Friday, February 13, 2009

Have You Guys Heard About the Rift Between Bloggers and the Media?

Yeah, big-time. They are, like, totally pissed at each other.

Anyway, I don't plan to drone on about this forever, because, if I do, I will sound like a self-righteous douche who's really proud of himself for pursuing a master's in journalism. Trust me, it's ten times easier than Centre. I'd rather be a self-righteous douche who's proud of his Centre degree. Or something.

OK, I'm not recounting the Will Leitch incident with Buzz Bissinger, suffice to say, though, that some mainstream media guys don't get blogs/bloggers. Bissinger, literally, couldn't distinguish between a blog post author and the commenters. If you haven't seen it, watch the video. It's almost kind of sad. Leitch played it perfectly, though, allowing Bissinger to shout himself out and look like a complete psycho.

Thursday, Chris Mottram was featured on Scott Van Pelt's radio show. Van Pelt, as you may or may not know, has a bit of a history with Deadspin. To his credit, SVP was pretty cool about the ordeal. Regardless, he had Mottram, who blogs quite well here and here, on his show today to discuss blogs and pros blah blah blah (go here for the audio). It was pretty much the same old shit, except SVP played a clip from Mitch Albom, who was on the show prior to Mottram.

First, a word about Albom. He's certainly one of the cheesiest columnists in the country. He does decent work, though he did get himself in a little trouble for fudgin' a story. Still, he's a professional, and he deserves respect for his body of work in the journalism business.

Albom, on the show, discussed bloggers and their lack of schooling and experience. To him, bloggers are a batch of mean-spirited kids with laptops, essentially. His main point is, "hey, these guys didn't do shit to get here. I got my master's from Columbia. They're just any guy with an Internet connection." (I'm paraphrasing, but he mentioned Columbia for sure.) He also attempted to juxtapose blogging with being an ill-informed tax man. As in: 'you wouldn't let just any asshole do your taxes, would you?'

No, Mitch, I wouldn't. But, like everyone else who bitches about blogging, you miss the point. And, it's especially ironic coming from you, the same man who wrote quite possibly the shittiest novel ever. How would you have liked Pat Conroy shitting on your attempt at expressing yourself creatively? Bloggers don't exist to supplant mainstream journalists from their jobs, you nitwit. It's merely a different perspective on similar events. John Clay can't say, 'man, Gillispie's a fucking joke.' But I can. At risk of sounding melodramatic, it's people exercising their right to speak freely.

Through it all, people that like blogs will read blogs, and people that like shitty columns will read the newspaper. Isn't that proof of a thriving democracy? I can't understand the disdain by mainstreamers; is it completely rooted in jealousy? Or is it folks like Mitch Albom that take themselves entirely too seriously? You write about sports; we're all watching the same games, fella.

You're right, though, Mitch, any asshole can have a blog. Hell, look at what you're reading. However, people read Deadspin. Why should A.J. Daulerio and Rick Chandler do anything differently? They have their own audience. You don't have to like it, Mitch, just stay out of the fucking way.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mitch is a good boy, leave him alone.

Morrie

Unknown said...

mitch has BIG ears, too.

Bick Rozich said...

Like, our cousin Mitch, who is Matt? Is that Mavis? How does he know our cousin?