OT-Albom: Real Journalists, Sparty-Izzo, Blogs, and Brian's Basement
Four words for Myth Albom:
Mateen. Cleaves'. Green. Sweater.
Those silly, worthless blogs being run out of peoples' basements. You think that they could catch somebody like Drew Sharp, an edited columnist for a major newspaper, creating false quotes? (See, e.g., Limbaugh, Rush.) Wait, they did do that, didn't they...
Mitch and company don't like that they now have people, with established fanbases, that are able and willing to call out journalists when they present biased points of view, mislead readers, or report information incorrectly. The unspoken rule between journalists to have each other's back has protected them for years. If the journalists were smart they would make nice with the bloggers instead of alienating.
...elitism.
Professional journalists had to go to school to learn to do what a lot of successful bloggers can do on a laptop at a lakeside park: effectively parse information and make a coherent argument.
Are all bloggers good at this? No. Are all journalists bad at it? No. But that "non-professionals" can do it just as well mitigates the journalist profession, as a whole.
It's like suddenly realizing that a bunch of high school age caddies can put up the same numbers at the Masters as Woods and Mickelson. Golf may still be fun, but suddenly "professional" golfers look like a joke.
...Maybe a dart board with a picture of Tressel with 100s of holes in it...
Most definitley!
The funny thing about Albom referring to "bloggers in their basements" is that he probably hasn't seen the inside of the Freep office in years. Most sports journalists don't go into the office unless they have a meeting that absolutely must be attended in person.
Than Mitch Albom Rock-N-Rolling from one!
You cannot lump legit Internet posts with a blog that begins in some guy's basement.For some reason, it seems like the respective integrity of these two sources is the reverse of what Albom intended, at least recently when it comes to local media. I find it funny.
The funny thing about these "legit Internet posts" is that they are starting to use information gained from these basement blogs; such as Angelique referencing TomVH's Demar Dorsey interview and Adam Rittenberg from ESPN referencing Misopogon's diary of defensive player attrition and avg. starters age/class year. I think he's just upset that nobody likes him anymore.
Albom briefly references the concept that with so many media mediums and so many professionals and "amateurs" having methods of making their views known, there is a need to filter out quality reporting/blogging/commenting from some guy sounding off. In this particular sentence, I presumed him to mean, for example, that MGoBlog's credibility should not be ruined just because Bleacher Report exists. He just wanted to vary his wording and not use the word "blog" twice in the same sentence.
I understand that he very well may have meant it in the very stupid and overly cliched way that most on here (including the OP) thought he did, but I believe the other interpretation is worth considering. Albom can be a tool (like any of us), but let's not jump down his throat too vigorously.
When the Albom column appeared in 2005 and his made-up facts came to light, the Freep suspended him. Four years later, Rosenberg and Snyder publish an article later shown to be patently false in nearly every important respect. Freep reaction? "Keep up the good work."
R&S won a fucking award for their Jihad missile.
I'm pretty clueless about him getting suspended by the Freep. What column was this, exactly?
EDIT: Yes, this is a serious question.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2005-04-13-media-mix_x…
I couldn't find the original column on the Freep. They've probably removed the link to their archive.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the "Albom: Real Journalists" bit.
As in Albom's obvious assertion that newspapers employ "real journalists" with professional integrity
Mitch Albom = whiny self-promoter (but not necessarily talentless)
My buddy used to be a ball boy for the Pistons for years in the 90's as a kid and him and Albom had a run in one time that I think pretty much sums up Albom's arrogance. I still laugh about it years later.
Scene: Before a game, Albom was demanding one of the ball boys get him water and some snacks. When it took longer than expected, he yelled at my buddy even though my buddy wasn't the original ball boy he asked to get him his water and snacks.
Albom: "Where is my water? What's taking so long?"
My buddy: "Not sure. Where's your lucky charms?"
That picture of Albom with the article is hilarious. What the hell is he posing for? Is he using some kind of black light? Looking for the lava lamp.
Anytime any writer rips MSU a new one, I consider it to be great. However, I am tired of the anti-blogger attitude of Albom and others like him. When Albom first appeared on the scene, I saw him as a common man with an uncommon ability to present compelling stories from a protagonist's POV.
Now, though, I see him more as a common reptile with an uncommon ability to use his position in life to protect his own self-interest. And that is sad, because he used to be one of my favorite writers. Albom without Morrie to provide a moral compass is beginning to remind me of Tiger Woods without his dad to provide a moral compass.
AFAIC, neither has nearly as much game as both did five years ago.
No, this is progress. Albom is acknowledging that bloggers have their own basements, and therefore no longer need to use their mothers' basements.
The shitty thing is that WFNY basically deserves what it gets, because it started everything with a totally wrong story. They were at least apologetic about it in the aftermath but they got a huge, huge story totally wrong.
Albom conviently overlooks "THE BIG 12 IS DEAD," all of which game from Official Journalists, but that's par for the course.
And it's also fair to point out that when Albom snickers at the kind of general b.s. and all-around provocation that serves as "content" for sportstalk radio, Mitch Albom also makes a fair point. It is true; there is virtually no editorial standard that can't or won't be violated on sportstalk radio.
Which naturally brings us to Drew Sharp (Free Press & 1130 AM) and Terry Foster (Detroit News & 97.1 FM)...
While there's nothing wrong with a guy making a living, the lack of editorial control on sports-talk radio has made its way into the newspapers. Foster, et al, use both outlets more or less interchangeably.
R&S further blurred the lines, with their editors' blessings, by taking the sports-talk standards (none) and moving them onto Page 1, above the fold. That's inexcuseable, and provides all the evidence you need to explain why the MSM is struggling.
Bloggers like Brian have shown far greater insight, accuracy, and even-handedness in their reporting than any of the people in "traditional" modes of journalism.
Years ago there was a Detroit talk radio host by the name of Greg Henson (sp?) who used to call Albom "the little fella" and would rip him all the time. Greg was also positive about Michigan sports so he was okay to listen to. Now we have Valenti and others of his ilk.
I used to think Albon was okay but after rocking out with Stephen King and being a truly crappy radio host (with his own human laugh track named Ken) he has jumped the shark.
That is all.
Mitch Albom was great way back when... when he used to just write about sports. He has drifted away from sports more and more. His commentary and wisdom outside of the realm of sports just isn't as good.
... I blog from my office, back porch, Starbucks, and probably would from my basement if the WiFi worked...
Lost in all the focus on the trite remark by Mitch is that he really wasn't ripping bloggers as much as he was calling out MSU, Simon, Hollis, and especially Izzo.
We are fortunate as avid readers of MgoBlog to have Brian Cook at the helm, he is certainly in the top 0.01% of bloggers. And in the top 0.0001% in making money at it. Brian's talent is something that Mitch would realize if he took the time to read a few of his posts and have him on his radio show a few more times.
Yeah, Mitch made a serious error during the Spartan basketball game. He is also one of the most successful writers of our generation--sports, op-ed, non-fiction, fiction, plays. The fact that he still hangs his hat here in Detroit when he could be working anywhere (or nowhere, he's certainly rich enough) is something I appreciate, even if I don't always agree with him. His book authored with Bo is flat-out great.
Mitch has the gravitas to go after B.S. like that we saw from MSU and Izzo over the last few weeks. Most other sportswriters just sit in the back of the room, re-work a couple of press releases by deadline, throw in a few powder-puff comments and then gorge themselves on the free food afterwards. Instead, Mitch cut right to the heart of the matter:
Even Izzo, in what should have been a pure celebration, took time, as he put it, to "be a smart aleck" and lash out at the media, saying everyone had a boss, but "I'm sure as hell (glad) I got mine instead of most of yours."
Ouch.
I have seen Mitch around town, including once at a Warren Zevon concert in Ferndale during Zevon's last tour before his untimely death. I went up to Mitch before the concert started, and he was very nice and gracious when he could have brushed me off.
A lot of traditional media types criticize blogging as an art practiced by dilettantes with too much time on their hands and too little to say. It's mostly a fair comment, but certainly not about Brian, not about this place.
P.S. Neg away from your basements, ye Maize and Blue faithful.
P.P.S. Mitch ain't playing the keyboards from his basement; more from Wikipedia:
He currently performs with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band of writers that also features Dave Barry, Stephen King, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan and Scott Turow. Their performances raise funds for various children’s literacy projects across the country.
go unanswered.
Everybody's entitled to their own opinion about Mitch Albom. And if anybody thinks that Mateen-gate was much ado about very little, that's okay too.
When it comes to Michigan, the larger fact that I shall never forget is that while Albom was virtually living with the Fab Five to write a book about them, it appears that he never got a whiff of the Ed Martin scandal. Of course, Michigan coaches and administrators didn't know what Martin was doing; this is not to blame them, or Albom, for the innumerable sins of Ed Martin.
The only point was that Michigan was sanctioned, big time, for having not known about Martin's misdeeds. "Not knowing" was Michigan's crime, institutionally. And yet all of that ugly crap was apparently something that Ace Reporter Mitch Albom never knew about, either.
until I got to your P.S.
He's a talented writer, no doubt, but the Mateen Cleaves thing wasn't just some random error. Albom made up part of the story. That's as bad as it gets. And it makes one wonder if he didn't do that on other occasions, too.
It's also pretty ridiculous how he keeps playing dumb regarding Ed Martin and Chris Webber. Either 1) the Webber family is astonishingly good at hiding large sums of money; 2) Albom didn't really follow the team for two years when he claimed he was (more invented stories?) or 3) Albom flat-out lied about what he saw. Something tells me that touching story in the book about Webber needing to return fish sandwiches to save money was a bit embellished.