Open Letter to NBA Writers Sam Smith and Peter Vecsey
Media Gossip/Musings February 16th. 2007, 6:59pm
Dear Sam and Peter,
For years, we grew up reading your NBA opinions. We laughed. We cried. We learned. In the late 1990s, when the internet was in full bloom and we were skipping Rocks for Jocks to download music on the web, our NBA attention was focused on a handful of writers: Mark Heisler (LA Times), Peter May (Boston Globe), and you two yahoos [that�s Sam Smith (Chicago Tribune) and Peter Vecsey (New York Post)] . There were a few others we enjoyed, but your prose gripped us (and won us a fantasy league). Our dream was to write about the NBA for a major newspaper. (We had to settle for the Fanhouse, and considering the direction newspapers are headed, we couldn�t be happier.)
That�s why it pains us to ask � Sam, why do you have such a jaded, clich�d view of bloggers? And Pete, why�d you have to go and steal from a blogger? (We were recently alerted to a dust-up involving another great NBA scribe, Dave D� Alessandro, and a podcast by ESPN’s Chad Ford, but we don�t have any other information).
This is for you, Sam, and it comes from a recent interview with fellow blogger (and Harvard alum!) Dan Shanoff:
�For commentary and opinion, meanwhile, mainstream media is way behind bloggers, and the gap is widening: For timeliness, for depth, for insight, for almost everything. Mainstream sports-media columnists are becoming less and less relevant, because they can’t offer nearly the insights and passion — not to mention timeliness — of someone who has voluntarily devoted their free time to an expertise in a single issue, team or sport.
Differences in writing quality? Please. It’s not like mainstream media sports columnists are Hemingway. If you took your standard newspaper sports column and posted it on a blog without listing that a “name” columnist wrote it, most newspaper writers/editors, bloggers and readers would not only laugh at the quality, but rip its flaws in argument. Consumers’ appreciation for the meritocracy of sports blogs is at the heart of its advantage over the top-down force-feeding from traditional sports media.�
And Vecsey, do you really expect us to believe you talk to this blogger all the time, yet you�ve never read his blog? We may have to boycott your Sunday column for a month � if the Post doesn�t suspend you.
Sam Smith hates what you�re reading (With Leather)
He�s the new leader in blogged shots on Bryant (LA Times)
5 Responses to “Open Letter to NBA Writers Sam Smith and Peter Vecsey”
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February 16th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I read insidehoops.com every day. And once a week, I re-read the exact same rumors in each stephen smith column, reworded into his own words
February 16th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I am not a columnist and I am not a blogger.
But I am getting sick of all this fight between the two. It is very annoying. Basically both groups have some huge chip on their shoulder and are now beyond reproach from the other.
Columnists resent bloggers because their livelihood is threatened. There will be no need to pay these people if I can get the information for free from the internet.
Bloggers resent columnist for their connections, power to sway opinion, cow-toeing to the corporate line and, I suspect, their pay checks.
Where does this leave everyone else? Stuck in the middle having to listen to the two sides bitch about each other. It is annoying and it gets in the way of the great material that both are capable of spitting out.
Hopefully someday the two groups will realize that they can/always will co-exist. They are not good for each other, but they are not bad for each other. They are separate mediums and should be viewed/treated as such. This whole bitch fight (from both sides!) needs to stop.
February 16th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
what’s up with the underwear and basement thing?! you’d think they’d at least make a stab and mention a bathrobe or apartment here or there…
this is all disturbing stuff — and mainly coming from old school, traditional newspaper types.
for example, at The Seattle Times, the Washington state high school b-ball tournament is approaching and we’re trying this new, risky thing…wait for it…live blogging.
a lot of the editors and experienced reporters gave the, “you’re fucking kidding,” look while I gave the, “It’s about time,” look.
newspapers are not only behind the curve on this, but worse, they are failing to acknowledge where the business is heading. it’s this stubborness and high-horse attitude that is going to kill the industry.
February 17th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
bloggers have a purpose, but it’s not journalism. reporters and (most) columnists gather information and publish it abiding by rules, standards and libel laws. bloggers comment on this work (and events). without reporters and columnists, there are no bloggers.
February 18th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Vecsey and Andy (Panda) Marchand of the New York ComPost. What a pair to draw to!!!!! Then, throw in the Hall of Fame hypocrite Mushnick. American journalism at its finest……..