BLOGGER! tries to explain the difference between BLOGS! and journalism ...

Well, I believe the body of his work would cause most people to disagree with that.

However . . . there is a line that can be a little blurry.

Not to pick on that person, but if someone posts on here "Covering my first hockey game . . . any advice?" . . .

. . . does that person have more credibility than, say, a lifelong hockey fan who has watched 2,000 games and blogs about them?

 

If that person covering their first hockey game has taken news-writing classes and law & ethics classes and received a liberal arts education ... yes. Yes, they should.

 

Lux et Veritas!

De Lux per Sourcewatch wiki:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mike_Lux

So I'd be just as inclined to trust the elements of this story if he had written instead, "I turned around and guess who I saw? Father Coughlin!"

 

As someone who has copy-edited many "first timers" (or something close to it), I have a hard time giving a blanket answer of "yes" to that question.

One time an intern was sent to cover the local tennis tournament in Miami. Wrote a story that said, in regard to Anna Kournikova, that she had "one of the best serves in the women's game."

Now, maybe the writer meant to say she had the best CURVES in the women's game . . . but there is no way I can read what she wrote and think "credible writer on this subject." I do not care what kind of college classes he or she took. And yes, I would give a BLOG! written by, say, a tennis expert more credibility.

 

I quit dissecting Plaschke sports columns two years ago here because it became same old same old. Plaschke brought zero insight. Flip-flops. Wrong predictions. He is a horrible baseball writer, and not much better on other sports.

Are people here actually going to argue that Bill Plaschke provides insight when writing about Dodger baseball or USC football or Lakers basketball? He is horrible - its not even up for argument.

Let the man write about the the Compton High softball team, or an 80-year old USC football fan.... But there isn't one savvy baseball fan in Los Angeles who would take this
http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/la-columnist-bplaschke,1,3729233.columnist?coll=la-headlines-sports-columnists
and feel like he is getting any real information on his team.

Jay Mariotti is another example. He is easily one of the five most recognizable columnists in the country.

A columnist or blogger once posted a complete work of Jay's writings of the White Sox championship season of 2005. It was a complete joke - The team sucked. The team was fine. The manager sucked. The team is choking. The team had destiny.... On and on, back and forth. Jesus, Jay did you stop taking your Paxil?

A high schooler would have been embarrassed if he wrote Marriotti's 2005 Sox season columns, and looked back at the works as a whole.

To say nothing of the biases these guys bring to the table. Jay gets into a pissing match with the manager, and becomes the "news" instead of reporting it. Plaschke had a beef with one Dodger gm because the gm used a computer at his work. Plaschke must use a pen and quill.

The quality of actual sports insight by preeminent columnists like Plaschke and Mariotti is astonishingly poor. Bloggers sitting in their mom's basement, in their underwear, can - and do - a better job of sports analysis than Plaschke and Mariotti.

 

Plaschke thinks saberheadism is overrated. He has no qualms about stating such, and why. And that's his job. You clearly disagree with his view. Doesn't mean he brings nothing to the table. Just means he doesn't bring what you want him to bring, and a bunch of mathheads in their skivvies do. At least acknowledge your bias here.

 

He brings nothing to the table when it comes to sports insight. Fact.

LOL - when the Mitchell report came out, Plaschke finally admitted that "maybe he was wrong" about DePodesta and his trade of the "heart of the team" Paul Lo Duca.

Wrong again, Bill.... throw that up there with his "wrong again" column about UCLA becoming a football dynasty in LA "Westwood Ho!".. and wrong again when he wrote that Pete Carroll was a bad hire, and the million other things he was "wrong again" about.

Plaschke sucks when writing about sports. Dude wins awards after award.... All for the tear-jerker stories. His knowledge of actual, real sports could fit in a thimble.

 

I follow the housing debacle in southern California and nationwide.

There are some BLOGGERS that are positively terriffic. The amount of real, actual information is amazing - these bloggers analyze trends based on public information available to them... best stuff going out there.

http://www.irvinehousingblog.com/
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/

Just fantastic insight and writing. Long live BLOGS!

 

poin, that's merely what the glass offices have spent 20 years telling us they want -- less game, more people.

Incidentally, if you think the blogisphere is bringing us better human-interest writing, I'm reading different blogs.

 

You could do that kind of a laundry list about any commentator, mainstream media or blog. And I have a feeling the batting average of the MSM person will almost always be higher.

 

Except for Jay Mariotti, who, we can all agree, sucks.

 

I think you nailed the difference between a blogger and a "first timer" with your first line: The "first timer" was copy edited.