Here’s the thing about blogs

I don’t know if you heard, but I have a blog. It’s called The Rhino and Compass and I talk a lot about sports and some other stuff. One of the more blog friendly media personalities in the market, Phil Mackey revealed himself… to not be so blog friendly.

The other day, Mackey went on a bit of a rant in which he took on pretty much every blogger that operates in the Twin Cities area. His problem was that bloggers have too large a platform with not enough accountability. His problem, summarized, is that people respect other people’s opinion.

Any self respecting reporter who claims that our opinions (our being bloggers or fans) is doing themselves a disservice. Bloggers simply voice a different opinion based on the facts that the reporters provide. Does this mean, then, that reporters or sports writers are withholding facts as they provide their opinion? That doesn’t sound like they are doing their job then, does it? So if we are to assume that all the facts are revealed to us, then what, exactly, makes our opinions less valuable? And if the opinions are valid, then why would that possibly mean that our platforms, as Mackey put it, are too big?

If anything, since we don’t have access, we bloggers, our opinions are more valuable, particularly with the teams, saying nothing for the fans or even other journalists. It provides a sentiment for fan contentedness and sources of discontent for the team, and appropriate talking points for the media, who can take the pulse of the consumers of their broadcasts or articles.

And as the City Pages article noted, John Bonnes (Twin Geek) asserted that the platforms are built on accountability. I would disagree, but only in wording. Bonnes was confined by Mackey’s choice of words, but really, bloggers that provide commentary are given respect and increasing “platforms” based on their ability to use sound and appreciable logic to arguments, as well as their skill in writing. I suppose the bloggers with the greatest platforms are accountable for their logic and skill level,

The increased access to information has opened the door for non players, non writers to be able to form cogent opinions on strategy, particularly when it comes to baseball, though the same can be said for other sports. Bloggers add value to the discourse, but attacking anyone purely on principle, rather than argument only detracts from it.