privileged sportswriters

Understandable, SC, but it was written in haste and without edit.

Something I've learned on here quite a few times — READ what you write before you hit post.
!

 

So copy editors are journalists, just not me? Pure genius on his part.

 

You're ridiculous.

 

*Sigh*

 

I think that bloggers have bigger dicks than journalists.

 

Speaking from experience?

 

Can a fan express an opinion on the original subject?

I am NOT a journalist, though my dear brother was (and will always be one in my mind.) With our mutual love for sports it has made for some very interesting discussions.

In my opinion, blogs are blogs. News is news. It's very easy for me, as a FAN, to seperate the two. Personally, I love the insight that journalists give to me. Something a blogger never can deliver on. It helps me to understand so much more about any sport, player, coach or team. But yes, a blogger can give me a fan's insight. I would never expect that from a journalist. I expect the facts. I like getting the truth from an article. Does it hurt hearing about what my players' did wrong the previous game? Yes. But, damn, it's the truth. The truth hurts. But as a fan, I still need and want to hear it.

Did this post express all I wanted to say? No. But I'm no journalist. It's hard for me to put my thoughts into words. There are good journalists and bad journalists. There are good bloggers and bad bloggers. But will bloggers ever take the place of me getting my information from trained professionals who are "priviledged" enough to be on the inside? Not a chance in hell.

And just for the record: I was an assistant to the editor and publisher of a local newspaper for a few years. Part of my job was "to do whatever the reporters needed, in order to make it smoother for them to report their stories." It was a job I enjoyed immensly. My respect for journalists knows no bounds. I dearly love to read my newspaper and that part of me I plan to never change.

Carry on guys & gals. There are some of us out there still looking forward to reading a newspaper.

And please don't bash me for being a fan, and not a journalist, on a jouralists' site. You all have taken me to subjects I never thought possible and taken my love for sports even deeper. And for that you should all be proud.

 

They have bigger tits, too.

 

Absolutely, and well said.

 

lies actually thought s/he was going to get bashed for that post?

 

You probably aren't going to get that gig at the Orlando Sentinel or Columbus Dispatch, but it's certainly not impossible. I got a job covering college football in a college town off of primarily preps clips. And I didn't know anybody - I sent them in blind responding to a job opening on here.

Maybe I'm the exception, but it's certainly possible.

Then again, that was several years ago, when people rehired openings.

At the time, I felt the same way as you, though. Thought no one would ever give me a look, and my paper didn't have real beats to move up to.

 

I once read a Mike Vaccaro piece where he said that the best blogs are written with a passion for the subject.

The more I think about it, the more I agree. Certainly, most bloggers don't have the access that we have. They don't have first hand experience that Randy Runningback may be a flaming prick or Gary Goalie is a great dude.

They're writing what they see and what they've read. Their writings are impassioned analysis of a game or a defense of a player or whatever.

But for all of the passion, I see danger. Where does passion end and libel or slander begin?

Much like talk radio and television screamers, where are the standards? Puckhead Pete can write a blog entry about Alex Ovechkin, saying that the Caps' superstar fucks sheep when he's not on the ice. Where is the line? That's my concern. As long there are not any standards for what is or is not appropriate, blogs have to be taken with a grain of salt.