Wednesday, April 30, 2008

A Very Small Fish Comments On That CostasNOW Thing

I have been apart of The Nittany Line for less than a year, Galen was kind enough to invite me aboard last summer. I am still trying to find my voice, I’m not a traditionally trained writer, so I’m already years behind professionals and the growing pains are rather obvious, still I try. Welcome to our crappy blog, a crummy world of plot holes and spelling errors, and the traffic numbers to match. We’re here to entertain and maybe even occasionally enlighten. We’re not journalists, but to claim our voice is unsubstantiated is wrong. When Ron Bracken runs an article based upon a bullshit list of charges that’s been floating around on message boards and said article is then mentioned in a Stewart Mandel piece on Sports Illustrated, then what is the standard we are to go by?

I think Bob Costas had the best intentions, but yelling and screaming is not a proper discourse, cheers to Will Leitch for holding his own amidst the fire. The individual who yells the loudest is not simply declared the winner of an argument. Bissinger is an incredible writer. Please read his work whenever you get an opportunity, among my recommendations are the novel Friday Night Lights and an article he wrote for Vanity Fair entitled "Shattered Glass," the source from which one of my favorite movies sprouted. Ironically, it is the story of journalist being brought down by the internet, be it the online publication of Forbe’s Digital Tool. That is the possibility presented by a new medium. I am not W.C. Heinz and will never claim to be. You know who else is not W.C. Heinz? 99% of professional journalists, though they may claim otherwise. It is my hope in time I will become a better writer and do things I can only dream of now, in the meantime blogging gives me a voice on something that I love, Penn State, despite my lack of credentials.

Better and more eloquent opinions here, here, here, here, here.

2 comments:

drozz said...

it's interesting that costas and buzz could not distinguish between what the blogger wrote and the "comments section"

how could they possibly be so angry about an information medium when they admittedly don't understand it?

i actually thought braylon edwards made some good comments and tried to contribute.

Nick said...

One of the biggest questions I've been asking is why the hell was Braylon Edwards there? Why didn't they have an athlete that blogs?