems there are wolves at the feet of Whitlock, waiting for a disparaging word, waiting for someone to yell "ATTACK". Shame on you guys. 15 yard penalty to each of you for false start. This was the first article that I've EVER agreed with Whitlock. It was non threatening. Put out your torches and lay down your rakes and actually read the article, in detail, with your finger far away from the "post angry comment" button.
Midnite,
I've never taken exception to a Whitlock article, and I accurately paraphrased those parts I found less than credible. How does that conform to your Whitlock bashing theory? You are entitled to your opinion and I disagree with you. I have repeatedly stated he was defending bloggers in a backhanded fashion and provided the inconsistencies inherent in his story.
You do state your case eloquently but I feel it errs in lumping me in with some sort of concerted effort to smear him. Thanks for reading my scribble and commenting.
Pardon me Duckster if I mis-represented my opinion. (kinda like "misremembering") I'm not here to shoot the messenger. I just feel there's a panic button on everyone's keyboard when it comes to Whitlock. What's the adage about choosing your battles?
Anyway, I can agree to disagree. I always enjoy your posts, even the ones that ruffle my feathers.
Midnite,
I wasn't offended by what you wrote, and I hope you didn't construe what I said as an attack on you. I respect and appreciate your opinion in all matters, I tried to rebut your argument only in the spirit of sports debate and framing for you my reason for posting this.
As you correctly point out there are people that go after Whitlock without considering the import of what he wrote or misconstruing his intent.
My argument is based on what I think of just that article and anyone could have written it and I would draw the same inference...
As for bloggers in general, my experience here is most scribblers who post and comment have a full understanding of sports and issues discussed and are not glib hacks as Buzz maintains.
While Whitlock was absolutely correct in disagreeing with Buzz's premise and arguments.
I remain unconvinced he needed to take a private conversation in a cab and use it in his article or argument...
That feather ruffling remark reminds me, how 'bout them Cowboys?
Whitlock tomahawks Buzz Bissinger just like a blogger I know who sandbagged Philadelphia Daily News writer Bill Conlin in an email exchange. In both cases it's designed to gain notoriety wrapped in a thin veneer of pseudo-piety. We call it dry gulching where I come from, shooting a man in the back.
You're referring to me, obviously, and I take serious offense.
A) You are telling others what my motives were, and you are dead wrong. I've told you this numerous times and you refuse to accept this. My E-mails to Conlin were not sent to irk him; in fact, I didn't even think he'd respond.
Never speak for me, Ed. I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself without you sullying my reputation in the process. Talk about "dry gulching."
B) I had every right to publicize my correspondence with Conlin. You disagree with me on that, and you're wrong.
C) Conlin deserved every last word of criticism he got.
If you want my take on the situation, you can read it here.
Last edited by UltraMegaOK1988 on May 2nd at 4:57 AM.
As far as "dumbing-down"...I personally see rap-music as a form of dumbing down music...It doesn't make me "right or wrong" anymore than Whitlock's or anyone else's opinion on bloggers...Some are OK with it and obviously, as in raps case, it doesn't appear like its goin' away anytime soon..
Last edited by StevoinHTown on May 2nd at 8:11 AM.
MR DUCK/// Since I rarely read Whitlock (read never) since his black/white/racist aticle.....I cannot say much about him; however, I do like your scribbles mucho. Keep it up, or the search team will be up and running again. Fuzz
p.s. We are not all "rabble", just 10 percent (see the Fuzzboss 10% rule).
I agree completely with Lisa when she wrote, "Personally, I think the real reason why journalists/writers hate bloggers is because journalists/writers starved for years to hone their craft, while bloggers can go ahead and type on a keyboard with no deadline, no ED and no accountability. Read- JEALOUSY."
Blogging is the future of sports media. More and more traditional sources of media are trying to catch up to a more conversational medium but they are too far behind the curve.
edhard' I guess if the likes of Shakespeare , Walt Whitman and other great writers of the ilk were alive today Whitlock mightn't ahve thought too much of 'em either ?
Just my thoughts mind you !
Whitlock knows best as only he does. And it's all in his own mind wherever it may be !
A place where you've posted a grand total of what? 8 times in over a year? Why did you repost that one particular blog of mine at that site? It must be pretty important as it's 20% of your contributions to that site...Let's all see what it's about. What a shock it's clearly a pro-sabermetric site, what good outcome could you possibly expect reposting a link and two fractured excerpts to my blog on what you must perceive to be an anti-sabermetric blog of mine, Slobbermetrics Explained?
It's overwhelmingly obvious your purpose is to stir up controversy and get the BBTF reader to go flame my blog, unless you have some pollyanna #### or bluster you want to trot out, btw I gave you the benefit of the doubt when I caught you doing the same thing last year when you tried to get a rise out Dayn Perry by linking my other anti-sabermetric blog. I recall your glib explanation then, as facile and duplicitous as it was, and also asking you to not repeat such behavior in the future. See what giving you the benefit of the doubt leads to? Funny you haven't ever reposted any other blog of mine.
So I base my opinion in my article on your well documented behavior. I have been polite and respectful towards you in all I've written and you repay that measure of civility by sandbagging me like you did Conlin for your own selfish purposes, take a bow.
cont.
Reposting his email was ethically and morally repugnant by the lowest possible standards. So take your feigned outrage back to your buddies at Fire Joe Morgan.
I won't address Rap music, except to say there are good, fair, and bad ones like any other form of entertainment...bloggers don't need to be explained or apologized for, as for the mantle of journalistic hubris Buzz donned, apparently he's missed the part where newspaper are written so a 4th grader can understand them...
