The sports bloggers are up in arms over the Detroit News columnist Chris McCoskey's opinion piece with the above headline. I identify more with bloggers than journalists; it's really the difference in being employed by the mainstream media versus being your own boss (and unpaid employee) when you start up a blog. But I don't think McCoskey is deserving of the ridicule he's getting; although his portrayal of bloggers is perhaps a stereotypical one of "the clever dude in his pajamas...on his computer, down in his basement," it doesn't minimize the important point he makes about accountability.
I understand the proposal to allow up to $10,000 in prize money for those competing prior to attending college is still alive. So maybe that issue needs to be settled before we return to vilifying foreign teenagers from our basements.
Journalism employs trained professionals. We actually have to go to school for this stuff. We take our jobs seriously. There are rules and standards that we are beholden to. There are ethics involved. We actually talk to, in person, the people we write about. If we rip somebody in an article, you best be sure most of us will confront that person the next day and take whatever medicine we need to take.This is a long preamble to address some of the recent comments about Miseviciute, about foreign players in college and also some other comments I've received and haven't published about individuals involved in junior tennis. Most of you know by now that your chances of having a comment published increase dramatically if you use some sort of name rather than anonymous. I think most of you also know that I am a defender of foreign players in American collegiate tennis. Gator Boy may be more familiar with the details of the Miseviciute case than I am, but I have no evidence that she lied about her status or that the punishment she was given was unjust. I met her for the first time in Columbus and I found her to be cooperative and mature, a student-athlete any university would be happy to have. Would Gator Boy like to attend the NCAAs in May and confront her about her suspension? Or perhaps initiate a campaign with the NCAA to codify their punishments of student-athletes who run afoul of their amateur rules?
With blogging and Web sites, it seems the hard work, standards, accountability, courage all of that is bypassed. Who needs to study this stuff, or attend games, or conduct interviews when you can just sit in your basement and clack out whatever comes through your head, right? If I rip somebody, or if I get something wrong, who cares? Nobody will see me.
I understand the proposal to allow up to $10,000 in prize money for those competing prior to attending college is still alive. So maybe that issue needs to be settled before we return to vilifying foreign teenagers from our basements.
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