Sports Bloggers Are Finally Growing Up! (Not Really)
Sports blogs might be losing their edge! Back in the good old days they were all bile-spewing, rumormongering perverts who cared about nothing but posting pictures of NFL players cavorting drunkenly with Buzz Bissinger (pictured, ranting). But as time went on, they actually started making money and gaining credibility and—wouldn't you know it—now they're paying more attention to making sure stuff is true! At least that's the theme of the weekend's sort of obvious-day LAT trend piece. The reality is that this entire "These kids are finally maturing, thanks to us" angle is primarily designed to make old school sportswriters feel better about themselves as blogs steal their lunch money.
The Big Lead, one of the foremost sports bloggers cited in the LAT piece (and by us, sometimes!), points out:
It might make Buzz Bissinger's head explode, but the Sun-Times had a weighty piece on its site this weekend asking who had hotter fans, the Cubs or the White Sox. How very bloggy of them! Bloggers love rumors? As do mainstream media outlets, who routinely print anonymously-sourced articles or go on TV and discuss rumored free agent movement, coach movement, and so on, most of which never comes to fruition.
Yes: if you read newspaper sports pages, you'll find just as much vaguely-sourced speculation as you will scouring the blogosphere! Have you looked at the NY Post lately? Christ. And outside of random crazies, most bloggers aren't foolish enough to post knowingly false information.
"We're trying to make money on this," said A.J. Daulerio, a senior writer for Deadspin. "Without going completely porn, the best way to do that is to add a more journalistic element."
