Wilbon: "There's not as much good [sportswriting] as there used to be."

My bad.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3383498/

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/92442/

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3450108/

 

That might be the nicest thing anyone on the Internet has ever said about P2. Thank you.

 

For those far more experienced than me in this field: The nature of our business has changed considerably, and like many things always will. That has been discussed here as a factor in the shift in sportswriting (ahem, sports writing, Mr. Stout). But how do -- if at all -- the changes in the sports themselves affect sports writing?

I'm not speaking of the way leagues handle media access or the rise in self-distributed material such as the NFL Network, MLB.com, or athlete- and team-created social media. I mean to ask about changes in the sports and the perceptions of them by fans and the public at large. The structure of boxing titles, the expansion of hockey to the south, etc.

I'd chime in with my own ideas, but I'd ultimately be blowing smoke. I'd much appreciate yours, though.

 

This is the best point, and the difference in the arguments here.

Those contending that there is more great sportswriting now than in previous decades are coming at it in terms of volume. And when you do that, well, sure, there is as much great writing as, and probably more than, ever before. But there is also more bad, and very bad, writing.

I think Wilbon actually is alluding more to impact, rather than to quantity, or even comparative quality.

 

If you're good, you have national impact now. You had to write for SI to manage that before.

 

You have potential national range, not necessarily impact, now. And, as YGBFKM pointed out, all the volume, multiple platforms, and quick hits can actually take away from the impact.

 

I don't think Mr. Wilbon's talking about impact. Or stature, or reputation-building. He's flat out saying "they just don't write 'em like that any more."

The telltale quote being: "Is the Republic going to fall if nobody can turn a phrase like Barry Lorge did? No, but I like that."

 

Wilbon, in the context of being asked a question about what it was like to make selections for a writing anthology, said that there wasn't as much great writing out there as there once was, and reading all these submissions for BASW is what helped form that conclusion.

People can spin it however the like, but it's pretty clear what he meant. "People aren't the writers they once were because they are busy tweeting."

 

Wow. Great debate here. Being a tweener - I graduated from college in '94 - I tended to disagree with DD's initial post. His comment about 40-inch features about athletes battling back from torn ACLs struck a chord, tho. Now I'm caught somewhere in-between.

Sorry to blather. This is more of a bookmark than anything so I can follow the conversation.