Tuesday, November 27, 2007

FIRST THEY CAME FOR...

The Bill Conlin/Crashburn Alley controversy is a few days old now.

Short summary: After an exchange of e-mails with that site's Bill Baer over a column he wrote justifying Jimmy Rollins' selection as National League MVP (which was a joke), Conlin, a Philly Daily News columnist, apparently snapped and replied to Baer, "The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth – I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers."

There's almost no need to point out how ironic and sad that is coming from someone writing in Philadelphia, the birthplace of democracy and all. No doubt it can be annoying to hear from us obsessive types who write blogs, but at least try to be civil. Or better yet, don't respond.

For Bill Baer: Speaking from experience, when you call you out small intellects over their stupidity and it makes it into the public realm (and a one-sided account of it is on Wikipedia), there are other small intellects who will gang up on you. Remember that you're smarter and stronger.

3 comments:

Kevin Hayward said...

Not sure how I feel about bloggers calling out sports media guys. It's one thing to disagree, but another thing to shred them. The sports media should be held to a higher standard, yes, because after all they are paid to do this. But they are normal people with a right to their opinions, too.

I think the relative anonmyity of blogging makes "calling out" professional writers a very tempting option, but one we'd be better off avoiding.

sager said...

Kevin,

Have you checked out the exchange at the Crashburn Alley site? Baer was persistent, but he was civil about it.

I don't like "shredding" anyone... if there is a point to be made, chances are you will be able to make it respectfully. I like to think I have lived up to that.

Eric Toms said...

OOLF is a responsibly written blog. Not written under a pseudonym or with a lot of poorly researched vitriol.

There is plenty of that in the blogosphere though. I am active in the 2.0 world but I also think there are problems with it. I also still consume a lot of big media. I.E. Disney / ESPN - I think Neyer, Olney & Law do very good work there. The Globe & Mail - Brunt, Blair, Houston.

If you want criticism of the 2.0 world, "google" Andrew Keen. I admit embarrasment at using google as a verb but...