In our ongoing effort to incorporate new, fresh voices into the blog, everybody’s favorite rapper, MC Bias, drops by today to drop some science on us. You’re obviously familiar with his work at Stop Mike Lupica and Sports on My Mind. He’s always a good read. Today, he writes about the ongoing battle between blogs and the media, and his solutions. Disregard the photo - we just got swept up in some Fall Guy nostalgia this afternoon, and watched the theme song 14 times.

Any time a mainstream sports media member attempts to criticize sports blogs or hold sports bloggers accountable, it tends to end badly. Their criticism usually is misplaced in at least one area, such as lumping in sports blogs with unmoderated fan forums. And after they get their 17th e-mail that contains a Google Earth picture of their house, mention of their children’s first names, and obscene variations on “Mind your own business, your old dinosaur,” they tend to change their tone. The media member usually claims to have misunderstood this wonderful new media source and slinks away, hoping that sports blog readers will lose their e-mail address soon. Buzz Bissinger is the latest in this proud tradition. With Buzz vanquished, big-time bloggers can now return to giving one another back-massages while small-timers like me return to buying them drinks and begging for links. By the way, Will Leitch does NOT like extra ice in his drink (picks own teeth off ground). But seriously, if sports blogs are not accountable to old media “dinosaurs”, who are they accountable to? Is there an answer to The Big Lead’s post?

Just take a moment to think about it, and you’ll realize who sports blogs should be accountable to…ME! I understand blogs. I even write in my own blog on occasion. And I have excellent taste most…(looks down at Bugle Boy sweatshirt) err, some of the time. So why shouldn’t I hold blogs accountable?

Oh, ok, and besides me, sports blogs are accountable to no one…*except Hef, RomanWarHelmet, cbh49er, Sportsgal116, spencer096, etc. Sports blogs are accountable to their readers! Sure, most blogs don’t have a full-time editor to critique their entries. But there are thousands of potential editors passing through the comment sections on a day-to-day basis. It’s up to you, the reader, to keep a blog accountable. As readers, we should be praising the blogger when s/he writes good stuff, and give them a little nudge in the comment section when the blogger is out of line. If our favorite blogs are a little too misogynistic or ignorant or poorly-written, it’s our fault for not insisting on a better-quality blog. (Of course, many bloggers work full-time in other jobs, so don’t be “that guy” who complains that the latest post is only 1000 words long or that there wasn’t a Tuesday post).

Personally, I try to criticize a blog entry only if it violates one of my four rules:

1. Wrong facts (not just wrong opinion)
2. Not being aware of their own blatant hypocrisy (self-awareness, please)
3. Insulting a minority race/gender or college kid who can’t defend themselves
4. Making all sports bloggers look bad or claiming everyone agrees with their narrow-minded perspective

Those are just my rules. Make up your own, and see if anyone else agrees with you in the comment section. If you make a good point, bloggers do change on occasion. For example, I have respect for Big Daddy Drew for being willing to change his column style on Deadspin when commenters complained.

Oh, and do me a favor. If you’re holding blogs accountable, please be creative when you complain. I’m tired of reading “this was a waste of my time”-type complaints. How does that help the blogger improve? What, you’re a brain surgeon and I took you away from a dying patient? You’re already wasting time by reading a sports blog! And if you’re the only one who complains on a given post, maybe you need to start your own sports blog since your perspective is so different. (FYI, that’s what I did).

But if you decide to stay in a blog’s comment section to get your point across, be interesting in your complaints. Don’t like the way Fire Joe Morgan criticized your hometown columnist? Attack the FJM post…Fire Joe Morgan-style. Wish KSK would stop writing first-person monologues about your favorite player/team that exaggerate their flaws to the point of absurdity? Then write your own insulting first-person monologue starring, say, Big Fatty Drew and the port-a-john that wasn’t big enough for the two, err, one of him. Hate this column and think I’m a pretentious blowhard? Then tell me that I’ll never be half the Ombudswoman that Le Anne Schreiber is. You get the idea. So hold sports blogs accountable already, and have fun doing it.