Deadspin Oral History

Worth a read. I very much agree with Leitch about Bissinger. That night was the tipping point for his angry man persona. And he's worse for it.

http://m.adweek.com/news/technology/deadspin-oral-history-146794?page=1

 

That's good stuff, and I have newfound respect for Craggs (not that I didn't have it before) because of his comments about being against the breathless reporting of sex at ESPN. I've said it before, but for a long, long time, I thought of Deadspin as the place that oversold as a huge scoop the fact that two mid-level managers at ESPN had a relationship and got married. Stop the presses, you know? And Deadspin spent like 24-48 hours promoting it ahead of time. Glad to see there was dissent within the staff.

The idea of sports coverage without access is really intriguing, and it'll be interesting to see where they can go with it. I think it was a niche that was sorely needed in sports journalism, even though, in present form, it sometimes just means Kyle Orton drinking photos.

But I truly think that access, though a necessary evil, taints a great deal of sports journalism.

 

They've long since distanced themselves from the idea that they don't have access. They pull punches as much as the next guy. And Magary has in many ways become the embodiment of what he hated about Simmons: A guy who thinks we give a shit what he has to say about everything in his life.

 

It's also nice to finally know the history of Leitch, Daulerio and Craggs vis-a-vis Deadspin's growth.

 

With the oral history format all the rage, someone (like, I don't know, Double Down or Versatile), really needs to do a mock one for sj.

 

How about a real one!

 

The Bissinger section was about the only thing that interested me. The rest is kind of "No shit."

 

Couldn't have been that much dissent. Sounds more like he had the usual reservations of someone with half a conscience. If he really gave a shit, he would have quit over that.

 

Fun read, wanted more.

Deadspin is one of the most important media outlets in history, as far as coming along at a pivotal time and embedding itself in the zeitgeist.

 

Isn't a message board just one giant oral history? If someone had access to every post ever, going back at least the 10 years of this board's existence, they could pare it all down to maybe 300-500 posts. That would be pretty cool.

 

Would take more than that just to cover the mob's response every time JDV or creamora posted. Hell, could get 300 just from the "I'm done here!!!" posts followed by that person not being done.

 

Tired of the 'oral history' conceit, especially for something this short. As Mr. Scocca tweeted this morning:

"Word count, 132. Words in brackets: 64. When 48 percent of your "oral history" text is emendations, JUST WRITE A FUCKING ARTICLE, LAZYBONES."