But the worst thing you’d find in talk radio the snarkiest thing you’d read in print ... even more virulent forms of it are found on the internet because in most cases there are no standards. Now, coming with it are there many important fresh new voices? Absolutely. Are there places where people like you, who were one of the first ones, and Joe Posnanski, not to name all Kansas City guys, but where you can go to get more expansive or quirkier versions of their thought? Yes. Are there nichier places ... baseball-centric sites filled with detailed statistical analysis or, say, everything you want to know about the Seattle Mariners? That’s great. Nothing wrong with that.
But I think the blogosphere, if you’re a critic of the blogosphere you’re somehow against its democratic virtues. Hey, I spent my whole career talking to cabdrivers, everyday people, I did sports talk radio in St. Louis in the 1970s. Some people are more knowledgeable about aspects of sports than I am. I absolutely respect that. ... But it also opens the door for every anonymous bully and lout to spout.
I was talking to King Kaufman about this. He said, “You know, a lot of this stuff, you can get on sports talk radio, except (on the Internet) you don’t have the bleep button.” And I agreed but added this: If you truly didn’t have a bleep button in talk radio ... you wouldn’t just have the occasional person spewing scurrilous things, you’d have it all the time, more and more ... to the point where it crowded out other voices and brought the whole enterprise down.
Truth be told, on any websites, not just confined to sports, that is what happens. It’s not that this kind of lowbrow stuff is tolerated, it is implictly encouraged because the more of those type posts you get the more it is validated. The popularity of sites is measured by it. Who is going to say, “I don’t want the person who says ‘Bleep you, #########.’” That’s a hit! That’s my single criticism of this. And anyone who interprets that as a rejection of all the upsides of the web is either rather dense or wilfully misinterpreting what I say.
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1. buddaley Posted: May 02, 2008 at 01:48 AM (#2766043)And I will tell you exactly why you are threatened by the blogs. Because they hold you up to a higher standard of analysis and truth telling. You can no longer get away with nonsense or with claiming some special insight because that very day you will be exposed for having little analytical skill and no understanding of the game about which you claim expertise.
See: The original Primer. Not that I don't enjoy a good gay Piazza joke.
Last time this came up, someone said that they didn't think Costas really knows what a blog is. What Costas actually talked about last time there was a thread about this sounded more like comment threads to MSM articles than a blog per se.
he is trying to point out that he also is against the vitriol that sometimes occurs on sports talk radio, and is trying to come across as not anti-internet in general. obviously believe him to your own extent.
Really, a lot of those things detract from the article and are worse than nothing.
There are plenty with bad tone and rancor. Don't read those. I don't. BTF is by far the wildest part of the internet I hang out at. I mostly choose mailing lists where people post under their real name, which generally has a MUCH better level of discourse. I also post on BTF and a respectable financial forum which, as far as these things go, are generally well-behaved.
Bob, find the better places to be.
Fixed.
This is a valid point, but it seems to me that one of the problems with the Bissinger/Leitch smackdown was that it was on HBO, where part of the titillation is that you can say words that would get bleeped on the radio (or, in fact, nannied on BTF). If Costas wants the excitement of uncensored TV, then he has to live with the flaps created by uncensored guests.
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