Self-definition and the L.A. Times

June 23rd, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Update: Shanoff sums up my thoughts in the most succinct way possible. Leitch does so more eloquently.

Sigh. Problems with this story: One, it doesn’t mention Awful Announcing, which seems like a crime. Two: It doesn’t even attempt make any sense of the very mainstream nature of FanHouse, Y!SB, and The Sporting Blog, which you have to talk about if you have any interest in the maturation of sports blogs. Three: Mister I is not “edgy” or “outsider,” which they’d be the first to tell you. Four: I don’t know too many other bloggers that share these views. Yet there they are, in the L.A. Times, meant to represent us all:

“The initial reaction was ‘Buzz is a lunatic,’ ” McIntyre said. “After that, people calmed down, listened to what he said and thought, ‘You know, maybe we should clean up our act a little bit.’ “

Who did this? If you’re a blogger, and you genuinely believe anything Bissinger said was constructive or thoughtful, you just haven’t been paying attention. And if you need Buzz Bissinger to tell you something’s wrong, you’re not a very good blogger.

“What’s the shelf-life for a website that only has women in bikinis?” McIntyre asked. “Eventually, there needs to be substance to back up the fluff.”

But what if it’s all fluff? A few all-fluff blogs seem to be doing very well. And reasonable people could assert that 90% of everything sports-related is, by nature, fluff. A greater sin than fluff is unoriginality, redundancy, and inanity.

This is why the sports blogosphere will miss Will Leitch. When he defined “us,” at least he was somewhat accurate.