FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Mike Wise has got a problem, folks.

He doesn't like blogs.  They're scary to him. 

Today, in the Washington Post, Mike Wise wrote a seething, sarcastic, and all-around ignorant piece on blogs, written by athletes, and by regular folks like you and I.  He makes several insulting remarks about the people who write and read blogs, makes absolutely no good points as to whether blogs are good or bad, and, in the process, reveals his true motivation.

Blogs are threatening him.  Namely, threatening his job.

Wise makes a feeble attempt in this so-called "article" to poke fun at the very real and very large audience that blogs can command and reach, thereby rendering dailies like the Post obsolete. 

Mike Wise (face reddening):  I did not say that!

Really, Mr. Wise?  Let's have a look see at your piece.  Entitled, "Getting Blogged down in the Details," it begins with you complaining about Curt Schilling writing 2766 words on his one-hitter two weeks ago.  Waah.  Wise then goes on to point out Kobe Bryant's and Gilbert Arenas' blogs have "without the assistance of napping journalists, wrote the 'news' themselves.  So all I have to say is, uncle."

Brilliant!  How deliciously sarcastic!  Except, you're right, but for the wrong reason.  You are mocking something which is not some passing trend to be dismissed.  Not at all.  Blogs are gaining readership at a very fast rate, while daily papers are losing readers at an alarming rate.  Specifically, a good amount of this is due to my generation, the millennium generation, who get their news from sources other than newspapers almost exclusively.

"The Post.  The Globe.  The New York Times.  The Sanger Herald.  It's over.  You don't need us anymore."  Well, Mike, an article in the NYTimes profiles 'older' members of the Millennium Generation (those born between 1980-2000) to remind advertisers (& social marketers and health communicators) that there are so many specialty media online, that the target audience is fractured, and thereby, able to be captured due to their specific interest.  Into football?  Into Raiders football?  Into Raiders football but not as die-hard a fan as, say, a black hole regular?  There's a site for casual fans of the Raiders. 

But this also means, Mr. Wise, that that huge audience has not yet found a voice to unite them.  Imagine what you'll be saying when that happens.  It'll probably be along the lines of "uncle," but it'll be really high-pitched; a sound that other self-righteous journalists won't soon forget.

After Wise gets through ripping the athletes for recording their blogs, he then goes after bloggers in general.  "Blogs are essentially the home now of athletic self-indulgence, a broadband cry for help.  The message sent to the masses - usually other self-important bloggers who tell them what they want to hear (These people save their innermost thoughts for their swell blog friends while disconnecting from their families.)  For the athletes, it's a cheaper posse or a therapist."

Oh.  I guess bloggers are "self-important," but that little bit right there was good, solid journalism.  I guess because you have a degree in journalism, and work for the Washington Post, means your opinions are more valid than somebody else who writes about sports.  That isn't self-important at all. 

The NYTimes reported: Karell Roxas, 24, a senior editor at Gurl.com, begins each day in her Williamsburg, Brooklyn, apartment with a diet of Gmail, Hotmail, work e-mail, NYTimes.com ("I haven't picked up a print newspaper in forever," she says) and blogs, in that order. She says it is a necessary regimen for maintaining a functional dialogue both at work and in her circle of friends.  Wow, what a dork.

Mike Wise needs people to think bloggers are nerds with nothing better to do than sit at their computers all day.  Why?  Because blogs are kicking his butt, professionally.  According to InformationWeek, in six years, blogs have gone from "navel-gazing online diaries to must-read Internet publications that rival the reach and influence of traditional media properties.  A new study from online research firm comScore Networks Inc. reveals that 50 million U.S. Internet users visited blog sites in the first quarter of this year, up 45% from the first quarter of 2004. That represents about 30% of all U.S. Internet users, or a sixth of the total U.S. population."  Gosh, I guess those bloggers should just accept that they're small potatoes compared to the great Mike Wise; after all, we'll always need the daily news, and blogs are dorky.  Here's a news-flash, Mike: keep defending your dying, obsolete form of media, and we'll take advantage of the great but quickly vanishing opportunities presented by a new form of media that reaches more people, more quickly, than you can.  People who stubbornly stick by the old way of doing something and are against the new way tend to be fools.  Just ask William Jennings Bryan; Scopes-Monkey trial is a great example of this.  Think I'm wrong?  Think you're not dying off?

The study I quoted above is based on data from comScore's opt-in research panel. The panel watches the online activity of 1.5 million U.S. Internet users and shows the behavior of consumers who visited the 400 top Weblog properties and blog-hosting services during the first three months of 2005.

Due to their rampant popularity, the study suggests that blogs should be thought of as part of the mainstream media.  Not only that, but they're becoming a leader of mainstream media.  There are approximately 14.7 million blogs, according to one search engine alone.   But it's the top blog sites that are growing the most rapidly. The study finds that six out of the top 10 blog-hosting services have seen their traffic numbers go up by more than 100% from the first quarter of 2004 to the first quarter of 2005. For example, according to comScore, Blogspot.com now draws more traffic than NYTimes.com, USAToday.com, or WashingtonPost.com.

According to WashingtonPost.com, in 2005, "Circulation at 814 of the nation's largest daily newspapers declined 1.9 percent over the six months ended March 31 compared with the same period last year, an industry trade group reported yesterday."  Not only that, Mike, but "For the six months ended March 31, The Washington Post reported a weekday circulation decline of 2.7 percent, to 751,871, compared with the corresponding period a year earlier. Sunday circulation decreased 2.4 percent, to 1,000,565."  Gee.  Maybe if all of us stupid bloggers would get away from our computers long enough then we'd know to buy your paper.

Your ignorant comments highlight a trend among journalists: an arrogance that seems to say, "We are the ones who are fit to report the news, and none others."  Though in your case, you report your opinions, not the news.  So you think that you're the only ones entitled to report your opinions.  Journalists also seem to have a problem taking responsibility for anything.  Think about Jason Blair and Dan Rather.  Think about the White House Press Corps, and how they defend themselves by saying they're jobs are so hard.  If I hear another reporter claim that people don't know how hard their job is, I'll stop buying the newspaper. 

Rather claimed his job was so difficult and demanding that he didn't always know what his fact-checkers and researchers were giving him.  I have always said the media is largely incompetent, and Rather proves my point.  Either he cooked a story to get at someone he didn't like, which makes him a ****, or he, the head guy at CBS, wasn't professional enough to make sure that every story he ran was verified and not going to embarrass either him or the network.  That would make him incompetent. 

Mike, I'm not trying to compare you to Dan Rather.  For starters, Dan Rather is still respected by many people.  But your obvious lack of knowledge of, or any respect for blogs whatsoever is startling.  Your piece is a shining example of journalistic hackwork.  You write, "Frankly, it's a godsend the Internet was invented just the last decade.  How many more of us would have no career prospects had blogs been around, say, 200 years ago?"  So not only do you know nothing about blogs, but you know nothing about the opportunities associated with them.  I'm assuming you don't have a computer by the way you talk, and use an Etch-a-Sketch to submit your "work" to the Post.  Hey, are you going to be that old guy who always tells us kids about how life was so much better before all this dag-gum progress ruined everything? 

Just to let you know what you could've found out in about five seconds on the internet if you had any semblance of intellectual and professional curiosity, blogs are rife with career opportunities. 

For example, TechCrunch is a blog about tech products & companies, with most articles written by Michael Arrington. The blog's first post was on June 11, 2005.  TechCrunch's Technorati rank is 9, and is their 2nd most favorite blog.  As of May 23, 2007, it has over 400,000 web feed subscribers as measured by tracking company FeedBurner.  The site makes about $120,000 monthly.  That's number 9.  Imagine what numbers 1-8 are doing.  But hey, what a dumb use of time!  They could be reading Mike Wise and his brilliant thoughts instead of making millions of dollars.

As for us less than professional bloggers, the ones with "no life," here are some blogs you could learn from here on Fannation.com. 

Topdawgizalaw is the tag of Adam Lawson, who has now posted 62 blog articles.  Focusing mainly on the Atlanta Braves, Lawson is a competent writer with well-informed opinions about a team he obviously loves.  I guess he shouldn't share his thoughts, huh, Mike?  He's got the geniuses at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to provide all the opinions he needs.  I suggest you read Lawson's blog, Wise.

T.J Heneghan writes under the name Saltalamacchia for President.  His most recent post is a fun trip down memory lane recalling his choices for the Five Most Miraculous Moments in sports of the Past Thirty Years.  Reading some of his posts shows that you, Mr. Wise, must either not believe in objective reality, or are just an incompetent malcontent who is whining about the lowly bloggers trying to fringe on his territory.

Ethan Peters is from Alabama and goes by the name edawg.  One of the most read bloggers on fannation, he writes about everything from the NFL and NBA to NCAA football and basketball.  As with any good sports writer, his views are legitimate because he doesn't try too hard.  He writes with confidence and the pieces are engaging and entertaining.  Check him out, Mike.  You could learn something.

Well, that's all, Mike Wise.  I think you really embarrassed yourself with this article.  I honestly wish I hadn't read it so I could contribute to the decline of daily newspapers.  You just lost me today, but you're losing more and more each day.  If you're not careful, you won't be able to get us back.

For those of you reading this on fannation, I sent this blog to Mike Wise.