While sipping my morning coffee today, I was reading an editorial in our local newspaper, the Edmonton Journal, where sportswriter Dan Barnes elected to take yet another shot at the internet sports community, writing the following blurb:
Given the proliferation of talking heads and Internet bloggers and posters bent on a microscopic evaluation of MacTavish's every move this season, he'd (Edmonton Oilers Head Coach Craig MacTavish) be hard-pressed to sneak in a third period burp without scrutiny.
Once again, a seasoned professional sports journalist has told us amateur sports writers that we should simply sit down, shut up, and believe what the sports pundits at the major media outlets tell us to believe about the sports teams we care about.
After all, how dare we take to the internet and voice our opinion on our favorite sports teams after not going to journalism school and not being selected by a personnel manager to be a sports writer for a newspaper/television station/website.
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Subsequently, we all should keep our opinions, which are clearly wrong, to ourselves and leave the real journalism to the pros.
Well there is just one problem.
As an ex-journalist and broadcaster, I love this new forum here at Bleacher Report, and despite no longer working in the industry, earning my $35,000 a year, I now live in a big beautiful house I could have never afforded if I had remained a " journalist ," and I am free to spend my time the way I want, which in this case, includes sending the volley back to the so called "professionals" stamped with a great big "bite me" on it.
The truth is, the writers and broadcasters we all know on our various local mediums are no more qualified to voice their opinions about professional sports than you or I.
They are simply that—opinions—and the teams we write about, whether it's the Edmonton Oilers, the New England Patriots, or the New York Yankees, are no more likely to take our advice than they are to take the advice of the supposed professional sports writers.
Actually, change that, because we actually buy tickets to get into the games, we have a bigger say, and are usually not bound by editorial guidelines and political agendas.
This lack of restrictions allows us to write far more freely then those writers who claim to have the market cornered on sports intelligence.
The end result is that we all are entitled to write about our favorite teams, and to engage in debate in a public forum with like minds.
No one is completely right, and no one is ever completely wrong, despite my sincere belief that those that criticize me are in fact, exactly that—wrong.
But then again, I am not always right.
So my fellow writers and hobby journalists: write, write, and write some more.
The more we write, the less the opinions of the supposed professional journalists matter, and that, after all, is our common goal.
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10 months ago
Couldn't agree with you more.
This idea that journalism should be reserved only for the elite reeks of aristocracy and goes against the principles our country was founded upon. Furthermore, guys like Bill Simmons, who rose through the ranks of blogdom to eventually get the respect they deserve, have proven that fan-writers do not have to be trained via traditional means in order to succeed in the sports media.
I think you're going to really like Bleacher Report. Our mission is to unite the voices of fan-experts and create an entirely user-generated sports network that allows the people who know their teams best to broadcast their views to a widespread national audience.
Thanks for the great read Darren!
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