Off Day Time Waster: Bloggers get all Bloggy, Defend Their Electronic Diaries

I'm really on the fence here with this whole bloggers vs. mainstream thing. The Buzz Dickinger of Deadspin's Leitch on the corpse of Costas show "Costas Now" the other night that has everyone's virtual panties in an uproar, though in actuality, it probably set the cause of blogging ahead by a few years. To summarize, old media comes out looking real real bad, real real out of touch.

If I ran ads or drew an income from this sad little shrine to a lifetime of frustration and displaced rage, maybe I'd be typing a different tune. But I can't get indignant because I don't really identify with bloggers anymore than I do with Red Smith, Rick Reilly, Erin Andrews, or George Plimpton. Well, maybe George Plimpton a little bit. Bloggers are taking themselves waaay too seriously, in my opinion, even some of those I count among my favorites. Let's just say that when someone screams "blogger" in a crowded room, I don't turn my head.

As usual, CSTB is the only one that gets it right, or mostly right.

I think its great how in the process of defending themselves, sometimes on TV, from outraged establishment types, previously snarky soon-to-be co-opted establishment bloggers are falling all over themselves to admit that the internet is flawed and how we can all do better and although sure some internet writing is shitty that doesn't include them. This "defending the blogger medium" sanctimony also deserves its comeuppance, though not from Costas.

You can watch both segments here while you can.

The mainstream media doesn't get it. Interesting that Leitch gets hammered for being a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, ("what's bloggers' credentials?") when we Mets fans were forced by Faux to suffer the playoffs with two Cardinals homers, Joe Buck and sad Timmy! McCarver (a man who used to be a great broadcaster by the way). The screaming guy from PTI questioning the credentials of someone else? Really? I mean, really?

But Will Leitch doesn't represent me. Who will represent the under-read blogs that only attract hits by the hundreds, particularly when they run irresponsible libelous posts about Debbie Clemens?

Sure angrymeanfrightened Costas and Buzz are scared. But it's not because this trend of glorified diarists is getting out of control, but because the newspaper biz is fucked and the paid media has put themselves on autopilot for so long they can't compete in their own backyards. At best, mainstream media is bland and uninformative. At the worst, idiotic ex-jock commentators suffocate most sports broadcasts. This is particularly noticable now that we all have to pay ginormous cable bills just to see games that I swear once were free. Just listen to your average color commentator and find me some genuine insight. If you want more attention Bob Costas, do a better job.

Mainstream sports media can't look us in the eye and call us ingrates, not when they offer us the "Budweiser Hotseat." That's indecent, Bob Costas. Of course fans took matters into our own hands.

Sports media has no one to blame, it fucked itself. Or rather, it Joe Bucked itself.

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If we didn't have the internets, we could never have anything like this (link swiped from comments section of Joe Posnanski).