“I may be over 50 but I’m not stupid,” says Buzz, as the clip ends.

Why, yes, Buzz, you are. Nobody is asking you to place bloggers of today up in the sportswriting pantheon with Grantland Rice and WC Hines, etc. In the first place, those old classic word merchants had to sell you a game you couldn’t see- unless you happened to be in the ballpark. They were painting pictures with their words, putting you there, on the field, with the cacophony of hometown spirit, and the miasma of old beer and hot peanuts.

Say what you want about the advent of the information superhighway, of twenty-four hour news- and twenty-four hour sports for that matter(ESPN resorts to poker and cup stacking in an effort to fill all the hours in a day). But it’s here and it’s real and no matter how you may bloviate or how firmly you may wedge your pudgy fingers in your ears and scream “Journalism!,” it’s not going away, Buzz. With just a satellite and a nominal monthly fee charged to my credit card, I can watch every single game of whichever sport strikes my fancy. I can dissect, rewind, stop motion every crucial performance without a sellout hack like you(see Friday Night Lights on NBC!) having to interpret it for me. See, Buzz, I’m educated, I played the game, and for any further analysis I’m gonna look to someone with better credentials than you. Or, conversely, I’m gonna go shoot the shit and compare notes with those who live and die with my favorite teams. For the former, there’s ESPN, SI, etc. and, for the latter, there are the blogs.

And, just like your goddamned precious newspapers, some are worthwhile, with good info and lively conversation, while others are more like the Washington Times, an unabashed mouthpiece for a misguided and predetermined stance. In other words, Buzz, caveat emptor. There’s a world of variety out here pal, just think of the blogs as restaurants. They range in quality from Le Bernardin all the way down to White Castle. But, you know what? Sometimes I’ve just got the urge for a platter of sliders.

Borrowing the words of one of the commenters Costas quoted, “Yo, Buzz, grow up, fuckface!”

Did you see Buzz ramble comments he thought as vile from commentators with vile names yet, at each opportunity, he became as hot-headed and vile towards Will. Furthermore, did you take note that Bob Costas questioned ownership - lack for a better word - of the comments made from commentators on Deadspin? It’s almost like Costas doesn’t read a news article online and read the exact same vile comments? Some are even worse completely slamming the journalists - or opinionists - integrity.

PFT’s Mike Florio has his take on the brouhaha up now. Basically, the same things already said. But, you know, he’s just a blogger, after all.

Obviously Bissinger is an idiot. Some of things he says are true-but judging the entire sports blogword by its worst representatives-I wonder if we judged the MSM by its worst—how would it fare?

Another thing to keep in mind is that Deadspin, KSK and other sports blogs are part opinion, part reporting, part humor. Apparently, journalism school makes it impossible to distinguish between the three. Sites like Deadspin understand one thing that Buzz doesn’t seem to grasp or want to admit. Pro athletics is a form of entertainment—we can debate this, that, and the other, but what it comes down to is that it is “just a game” and folks that have personalities and controversies drive ratings, move merchandise, and put butts in the seats.

I did like Edwards response-it is too easy to forget that athletes are just people-many of them quite young not always prepared for their notoriety. It seems to me that the perception of athletes in recent years has deteriorated-but isn’t because they just started partying and having sex with 15 years olds. It is just that now we know about it-immediately, and it can get played out over and over and over again on every website.

To blame this entirely on bloggers is ridiculous because it is the MSM that really is most responsible. Crucifying Barry Bonds is a good ratings booster—as is any other scandal or off color comment made by a pro athlete. How do you think shows like PTI and Jim Rome stay on the air?

The comparison between Presidents Kennedy and Clinton- or how the media covered each, seems a good lesson. Both were(or are) legendary philanderers, yet one was vilified while the other’s time-burnished, saintly legacy remains intact. Sure, part of it has to do with how politicians behave- the politics of personal destruction a more recent development- and part of it was the amount of time the journalists then had to fill versus today. But, back then, they largely left it alone as irrelevant to the actual story- which was the man’s performance as the leader of the free world.

Another factor is all the major news organizations being absorbed into entertainment division of huge corporations, and degenerating into ratings-driven, for profit entities. That and the advent of so-called “entertainment news”. We are a celebrity obsessed culture and we have some deep-seated, psychological need to see the mighty fall. Maybe it’s because of the entirely out of proportion money paid to our stars- whether athletes, recording artists, or film stars- we feel they really don’t deserve that drives our penchant for schadenfreude. But, man, we really love to see them get the rug pulled out from under.

On further review, I’m not sure I actually made the point I was trying to make. Nor am I sure that I made a point at all- besides managing to use the word, “schadenfreude,” on a sports blog. ; )

Well done, man. Well done.