A Word of Thanks to Zach and Newspaper Hack

by T Kyle King on May 28, 2007 6:15 PM EDT in Events

I trust everyone had a happy Pentecost and is having a happy Memorial Day.

Ere I return to my latest musings on University of Georgia athletics and related topics, I would like to take a moment to praise my fellow denizens of the intercollegiate sports blogosphere.

In recent weeks, I have offered critiques of another weblogging network and professional pundits in the mainstream news media. These postings drew principled responses from Zach Landres-Schnur and from Newspaper Hack.

Zach and Newspaper Hack, the respective proprietors of The Big Picture and Journalism Is For Rockstars, responded with intensity yet reasonableness and both did what they could to get the dialogue going.

Webloggers no more agree on everything than any other group of opinionated, outspoken people, but, even when our differences of opinion are profound and sometimes even heated, we can always get a discussion started. As NCT put it:

I think Holmes's vision of the free trade in ideas is better served when ideas are more broadly available from more sources. In the blogosphere, a single post can explode with responses, and we are challenged to sift through both posts and responses, question why they are or are not appealing, and move forward to a better understanding. If only those mousetraps with major corporate backing can make it to the marketplace, we may be losing out on better ways to rid ourselves of vermin.

Zach and Newspaper Hack have given me something about which to think and, in mulling over what they have said, I may conclude that I was right, that they were right, or (more likely) that the truth lies somewhere in between.

Either way, I will understand my own position better, appreciate their positions more thoroughly, and inch incrementally closer to the truth. Whether we're writing about sports, books, or politics, that's a good thing for all concerned and I am grateful to my fellow webloggers for giving as good as they get.

Go 'Dawgs!

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Speaking of professional pundits....

Jeff Schultz at the AJC has really painted himself into a corner.

Regarding the Duke LAX players who were charged with rape, Schultz wrote:

I wasn't in the room. I don't know what happened any more than you do, any more than the Duke women's lacrosse team does. But unless they're in possession of some secret video tape, the Duke women shouldn't proclaim it's going to write, "Innocent!" on its wristbands for an NCAA tournament game any more than I should write a story about rape allegations with a headline that screams, "Guilty!"

From this I gather that Schultz was in the room and personally witnessed Mike Vick participating in dogfighting. Because he's now written not one, but two, columns in the AJC which may as well have a headline that screams "Guilty!".

by 34hawk on May 29, 2007 9:07 PM EDT reply actions