Sports On My Mind‘s Dwil aka D.K. Wilson has weighed more than a few times on the modern state of sports blogging, but in the wake of Will Leitch’s tsk-tisking towards The Big Lead, he’s quite prepared to toss a grenade at both of ’em.
Mainstream sports media types have summarily dismissed blogs for quite some time now. Some of the dismissing has been on point; the lack of ethics in these fools™ so-called writings, in particular. But at the very same time the mainstream is brushing these people off – people who know little about sports and less about the socio-cultural aspects of the games they watch and the leagues they follow – guess who it is mainstream editor-types run to hire when they™re looking for new blood?
Why, they hire those same pap-writing, half-naked women posting, rumor-mongering, 250-word posting hacks they pretend to hate so! Will Leitch, Tom Florio, and the rest of those elite members of the white frat boy sports blogosphere are the most feted of all the bitches out there.
What does that tell you about mainstream sports journalism?
Oh, and while I™m on the subject, the whole contrivance of a œsports blogosphere is idiot savant genius. Rather than fashion themselves as œindependent media as did their political Internet counterparts, these frat boys maintain that they are bloggers so as to be absolved from sin when they get busted for their racist, misogynist, rumor-mongering ways. See, œindy media is way too serious a label for these miscreants. Then, even their œhumor would have to be somewhat intelligent. But blogger? Then they can be as dumb as they want.
Yet they™re still the first fuckers checked off the mainstream™s list.
Yeah, well, it would appear a University Of Illinois journalism degree is worth the paper it’s printed on after all. Given the tenuous state of traditional media, I’m not sure the odd hiring here or represents a triumph for the frat dudes as much as it reflects the particular circumstances….of an established old (white) boy network. Would Wilson be a more interesting voice at ESPN.com, Yahoo, Fox Sports.com or —- drum roll — Gawker Media than many of the persons currently ensconced? I’d like to think so, but for the time being, I’m grateful he’s interrupting family vacations to shit all over the medium’s established franchises.
I know this isn’t exactly on topic, but during the Met game, I saw a Taco Bell commercial where they brought back the Crunchwrap Supreme guy, and even though he’s older and it might even be a different actor, he still looks exactly like Will Leitch. Maybe their current ad agency has a devoted reader?
Speaking of commercials during Mets games, why has nobody commented on the worst athlete endorsement of all-time: Brian Schneider for Toyota of Manhattan? I’ve been trying to scrunge up a video clip and do a compare/contrast with Derek Jeter’s much more polished ad for Ford but, alas, I cannot find the Schneider masterpiece on the web. Jeter actually comes off as likeable…Schneider comes of looking like he can’t spell his own name. Perhaps some do-gooder will find a way to upload it and send a link our way.