We’ve been down this road before. More than once. Really. Here’s the latest extremely cognisant and cohesive essay on the subject, again written by one of them untrained, uneducated, unwashed blogger folks. I don’t really have a ton to throw out here - I mostly wanted to just share the article. Christy Finn does a remarkable job summing up a lot of my thoughts on my matter (far better than I could have done, I might add). Not bad for a Ducks fan.
Interestingly, the original comments that started this (from Detroit News’ Chris McCoskey) are familiar to me:
Journalism employs trained professionals. We actually have to go to school for this stuff. We take our jobs seriously. There are rules and standards that we are beholden to. There are ethics involved. We actually talk to, in person, the people we write about. If we rip somebody in an article, you best be sure most of us will confront that person the next day and take whatever medicine we need to take.
You do have to know most reporters at legitimate news sources work hard to deliver fair, accurate and pertinent information.
And what they do is vastly different than what the clever dude in his pajamas is doing on his computer, down in his basement.
Somewhat reminiscent of comments from Adrian Dater a while back:
If you’re going to get a real credential in the press box to a real big-league event, you’ve got to put in the hours, the time and the money getting the job done - not just sitting in your underwear and delivering sermons from the mount.
Are they passing out canned statements at union meetings or something?
Thank you for the shout out. I’m glad to contribute to the debate as best I can.
Bloggers are definitely making headway, and it will be most interesting to see how much longer will the MSM put up a fight… particularly when leagues/teams are starting to make room for New Media.
One prediction I think I can safely make:
Teams around the NHL will start becoming friendlier and friendlier to bloggers. It’s a trickle now, but soon everyone will be jumping on the blogger bandwagon. And the last team to do so will be the Avalanche.
“If we rip somebody in an article, you best be sure most of us will confront that person the next day and take whatever medicine we need to take.”
So what happens when “journalists” never do? Shouldn’t we assume that in such cases this statement is a hindrance rather than a benefit?
I know why beat writers and newspaper guys are defensive on this subject. It’s their paycheck and I can’t blame them for protecting it. But they have to face the hard reality that there’s no difference between them putting in the paper a comment about Wolski playing a great game, and a blogger doing the same.
As a statement of protest, I no longer blog in my underwear. I now blog wearing only socks.
Take that, elitist journalistas!
To make another point, journalists have to write things that people will buy. That, after all, is the function of a paper. To sell. A journalist may report all the truth he wants, but if its not interesting, people won’t buy it. Now, I’m not saying that journalists lie, but plenty of them twist things to make them more spectacular. The point is, journalists are not the ‘truth-seekers’ which McCoskey makes them out to be.
While sport reports are plainly not as sensationalist as the tabloid news in what they print, they are quite often plainly wide of the mark on what they should have said. You can go to a game, come home and the next day read what is clearly a poor report in the paper, shifting the focus on to something which is more ‘interesting’.
Fans, and thus bloggers, don’t have the same pressure to sell, and because of that I think they write some valid stuff. And its just rude of journalists to look down on bloggers. Fair enough in the press box, but there’s no need to print it.
Apologies for the slightly needless rant.
“As a statement of protest, I no longer blog in my underwear. I now blog wearing only socks.”
A good chunk of my blogging is done at work. So I’m definitely going to have to cut down on the underwear thing.
One thing I will say, is that bloggers should always properly reference their material which I think most blogs in this fraternaty do. For example, Dater reported that Brunette was back on the ice after his nasty spill at practice, Skrastins isn’t going to play against Dallas etc…
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_7471958?source=rss
He and his paper should get links for material when it’s appropriate. I know ITCS does this as do many other Avalanche bloggers. In this new Internet age newspapers should have someone dedicated to making sure original material is properly referenced.
McCoskey got schooled and doesn’t even know it.