This is long overdue, but there was a lot of discussion the last week and a half or so surrounding a piece written on the blogosphere about Raul Ibanez and the possibility that he’s using PEDs. JRod from Midwest Sports Fans wrote a piece trying to explain Raul Ibanez’s amazing start to this season, his first year with the Phillies, and speculated that it could be due to the usage of steroids. After all, is there anyone in this era we should fully trust as being clean? Surprsingly, I thought A-Rod was clean. Busted. I thought Manny was clean. Busted. I’m sure there are oodles of clean players in the league, at least I’d love to think so, but the truth of the matter is steroids is prevalant in this era and it appears that in the MLB and its fans nowadays, it’s guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around.
Anyway, JRod caught a lot of flack for his piece because some little Mainstream Media guy ran and told his mommy (Raul Ibanez) on him. JRod was then invited to be on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” where he attempted to defend himself, yet MSM once again tried to make him out to be some average joe who lived in his mother’s basement with a pea for a brain. Watching the show, it seemed as if ESPN was just happy he was able to find a nice pair of slacks to wear to the taping. No respect in my opinion.
Obviously, I disagree with how blown out of proportion this whole ordeal was. I don’t like it one bit.
Akecke of The Nine Commandments was kind enough to volunteer and write a guest piece that I think says exactly what I was going to say, puts it perfectly.
For the record, since this whole crap went down, Raul Ibanez has struggled. In his last 22 ABs he has 11 K’s and just 4 hits (.182). He does have 2 HR, but only 4 RBIs. Since June 2nd his AVG has dropped 28 points, from .340 to .312. He just recently went on the DL with a steroid induced groin injury. Not much of a sample size, but I’m just saying. Click “READ MORE” after the comments link.
Last week I sat down to write a post/commentary on the witch-hunt led by the mainstream sports media on bloggers, and then that whole Raul Ibanez mess popped up and took center stage on the blogosphere. Everyone was talking about it and by the time I finished my article, I felt it lacked timeliness so I decided not to run it. Most people have asked for the chatter to die, but it’s a conversation that has been going on for a while. Granted the conversation was basically yelling at a wall, but that’s beside the point. So here we go.
If you know one, go up to a journalist and strike up a conversation about their work. Within a minute, the conversation will turn to the transformation and uncertain future of the media, and possibly how all bloggers are huge irresponsible douchebags. It’s a shame to see all these journalists trying to inspire a witch-hunt in their viewers to reject the legitimacy of bloggers. My guess: they’re scared of what will happen to their jobs. In all honesty, so am I.
You see, I’m a journalism student right now. I’m learning about the ethics, responsibilities, as well as rights of journalists in a time when I have no idea how I’ll get a job once I graduate. For all I know, everything I learn at school will be obsolete by the time I walk across the stage at commencement.
In my eyes, there is old media and new media. I think you can decipher which is which. We’re seeing old media downsizing while looking for a way to remain profitable while the new media is still searching for a way to get the revenue they need. At some point, the two will merge, but until then, they’ll just throw punches and look for a knockout.
JRod from Midwest Sports Fans wrote a well-written article on Ibanez’ breakout season as a 37-year-old. Why didn’t the media like it? Was it because he called a players legitimacy into question or because their intern read the article for them and included the words “he’s probably using steroids” in the synopsis? When listening to the talking heads on ESPN, it honestly seemed as if not a single one even read the article. That’s when ESPN stole a page from The Crucible and tried to burn him at the stake on Outside The Lines.
The majority of bloggers are simply hardcore fans that are communicating what they think to an audience that wants to hear their opinion. Yes, some bloggers lack legitimacy when they write fantastical articles about subjects that they don’t have access to. They make up stuff (although this is rare), but so did a certain writer from the New York Times. But if fans aren’t supposed to share their opinions on sports, what’s the point? We’re forced to listen to people like Emmitt Smith and Chris Berman speak with worse grammar than a second grader and yell ridiculous things at mediocre plays, but we can’t share our opinions on any subject in sports because we lack access? I find that unfair of the media to aim at their target demographic in a cold war of words.
You can tell which way the wind is coming from, but you can’t always tell which way it’s headed. That’s the problem right now in the world of journalism and the mainstream sports media is simply taking shots at bloggers to make themselves feel better. The economy sucks, ESPN hates bloggers, and everything is changing in the media. Can’t we just learn from each other to produce a better product, or will both sides of this fight continue to look for that knockout punch?
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