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The Perfect Person to Break Down the Bissinger vs Leitch Duel
2008-05-01 07:50
by Scott Long

(Will Carroll and I were working on pieces about the same subject and just before I decided to post this one, I noticed he had beat me to it. I suggest you read his offering that is below mine. Since he knows both the participants, he gives great insight. Mine is more of your typical blogger read and react. We don't have opposite views on the subject, but do have some differing points.)

After careful study, I realize that I am the exact connecting piece between mainstream media and the blogging world. I grew up delivering newspapers, reading them from front to back, and dreaming of becoming a columnist. I went to college to study journalism, tried giving free-lance writing a go, and then...gave up this dream because I had no interest in climbing a ladder which started with covering high school sports. I have an immense respect for the reporter who is just interested in delivering the basic facts of the event. I learned imy 5 W's and a H, but I always wanted to explore my creativity and had the narcissistic desire to share my opinion, if people wanted it or not. I decided to become a standup comedian...a job where it is all about me. Look, I've never claimed I don't have attention issues.

While my main focus became coming up with funny, edgy material thaet makes people laugh, I never gave up my sports focus. I've regularly appeared on local and national syndicated radio shows. I've written comedy sketches for TV. I never felt a great sense of creative freedom, though, until I started blogging. It is at the Juice Blog where I can offer up my thoughts, without having corporate management types determining what I will write about. While I am always interested in entertaining my audience here, I don't have to mix in some lowest common demoninator material like I do in my standup. I'm not saying I don't offer up LCD stuff here, but I do solely because it makes me laugh. Blogging is the most freeing creative exercise there is.

With these credentials, I believe I am the perfect person to mediate the slamdown that happened on HBO between Buzz Bissinger and Will Leitch. If you haven't seen the event moderated by Bob Costas, I suggest you watch it first. OK.....and your back. Let me begin by saying that I happen to agree with most of what Bissinger said. Most blogs don't provide insightful writing, instead just offering up a snarky takes on information that they generally got from MSM. Blogs are often more like what you get from a caller on a sports talkshow or the guy sitting at the corner bar. I would argue that baseball blogs are the top in their field because so many do it because they are sabermetrically-driven. As fanatical as this group can be, they also happen to be usually highly-intelligent, so there is little tabloid journalism involved.

Will Leitch is actually one of the best writers that has come out of the blogging world, which is why he now contributes work to the MSM, as well. Leitch also has his name on the byline, so he can't hide behind a moniker, which as I've addressed before I think offers crediblility to your work. One problem with Leitch representing the blogosphere is that his site is more of an entertainment site than a blog. Deadspin to me is kind of like a TMZ for sports, with a Daily Show satirical view of its proceedings. Bissinger (and Costas) went on the attack against blogs using the comments section of Deadspin. That was unfair, as smearing Deadspin or other blogs for what a few readers offer misses the mark. At Baseball Toaster there is a policing of what is offered up and since our readership is much smaller, we rarely have some idiot post a comment that needs to be pulled.

A lot of people in the blogosphere have been slamming Buzz, but I thought it was great that he went postal. Truthfully, his performance defending old media was very new media. It was like he was Bob Knight and Jay Mariotti all thrown into one personality. Considering that these are 2 of the people I loathe the most, it is weird that I'm complimenting the guy, but the MSM usually is defended by David Brooks-types, so it was fun to hear Bissinger offer up the same shots, but in an aggressively profane style. Bissinger has written 3 of the best non-fiction books of the past couple of decades. This is an important point, as Bissinger is an author. He is not writing a column for a newspaper. He isn't as limited by newpaper editors or corporate interests like MSM is. When he writes a book like Friday Night Lights, Bissinger doesn't have to continue to cover the Odessa, TX scene every Friday night. Outside of the considerable legwork he does in reseach and the large bonus of having a top-notch editor help him craft his art, Bissinger has more in common with bloggers than MSM-types, when it comes to the freedom he has.

There is a place for both MSM and the blogosphere, just like there is a place for both the New York Times and the New York Post or C-Span and E! Entertainment. I know many bloggers and their readers take some kind of perverse glee in the destruction of newspapers. This is short-sighted, as most of the info they get to write their read and reacts comes from newspapers. The transitional period we are in of mostly commentary and little hard-nosed reporting does not help the culture. If ths was Bissinger's ultimate point, he was right and I'm sure it was something that Leitch would have agreed with. I welcome Bissinger to read most of the stuff that gets written here at Baseball Toaster, as I believe it is some of the best blogging that is offered up on the web. My guess is outside of some of the stuff I offer up at the Juice Blog, it would give him a more hopeful attitude about the concept of blogs.

 

Comments
2008-05-01 09:31:45
1.   Will Carroll
Aside from praising two books I find utterly odious, I completely agree with Scott's assessment here, though this really bears more discussion.
2008-05-01 09:42:02
2.   williamnyy23
The ultimate irony of the event was Bissinger using repeated vulgarity to make his point about blogs "dumbing" down public discourse. The MSM has been knee deep in that pursuit for years now, that I can't take its members seriously on this point.

While I was disappointed that Leitch did not come across as eloquently as he writes, ultimately, the bombastic arrogance of Bissinger did more to make him, and blogs in general, look good. Also, we've reached the point where blogs no longer need to defend themselves from attacks by the MSM. Instead, it is really the MSM that is on the defensive, as Mr. Bissinger so clearly displayed.

2008-05-01 10:24:23
3.   Scott Long
The LaRussa book was just okay, but I think the other 2 were really excellent. Of course, I never lived in the Midland/Odessa area like Will, so I think he has a better handle on the validity of it than I do.
2008-05-01 11:02:27
4.   jgpyke
As we used to say in Chicago, Bissenger is a real jag-off.

Comparing print media to blogs is very much "apples to oranges." Static vs. dynamic and all that jazz. It would have been nice for Leitch to point that out.

The issue of distributed expertise goes into higher ed, too, FWIW. Very much so. What constitutes an authority and why...who decides...is knowledge constructed socially or individually...etc.

But to suggest that this wonderful series of tubes somehow "dumbs down the culture" is ludicrous. It is a reflection of the culture. And that's where the old media dinosaurs have it all wrong. They believe it is our (the public's) duty to kneel at their feet as they tell us how the world is. They believe that media leads and drives the culture, not the other way around. And they couldn't be more wrong.

2008-05-01 11:06:25
5.   jgpyke
Also, I don't think I've ever read Bissinger before, but this little nugget from a piece he wrote in the NYT three weeks ago caught my eye:

"...in 1972, members of the pro-Palestinian group Black September took members of the Israeli team hostage from its quarters in the Olympic village in Munich; 11 died."

Wow. Should I schedule your photo-op hug with Hamas now or later, Buzz?

For those of you too young to know better, "pro-Palestinian group" means "terrorist." And what's this BS about "11 died." From old age? How about "11 were murdered"? Too strong? How about "11 were killed"?

Talk about dumbing down the discourse! Thanks, Buzz. You're swell.

2008-05-01 11:19:53
6.   Ali Nagib
1 - I've only read the LaRussa book by Bissinger, but I just finished reading Leitch's latest book, and it's no contest: I don't care how much acclaim Buzz has, based solely on those two books, Leitch is clearly the better, funnier, interesting and more accessible writer. Bissinger's "access" didn't teach me a damn thing about baseball, LaRussa, or even sports in general, but I'm still mulling over some of the ideas Leitch brought up.

Again, only one man's opinion, and based on a very limited sample, albeit of the fairly recent variety.

2008-05-01 11:24:25
7.   chris in illinois
jgpyke, while I'm not Ghandi, I'm against killing people in general (certainly a controversial position to take). While I hardly approve of Hamas and PLO tactics I wonder how you'd react to a Cherokee 'relocation' to your neck of the woods at the barrel of gun?? Would you sing songs by Mark Lindsay or be mildly put out that you were forced from your home??

Let's just agree that there is culpability on both the Israelis and the Muslims in the mideast for the violence at hand. How many British did Israeli terrorists kill after WWII?? Do you think that their families understand the biblical 'rights' implied by the Jewish re-settlement??

There is no innocent party in this dispute, religion strikes again!!

2008-05-01 12:26:06
8.   Shaun P
2 To follow up on your first point, what has happened for years after people read a story in the paper, or heard it on the news? They discussed it at "the water cooler", or wherever else they congregate. Am I to believe that such "public discourse" is always at a high level? Of course not its not.

The only difference is, on a blog, the discussion is recorded, anyone is able to read what you said, and then respond as they like. Oh, and the source of the story can participate too.

I fail to see how bringing more people and more viewpoints, particularly the source, into the discussion dumbs it down. Because people say stupid things? When someone says or posts a stupid comment, the same thing happens whether its the water cooler or a blog: the comment is ignored, or that person is made fun of, or both. Its easy to ignore the stupid stuff, online or off.

On a related note, I'm disappointed that Bob Costas was a part of all of this. I expected much more out of him. Since this is an important discussion that ought to be had in a civil manner, what are the chances of getting Bill Moyers to cover the issue?

2008-05-01 12:26:06
9.   Shaun P
2 To follow up on your first point, what has happened for years after people read a story in the paper, or heard it on the news? They discussed it at "the water cooler", or wherever else they congregate. Am I to believe that such "public discourse" is always at a high level? Of course not its not.

The only difference is, on a blog, the discussion is recorded, anyone is able to read what you said, and then respond as they like. Oh, and the source of the story can participate too.

I fail to see how bringing more people and more viewpoints, particularly the source, into the discussion dumbs it down. Because people say stupid things? When someone says or posts a stupid comment, the same thing happens whether its the water cooler or a blog: the comment is ignored, or that person is made fun of, or both. Its easy to ignore the stupid stuff, online or off.

On a related note, I'm disappointed that Bob Costas was a part of all of this. I expected much more out of him. Since this is an important discussion that ought to be had in a civil manner, what are the chances of getting Bill Moyers to cover the issue?

2008-05-01 12:26:34
10.   Shaun P
8 9 One advantage the MSM has over a blog - no double posts. Sorry.
2008-05-01 15:49:47
11.   Xeifrank
I had to turn off the video after about 2 minutes as Bissinger's words are definitely NSFW. Will watch it later tonight at home. vr, Xei
2008-05-01 19:38:49
12.   jgpyke
Um, Chris...so what happened in Munich is defensible? I didn't get into the whole history. Just Munich.

We could go back and forth about the legitimacy of each side of the whole mideast conflict. But why bother.

But what happened in Munich was murder. By terrorists. They weren't armed regulars lining up. It was some athletes, kidnapped by masked men. C'mon, I know that the PLO is fashionable on the left, but c'mon...

2008-05-01 21:34:23
13.   chris in illinois
13 Certainly not. I was merely trying to point out that using 'terrorist' shapes the conversation as much as Buzzy's mealymouthed description of brutal murder. Part of our ongoing conflict in the mideast is fueled by our language that describes it. We abhor the violence of the muslim nations (rightly so), but tolerate and approve of the violence of the west and of Israel upon the Islamic world, if not always overtly, but always in the language being used.

You're just as dead if a 'terrorist' kills you than if an Israeli pops you or if you get shredded by a million dollar US missile. It all sucks and however it gets defined, dead is dead. I'm simply tired of condemning violence on one hand and supporting it on the other...violence rarely solves anything. The only thing violence can guarantee anyone is more violence. I guess maybe I am at least "Ghandi-esque." I'm also not trying to say that you are generally pro-killing or even kind of fond of it.

Upon reflection this probably wasn't the best time/place to trot this particular beef out, but I'm just overly sensitive to loaded language.

2008-05-02 11:29:30
14.   Cliff Corcoran
This is off topic, but I'd say jgpyke got his criticism of that passage half right. "Killed" and "murdered" are more descriptive words than "died" and are thus preferable, but "pro-Palestinian" is more descriptive than "terrorist" and thus also preferable. Terrorists commit violent acts in the name of a cause. Identifying that cause improves the reader's understanding. That they took hostages and killed them does enough to demonstrate that they were committing terrorist acts. Show, don't tell.
2008-05-02 13:50:55
15.   Will Carroll
The most bizarre off-topics ever.
2008-05-02 16:19:00
16.   chris in illinois
15 Glad to (unintentionally) oblige. With four little ones four and younger, I'm nothing if not erratic these days.

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