My fellow bloggers, rise from your cellars!

While reading Eagle in Atlanta I cam across his e-mail exchange with Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe. You know, one of the old, white haired pants wetters on The Sports Reporters. Now EIA takes the high road and compliments Ryan’s accessibility and personality, we however, give him no such slack. The question of note is referring to the legitimacy of blogs, which Bob condescendingly replies:

Jimmy Durante's famous line was "Everybody wants to get into the act." And now everybody can because anyone can blog. It's out there. Nothing we can do about it, except attempt to produce your material as best you can and write it better than any blogger could ever dream of in the hopes that some people care about good writing and, perhaps, insight that is unavailable to a blogger sitting in his cellar. All this extraneous stuff clouds the issues. It's all very different, and I'm glad I am far, far closer to the end of my career than the beginning, for many reasons.

Indeed. The only thing Bob says that I completely agree with is, we are all very glad he is close to the end of his career. As blogging becomes more and more popular, people are turning to blogs for their insights, not conventional media. Moreover, as bloggers gain popularity they are beginning to aquire resources to get interviews that were previously only available to mainstream media. Herein lies the truth about reporters' hatred of the Blogosphere, they have to write better! Can I get an AMEN!

AMEN!!








Gone are the days reporters can write clichéd drivel and call it news. With that in mind I give you this piece by Mark Madden of ESPN Radio on Penn State QB Anthony Morelli. Where do I start?

When he reneged on Pitt to go to Happy Valley, Morelli called his new school “the University of Penn State.” He’s not real bright.

That was WR Derek Williams on ESPN NEWS, Morelli had no news conference, he simply faxed his signed letter of intent on signing day to Penn State without saying a word, I have no idea where Madden got this from. The entire column is paralyzed from the waist down (and possible the neck up), in other words: it has no legs to stand on. He uses an old cliché that has been kicked around in the absence of real facts:

Morelli reportedly had a difficult time understanding the plays in high school. He reportedly has had a tougher time figuring out the Nittany Lion playbook.

“Reportedly” huh? Please give us some concrete examples lest this column fall victim to fallacy of exclusion. I could say that Mark Madden is legally retarded, reportedly, and get away with it but when I use this article as an example, most people will nod their heads in agreement. As for the "playbook" rumor, I’ve heard this on message boards, but I have no evidence of interviews with coaches, players, cheerleaders, water boys, or band members to corroborate such statements. Madden then uses cliché number two:

Morelli is more qualified for his job than Jay Paterno is for his. But Paterno, Penn State’s quarterbacks coach, is charged with Morelli’s development. Uh-oh.

Ah yes, good ole beleaguered Jay Paterno, victim of countless blindsided attacks from people that can find nothing else to criticize. I wonder... if Jay is such a horrible coach, how did Michael Robinson go from transient for 3 years to 5th in the Hiesman race at QB? Uh-oh. Guess that was all Michael and no coaching. Uh-oh. This is the epitome of why Bob Ryan is right, reporters have to write much better, because the press is proliferated with dipshits like Madden.



Mark Madden, the guy with the face for radio, takes the "Hawaiian shirt is ok on fat guys" rule a little too seriously.