The Austin American-Statesman‘s Kirk Bohls has surveyed Buzz Bissinger’s ill-advised meltdown on HBO last week, and while he deplores the author’s hostile tone, the former is equally stuck in the stoneage when it comes to the new media landscape.
You may be one of those who never picks up a newspaper or a book or a magazine. Too bad. You may be missing out on somewhat relevant stuff like cyclones, controversial pastors and a housing crisis, but so long as you know Lindsey Lohan’s going to be on “Ugly Betty,” you should be fine.
Of course, you may be too busy blogging, texting, Facebooking, Skype-ing or doing whatever it is young people do today in lieu of reading the printed word. That’s exactly the reason you can read this, if you’re under 30, online.
Me, I prefer all the news that’s fit to print that fits in my hands. I’m old-school.
Funny thing is, the Statesman is the first place I’d read about “Ugly Betty”. And while I’m touched by Bohls’ devotion to a dying craft, I wonder if his call for accountability in the sports blogosphere might extend to another print guy? The Statesman’s John Kelso finds the recent arrest of former Longhorn Cedric Benson (above) somewhat humorous (“what is it about football players that makes them feel invincible? Oh, I know. It’s because they’re coddled from junior high like they’re the center of the known universe”), with a column that ran 24 hours before the Chicago Tribune published allegations the Bears RB was a victim of police brutality.
Given recent claims of racial bias on the part of local police, you’d think a halfway responsible paper would at least consider putting the Benson altercation in greater context. The next time Bohls issues a call for civility, he’d do awful well to have a word with his fellow old-schoolers. Maybe one of them can explain how Benson’s mugshot photos are any less humiliating (or any more to do with football) than snapshots of Matt Leinart in a hottub.
Gosh, yeah… how would anyone who doesn’t read a newspaper know about Jeremiah Wright?
I smirk each time someone acts proud and righteous showing thier Ludditte membership card. Unless you work for Stones Throw, please don’t declare yourself “old school.”
Unfair Jason — until CSTB showed up, there was no real evidence Texas had access to the “internets.”
I would seriously say this, tho: It’s an amazing admission of ignorance from Bohls and Bissinger when you consider that they are also expected to cover the multi-billion dollar business of sports and sports media while making clear they’ve failed to grasp an innovation in their own field as big as the Gutenberg printing press. Political journalists saw the impact of blogs pretty early and jumped on it, with many writers merging the two THE POLITICO, for example). Sports reporters seem totally lost on the subject, while front page journalists and tv cable news networks scour blogs and write their own. The NY TIMES had to reverse their decision to charge money for Maureen Dowd and co because there was too much free work of equal merit to make money. There is also this to consider re sports – a hardcore teenage baseball fan with a baseball encyclopedia (on-line or print) can offer as much expertise on the subject as the average newspaper’s baseball writers, and if that guy with the blog couldn’t offer something as good, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.