Article:InterMat.Blog: Four Points for May 1 - Blogs v. Wade

Brisk morning here in Lancaster County and it started with a big swig of Turkey Hill Iced Tea and a bagel from Panera Bread. I don’t like Panera, I think they’re bland food is over-hyped.

It looks like it’s going to rain, although it’s overcast and in the mid-50s.

Funny thing happened at trivia last night … there was a question, believe it or not, a current event question in which the answer was Azerbaijan.

“Only one team got this answer right,” bellowed Jay, the trivia host. Yes, the only person at Brendee’s that’s been to Azerbaijan got it right, go figure.

Anyway, nothing too earth-shattering going on here in the office today, other than we had hot dogs for lunch and a pretty good veggie soup.

Gas : Still at $3.59. Weather : 55 and cloudy. Today’s winning lottery number : 12

Terp Tease of the Day Here’s another tease on the Maryland coaching job search. There are at least three folks interviewing (or have interviewed) this week. The three I know about are all current head coaches and have all turned programs around. They’re from three different conferences and two are somewhat connected to each other.

Ah, this kills me, but while I think a fourth candidate could be getting a look, the top three seem to be cut and dry. All three have great attributes that would serve well in College Park, but each of the three brings vastly different strengths to the table. I like all three for the position.

Blogs vs. Newspapers As the usual troll of the message boards goes on and on, I came across a post by bluestater, one of the forum’s resident bloggers from ChicksHeartFights and Ladies … (that’s dot dot dot, not the end of the sentence.

Anyway, the point was about blogging vs. newspapers and it references the Costas Now segment with the dude from Deadspin.com and the guy who wrote Friday Night Lights.

You can watch the full video here, but just to cover my own kiester, it’s got some “foul” language, so keep your kids away!

I find it quite the paradox to be siding with a newspaper partially while I’m typing a blog. But where I think the Costas Now segment misses the boat is blogs have different meanings and relationships. Some are there to break some news with a fan aspect, some are there to present some real news without being as formal as newsprint. Others are there just to rant and rave nonsensical drivel. I think this is what Buzz Bissinger has as the burr under his saddle.

Not every blog out there is designed to attack or scoop things. But the “blog” terminology has started to infiltrate traditional media outlets, and this is where, having a newspaper background and upbringing, I disagree.

What blogging has done in many places has put less emphasis on the true written word. It involves very little editing, doesn’t get seen by a copy editor and has no accountability for its actions. One time back in Newport News, our “Ticket” section ran an infobox with a photo for an upcoming show by the shock-rock band G.W.A.R. (Killer show if you’ve never seen them, FYI). Well, our photo techs didn’t notice within the cartoon graphic a huge, green effigy of a male organ. Not a good day for that newspaper, and we heard about it.

Something like this happens on a blog, who cares? No accountability, it’s Freedom of Speech, whatever. I don’t feel blogs which do live updates are a bad thing. At events, I prefer to call them “notebooks” because they are generally more “journalistic” than a blog and concentrates on the event itself.

Although, I can find humor and usefulness in something like this.

''Wright steps in for the Mets. He really needs a big hit here to get this crowd moving. First pitch is at the knees for a strike, 0-1 the count. Second pitch … woah! What the $%#@, that piece of …. trying to take Wright out. What a gutless *&^*(&^ of &^%&^.''

Humor yes, newsworthiness, ehh … maybe.

When the traditional print journalist gets annoyed is when anyone and everyone can just start a blog, rant about something and have their point validated (or otherwise), whereas the print journalist has space limitations, deadlines, a standard of journalistic integrity, whereas the blogging community doesn’t have such. Well, it might have it, but it has to be self-regulated.

Oh, and integrity. Can’t be forgetting that.

There is a fundamental access issue at hand, in which I tend to agree with Will Leitch of Deadspin as he points out that fans have the same right to comment on things as sportswriters do. Awesome.

But don’t take it as “hard news.” And don’t take it as journalism. It is what it is, and it gives fans choices in what they want to read. If I want a game story, I read it, if I want to know why the Phillies were wearing green hats yesterday, I’ll check the blog.

One of the most popular sites I routinely read and contribute for is ArmChairGM.com. AGM has tried to bring together the numerous sports bloggers that are typically way smaller in terms of audience than megablogs like Deadspin. People post blogs, actual articles and some fans are budding journalists, trying to get their work out for people to read and comment on.

I’ve posted several blogs and features from InterMat over on AGM, mainly to draw more folks into reading about wrestling. I’ve been a member for 18-20 months or so and while the wrestling news doesn’t get quite the ‘pop’ compared to “Jeter Sucks” blogs, it’s still little more exposure for the sport in a non-traditional, but sports-laden community.

Blogs can be great things, but there should be some accountability. Blogger can write something. I can write something. Only one of us can get fired for writing that something.

Utah’s Chamberlain takes Schultz H.S. Award  There were plenty of great candidates for this year’s Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award, and it seems like the West is finally getting some respect. Utah’s Jason Chamberlain, one of the most dynamic wrestlers in the nation, was selected as the national winner by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame yesterday afternoon.

The Boise State signee was the regional winner, ahead of wrestlers like Jason Welch of California and Michael Mangrum of Washington. Quite the feat.

Considering Scott Winston, Quentin Wright and Alex Meade were in the same region makes Jordan Oliver’s Regional Schultz Award that much more impressive. The previous three weren’t even up for the national award on the basis of not winning the regional.

Chamberlain deserves it, a lot of kids did, but he’s going to do some great things in Boise in the future. This is our place to say congrats.

Signing & Transfer news While we mentioned Darrion Caldwell’s pending transfer to Parts Unknown, those parts seem to be getting clearer. Last week, Caldwell told us he was considering Ohio State, Nebraska and Rutgers, while a story posted in yesterday’s Courier News pointed to Towson (Md.), Delaware State and Rutgers.

Towson and Del State are obviously football choices in the Division I-AA (ugh) Football Championship Subdivision. Rutgers as well, but I’ll keep my Big East gripes out today. Del State and Rutgers have both sports, but the Scarlet Knights seem to be the best fit when you consider everything Darrion and his folks have said publicly in the newspapers.

Although, while it’s a stretch he would end up there, wouldn’t there be some good that could come out of Caldwell showing up on ESPN in the semis wrestling for Delaware State!? It’s an interesting thought.

Expect three transfers to be finalized in the coming days within Division I (outside of Caldwell). Only one of which is an NCAA qualifier, while the other two were highly regarded coming out of high school and had struggles this season. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for both of them.