Bissinger vs. Leitch

Posted 5/1/08 - Kellex

"Wow!" is all I really have to say after watching Will Leitch of Deadspin, on Bob Costas' HBO show Tuesday night.

Here is the footage.

To bring some of you up to speed, Deadspin has been the point of attack for many mainstream media outlets lately including, Costas himself. In fact, Costas has even been on record as thinking of bloggers as the kid in their "mother's basement" and "pathetic get-a-life losers." If you don't know who Bob Costas is...

My thoughts

I actually feel bad for these life-time writers and mainstream media members (MSM). Why? Well look at Bissinger from that video for example. The guy is so furious with the blogworld that he found himself on HBO with the most heinous printouts he could find from a blog, so that he could point fingers, cuss up a storm and attempt to humiliate one of the top sports bloggers in the world only to look like the biggest jackass on the planet. This is a guy that won the Pulitzer Prize people!

These MSM members are like baseball purists or old haggard politicians; they are all afraid of change. Instead of looking to the internet as an opportunity to reach new readers and grow their business, they look to bully it out of the way by bringing it up on television and having other members assault it.

I can understand if they feel threatened by the internet and blogging, as newspaper sales are declining at incredible rates. Instead of bitching about it and verbally abusing others on a national television show, why not figure out a way to embrace it? Buzz Bissinger can't really think that anyone in 10 years is going to be reading a newspaper can he?

How can someone actually dedicate their life to writing as he says, and not expect there to be changes?