Lynn Henning of Det News backs off RR, shows class

But it raises a point that I think is nothing less than a complete indictment of "professional sports journalists," not only in Detroit but nationally.

On one hand, you have a cadre of well-paid individuals whose day jobs are totally devoted to covering sports, and there is absolutely nothing in their terms of employment that would prevent them from working nights as well. They have, by our standards, virtually unlimited resources to aid in research, including interns, access to statistical databases, access to program insiders that "normal" people don't, and the support of large organizations nominally devoted to the gathering, analysis, and dissemination of information.

On the other hand, you have a motley collection of unconnected individuals, virtually none of whom are trained or educated in "journalism." The vast majority of these individuals in fact have day jobs in fields that have nothing to do with sports, which was the case with Brian before MGoBlog took off. These individuals have to do research on their own time, after their day jobs or day classes, for no financial reward, with virtually none of the organizational advantages that writers at the Freep and the News and ESPN and SI have. They can't call up Rich Rodriguez or Bill Martin or Mike Barwis or former players for inside information; they have to wait for the "professionals" to interview them to glean needed information.

Given all this, which is the group of people that you would logically assume would be the first to have researched the details of Michigan's roster issues, with respect to recent recruiting class attrition? Which of these groups would have logically been the one to get at the real stories behind Boren's departure and the Freep's smear efforts?

Overall, regardless of isolated exceptions, there is not a more incompetent, disinterested, arrogant, and above all, stunningly lazy group of alleged "professionals" in this country than "sports journalists."

You can get your daily dose of an idiotic and unsubstantiated hack job from Caputo in the Oakland Press. I won't even bother to link it. He likes to call himself the prince of objectivity but somehow he always manages to take shots at Michigan while either glorifying the old alma mater MSU or, as he did last week, calling their 6-6 season following their 9-3 2008 mark a "program on the rise."

But the worst part about it is that the man doesn't even use complete sentences. He is sadly, neither professional nor a journalist. Yet he is still allowed to publish this crap daily in the paper and verbalize it incessantly on his equally idiotic radio show.

as brian said in the podcast, quoting an old journalist:
"these bloggers sure seem smarter than the journalists".
(or something like that).
how true!