Abel to Yzerman
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Linked? Don’t Count On It
by IwoCPO on 09/06/08 at 08:52 AM ET
Comments (24)
We’ve reached day 19 of my private quest to keep my own personal, political views away from A2Y. I’ve been successful, but only barely. It’s my intent to maintain this neutral posture. Why? Because nothing, and I mean nothing, is more divisive than that topic.
Having said that, I do feel compelled to point something out to those of you who may be riding the fence…
You actually fell for that?
I’m telling you. Not a chance. None. You guys want to discuss it? Have at it. Me? Not. Gonna. Do. It.
Let’s take a spin.
Everyone’s hero, Bruce MacLeod, hasn’t posted or written a thing since 21 August. A deserved vacation? I’m sure. MacLeod, as you’re all aware, is the odd exception among our beat writers and Diggers (there is a difference) in that he’s got his own blogspot/blogger site in addition to his articles that appear in the cheap-ass Macomb Daily News.
Sometimes when I’m feeling lonely and bored I like to go to the Anti-Digger’s blog and see who he’s added to his blog roll, a constantly evolving list of great hockey sites and other bloggers? Not quite. I occasionally wonder why MacLeod--despite being hailed and fawned over at every Wing site/blog on the Gore (woops, was that political?)--chooses not to compile a listing of blogs he, himself, visits. Kinda like Mirtle does.
For instance, in the event that--perhaps--MacLeod has once or twice visited George Malik’s site and found a story he hadn’t been made aware of yet? I wonder if he’d feel inclined to, you know, give credit where credit is due.
Now, is this a slam on MacLeod? Not really. But it’s interesting to note there are other beat writers who blog, and who have no problem pointing to the unwashed.
Take, for instance, Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Not only does he have a growing list of Pens blogs and fan sites on the left-hand side of his page, but he points and links to bloggers every day.
Michael Russo, the quality beat writer for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune also includes a couple of Wild Bloggers on his roll.
Looking around, though, Russo and Rorabaugh are the exceptions. Don’t even bother looking at any of the Detroit mainstream sites looking for references to Wing blogs. That will never happen. But it’s not just our guys.
Read a fan-run Dallas blog, a Columbus blog, or any number of blogs following the Canadie(a)n teams and you’ll see daily pointers to blogs run by Adam Portzline, Darryl Reaugh, Damien Cox and Eric Duhatschek--all writers who undoubtedly get plenty of traffic at their sites due to pointers from bloggers. Yet, no reciprocation. Edit: At the Calgary Sun, Scott Cruickshank and Jean Lefebvre mention and cite Flame blogs.
It’s curious, and that’s it. Really. Is it even irritating? Not particularly. It’s kind of amusing to watch, this odd relationship between the bloggers and the mainstream. I’m assuming there’s policy in place at most of the papers, prohibiting attribution to blogs, or even linking to them. Maybe George can chime in and give us some insight as to the stance MLive takes on that.
If it’s policy? Got it. But if it isn’t? That’s a whole other matter. I looked at more than a few mainstreamers’ blogs this morning and half-way expected to find the younger guys (George Richards at the Miami Herald, for instance) more prone to a more progressive stance. Nope.
Like I said above, the writers who link to the bloggers are rare. It just doesn’t happen that much and the decision they make not to do so is clearly a deliberate one. The stance they’ve elected to take could very well be costing them readers. Not my concern.
Again, it’s something to watch with amusement...just to see where the elitism lies and where the recognition of new media as a viable resource comes to the fore.
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Comments
I’m with you on the politics, Chief. The only thing that comes remotely close to raising everyone’s blogging cockles is talking about college sports. (Go Blue!) Though sometimes my true political feelings sneak out in the occasional snarky reference. I try to keep all my ranting on the presidential race in my Twitter feed.
As for the topic at hand, MSM writers just don’t get the collaborative nature of sports blogs. Those that do, such as those you mentioned, along with the Washington Post’s DC Sports Bog, Newsday’s Watchdog or the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Randball, are still the exception, than the rule. The “blogs” (term used loosely) at the Freep and News are jokes, the red-headed step children of the fishwraps.
Posted by Big Al from SE MI on 09/06/08 at 11:00 AM ET
I refuse to believe this blog from author (IWO) to most menial pleb galley scrub fifth class (moi)isn’t wholly behind the idea of a MILF in the White House. I sure as hell am.
I mean, cottage industries would be borne the day she took the oath of orifice… um, office.
Victoria’s Secret (or some internet knock-off silk screener company) would have a line of Vice Presidential nighties in like 7.3 seconds.
Also, Bill Clinton would knock himself unconscious with the forehead slap of doom.
Posted by HockeyinHD on 09/06/08 at 11:51 AM ET
the day she took the oath of orifice
HD, have you met RWBill?
The writers who link to the bloggers are rare. It just doesn’t happen that much and the decision they make not to do so is clearly a deliberate one. The stance they’ve elected to take could very well be costing them readers
Chief, I think they see it the other way around. For now, they can still point to the to three advantages they have over blogs - journalistic legitimacy, unbiased reporting, and access to stories - as evidence of their authority. The first two are failing them as journalistic standards plummet and the MSM sensationalizes everything to feed the 24-hour news machine, so they have to hold on to the notion of “exclusive” access. (Unfortunately, this exclusivity is showing that the media is often nothing more than the mouthpiece for special interests. Sports writers included...hence the Diggers.)
I imagine they’re concerned that if they started pointing to blogs as legitimate sources of news and analysis, it would undermine their exclusivity. I suppose it’s just the natural reaction of a medium that will likely be gone within a generation.
I may be wrong. I’m hung over. It happens.
Posted by Gabriel from San Diego, CA on 09/06/08 at 12:23 PM ET
I’m hung over. It happens.
All good points Gabe. Especially the last part. Maybe if I wasn’t hung over myself, I’d have thought of it. Imagine that.
Posted by IwoCPO from Washington, DC on 09/06/08 at 12:39 PM ET
Maybe if I wasn’t hung over myself, I’d have thought of it.
Saturday morning and well, Chief, you only have yourself to blame for the lack of a hangover.
On that other note.....at least now that Amerika’s favorite hockey mom has been given a Red Wings jersey RWBill will be able to pick her out of a crowd without his NVG’s. Now he just has to deal with those pesky Secret Service dudes.
Posted by Rumbear from Rum D'eggo on 09/06/08 at 01:19 PM ET
Two of the Rangers’ beat writers link to bloggers--Steve Zipay of Newsday and Sam Weinman of the Journal News. John Dellapina doesn’t have a blogroll, and Larry Brooks doesn’t have a blog (but apparently he reads them, because he mocked one of his peers who had one in a column). I was surprised to see they do it, though. I thought they’d be afraid that people would think they got their ideas from bloggers.
P.S.--Despite the fact that I’m a Rangers fan, I love Empty Netters. I didn’t even realize it was a newspaper blog until months after I’d discovered it.
Posted by K24 from NYC on 09/06/08 at 01:32 PM ET
A story about Japanese culture might explain why the MSM are ignoring bloggers.
A professor who lived in Japan for several years explained to me there are 6 different words for “I” and “You” in Japanese language.
The Japanese culture is very much about rank and status and the system starts early. Your performance in kindergarten determines which grade school your are eligible to attend which determines your high school and onwards to college.
When talking to someone the word you choose to refer to yourself (one of six) and them (one of six) is solely determined by their social rank relative to yours.
If you, Chief, were to live in Japan, you would find that people would not use the same six words for “I” and “You” that is used in the language. You would be referred to as Bill-san. To refer to you as one of the regular words for “I” or “You” would mean your rank would have to be assessed. And this would be unacceptable culturally. You are non-Japanese and obviously do not pass muster.
To give you a rank would acknowledge you have value within the social hierarchy. To chose not to refer you in the same terms as native Japanese is a conscious choice not to allow you into the ranking system in the first place. You are beneath the system and thus not worthy of ranking at all.
Of course the system is B.S. and xenophobic, but elitism requires these prejudices to maintain its sense of value and status. The same can be said about the MSM’s refusal to acknowledge the blogging universe. Their exclusivity, as Gabriel puts it, is ending as some NHL teams now have a press area for bloggers.
With local media budgets constantly being slashed by ever-expanding media conglomerates, and news being centralized to a far-away city’s “news bureau” the death bell is sounding for traditional media journalism.
They can choose to adapt and embrace the new online presence, or they can fade quietly into the night.
ON THE OTHER HAND, CHIEF…
Stop your bitching you crying little baby. Is your psyche so damaged and your eyes watery because a few MSM won’t link to your little corner of the Pipes and Tubes? Maybe you should be eating ice cream watching the View and Dr. Phil instead of the following NHL. Your delicate constitution may not be able handle the violence and guts displayed in a hockey game.
Posted by VooX from inside the Pipes and Tubes on 09/06/08 at 02:48 PM ET
From the political side, my visceral reaction to ALL politicians is bad, bad, bad. It doesn’t matter if they’re VPilfs or look like Strom Thurmond. Until I meet one whose hasn’t had his or her speech written by a professional scriptwriter and whose eyes don’t instantly say “Any promises I make to you are lies, I have the morals of a weasel on speed and the sole reason for my existence is power and the only language I speak is money,” I’ll continue to think that they should all be shipped to a deserted island so that they can claw at each other and fling mud because it appears to be the singular reason for their very being. Let ‘em. The rest of us have a little thing called ‘life’ to get on with.
Blogs, on the other hand, serve a useful purpose by filling the niches that professional journalism can’t. Granted, that makes the information contained in them suspect, but if you don’t believe everything you read, and verify the information with a secondary source, that’s not a problem. When you approach them primarily for entertainment, then the journalists’ concerns about veracity sound positively ridiculous. That being said, the apparently intentional stonewalling of blogs on the journalists’ part is hurtful at best, downright disturbing at worst.
But then, unlike you poor bastards, I’m drunk rather than hungover right now. So don’t ask me to make sense until Monday at the earliest.
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the bottom of an empty glass on 09/06/08 at 03:00 PM ET
Of course, there’s the old simile between music fanzines and professional music critics. Anybody with a misspent youth could tell you all about that.
If you really want to know...ask me on Monday.
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from a grubby club full of lo-fi all-stars on 09/06/08 at 03:05 PM ET
Dude that f’ing puck daddy blog has political crap in it all the time now, under the guise of “palin is a hockey mom, therefore politics is hockey related”
i don’t buy it, and i’m glad you’re staying strong chief.
also, just had a couple 40’s of good ol’ schlitz. forgot how great that stuff was.
Posted by rwingscup19 from dallas on 09/06/08 at 03:29 PM ET
We’ve reached day 19 of my private quest to keep my own personal, political views away from A2Y. I’ve been successful, but only barely. It’s my intent to maintain this neutral posture. Why? Because nothing, and I mean nothing, is more divisive than that topic.
Thank you so very, very, very much for that.
Good man. Let’s keep the discussion tightly focused on beer, NVGs, how to determine the sex of chickens, pets, humans as social animals, human vulnerability to predation in the wild, guns, wabbits, the prevailing socio-economic climate of Pakistan, porn, I Dream of Jeannie, the pros and cons of macro and microeconomics, turtles, Smurfs....
Please no Smurfs. Those little blue things are just plain creepy - and their vocabulary is horrible.
Regarding human vulnerability to predation: I don’t usually drop a (semi-obscure?) reference into general conversation and not explain it because people who do that frequently have the aim of making themselves seem soooo smart, but anyone interested more in the lions of Tsavo can go the the blurb on the Field Museum exhibit (http://www.fieldmuseum.org/exhibits/exhibit_sites/tsavo/maneaters.html). I’ve actually seen the lions, and they are enormous. Just thinking that these two cats killed and ate 140 men over a nine-month span, imagining what it would be like to feel the terror of sleeping in a tent by the railroad, and hear a scream as another worker was dragged into the bush, followed by the crunching noise as they chewed through bones out in the dark African night ... Spooky. But in a good way (because there are no dangerous lions in Michigan).
From the political side, my visceral reaction to ALL politicians is bad, bad, bad. It doesn’t matter if they’re VPilfs or look like Strom Thurmond. Until I meet one whose hasn’t had his or her speech written by a professional scriptwriter and whose eyes don’t instantly say “Any promises I make to you are lies, I have the morals of a weasel on speed and the sole reason for my existence is power and the only language I speak is money,” I’ll continue to think that they should all be shipped to a deserted island so that they can claw at each other and fling mud because it appears to be the singular reason for their very being. Let ‘em. The rest of us have a little thing called ‘life’ to get on with.
I vote marooning on the continent of Antarctica to be pecked to death by Emperor penguins - but for saying that, I could kiss you. (Don’t take that the wrong way, though.) 
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 09/06/08 at 04:33 PM ET
Stop your bitching you crying little baby.
Hmmm.....I’m sure that was meant in a good way.
Waiter!
Posted by Rumbear from 10 feet tall and bullet proof on 09/06/08 at 07:49 PM ET
The disdain, disrespect, and dis..acknowledgement that some traditional media-types, most notably journalists, have for blogs is embarassing (or disgusting?).
But keep in mind that for some of these guys, they’re not keeping up personal blogs like this one, or Mirtle’s so much as writing short exclusive articles that are published on the web under the label ‘blog’. From my extensive research (looking at Dellapina’s blog), I’ve found a strong correlation between the frequency and quality of updates (ie. time spent on the blog) and the number of links in the blogroll (a proxy for how much that blog is “new-media” as opposed to old-media in disguise).
Posted by Ryan from Toronto on 09/06/08 at 10:15 PM ET
As far as I know, there’s no real “policy” as to whether a newspaper is beholden to reference a blog or blogger if that’s where they find their information.
I can certainly attest to the fact that a mysteriously large number of my “offbeat” posts from out-of-the-way sources have, on occasion, tended to find their way into the Free Press’s sports round-up on such a regular basis that I’d suggest that stuff was being “lifted” from my blog without acknowledging who found what…
But bloggers are seen as both a threat (let’s just say that bloggers’ pay rates undercut columnists’ pay by several orders of magnitude, and we’re as numerous as can be), an annoyance as our tendency to post news as soon as we find it forces people who were trained to save up information for tomorrow’s edition to “sell papers,” and more than a few bloggers don’t give credit where credit is due, either…
So many columnists simply see no need to acknowledge annoyances who supposedly have no credence or attempt to uphold journalistic standards.
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/07/08 at 04:33 AM ET
Wait. When you say there’d be a MILF in the White House, are you talking about Sarah Palin or Cindy McCain?
Just checking… 
All I’m saying is most people don’t look that good at age 54.
Posted by Nathan on 09/07/08 at 02:37 PM ET
We’ve reached day 19 of my private quest to keep my own personal, political views away from A2Y. I’ve been successful, but only barely. It’s my intent to maintain this neutral posture. Why? Because nothing, and I mean nothing, is more divisive than that topic.
I’d like to augment what I said before by adding an “Amen to that my brother!”
Please no Smurfs. Those little blue things are just plain creepy - and their vocabulary is horrible.
However, I will have to disagree with this point. Smurfs are adorable, fun-loving, fiscally conservative creatures, and we will not stand for any Smurfism here. Gargamel.
I’ve actually seen the lions, and they are enormous.
What the hell were you doing in East Africa in 1898?
Posted by monkey from The AQ on 09/07/08 at 06:13 PM ET
If we’re getting political, I’d like to state my full support of the Keg Party, which advocates free beer and/or the beverage of your choice (I like Shirley Temples) for everyone, and...um...okay, that’s about all it advocates...and maybe free sandwiches…
Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 09/07/08 at 06:38 PM ET
If we’re getting political, I’d like to state my full support of the Keg Party, which advocates free beer and/or the beverage of your choice (I like Shirley Temples) for everyone, and...um...okay, that’s about all it advocates...and maybe free sandwiches…
Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!
Posted by monkey from The AQ on 09/07/08 at 07:07 PM ET
If we’re getting political, I’d like to state my full support of the Keg Party, which advocates free beer and/or the beverage of your choice (I like Shirley Temples) for everyone, and...um...okay, that’s about all it advocates...and maybe free sandwiches…
throw in some 2am taco bell at any time and I will swear to the Keg Party!
Posted by cementslinger from Saginaw MI on 09/08/08 at 07:52 AM ET
So all those old magazines I had as a teen with Metallica on the cover.... mean I mispent my youth? LOL
Keg Party, once again my mispent youth? ;
No other comments on anything even remotely related to ANYTHING with elephants and or donkeys… they’re all asses but Andrew says it so much more eloquently. Anyone worthy of running for a public office and actually going to do ANYTHING worthwhile is too frigging smart or useful to run for said public office.
Posted by MOWIngsfan19 on 09/08/08 at 10:33 AM ET
Please no Smurfs. Those little blue things are just plain creepy - and their vocabulary is horrible.
You think that’s bad, I once heard a techno version of a Smurfs song in a Czech nightclub...now THAT was weird
but for saying that, I could kiss you
Aw, that’s sweet of you, thanks. But let’s not make RWBill jealous-- he does, after all, own an unhinged disposition and a pair of night-vision goggles.
Wait. When you say there’d be a MILF in the White House, are you talking about Sarah Palin or Cindy McCain?
No thank you to both. I’ll stick with the tried-and-true Shyla Stylez and Jenna Jameson.
throw in some 2am taco bell at any time and I will swear to the Keg Party!
As long as we’re throwing them out there, I was once attracted to The Sloth and Indolence Party in my youth. The folksinger Utah Philips ran for President on their ticket, promising that “if I’m elected, I’ll sit on my ass, shoot pool, and just stay out of your way.” Futurama’s Voter Apathy Party deserves a mention too, as does the legitimate Official Monster Raving Loony Party ("A Loony vote is a sane vote").
In any case, I’d just like to see one politician who actually believes in the words coming out of their mouths. Even if someone else wrote it for them, there’s no rule that says they can’t espouse those views. Say what they mean and mean what they say. Is that so difficult?
For a the habitually amoral professional liar, perhaps. There’s an old saying in England that Guy Fawkes was the only man to ever enter Parliament with honest intentions.
Amen to that.
Posted by AndrewFromAnnArbor from the glorious Duchy of Grand Fenwick on 09/08/08 at 11:48 AM ET
To answer what I think is the original question posed in this thread ... the sheer size of my ignorance. Blogging for me is a one-year-old craft. I didn’t realize until this post that anyone would want a list of blogs that I visit. I’ll post that list as soon as I figure out how.
I am coming to realize how connected, how layered online sites are.
As for giving credit where credit’s due, I do and have done so, hopefully to an acceptable journalistic level.
By the way, I’m a big admirer of the prose of IwoCPO. It’s rare to find writers who are entertainers. Love it.
Posted by Bruce MacLeod from Chesterfield MI on 09/11/08 at 12:41 AM ET
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Good man. Let’s keep the discussion tightly focused on beer, NVGs, how to determine the sex of chickens, pets, humans as social animals, human vulnerability to predation in the wild, guns, wabbits, the prevailing socio-economic climate of Pakistan, porn, I Dream of Jeannie, the pros and cons of macro and microeconomics, turtles, Smurfs....
Posted by monkey from The AQ on 09/06/08 at 10:28 AM ET