from Josh Kendall, Dawg Post

ATHENS – Uga VI, Georgia’s beloved English bulldog mascot, died Friday night in Savannah, Cecelia Seiler confirmed to Dawg Post Contributor Josh Kendall on Saturday morning.

“He didn’t suffer,” Seiler said of her 10-year-old dog. “He lived right here in my den with me for 10 years. He was a happy dog.” Uga VII’s readiness to take the field for the 2008 football season is a topic for school officials, Cecilia Seiler said, and none could be reached immediately Saturday morning. Sonny Seiler, whose family has owned all the dogs, was at his office Saturday morning, his wife said, and could not be reached for comment or to add details on the dog’s death. Uga VI took the reins from Uga V early in the 1999 season. He turned 10 in July and would have been the only one of the dogs other than Uga I to serve past his 10th birthday. The line of mascots has long garnered national attention, culminating with Uga V’s appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated, which named Uga as the nation’s best mascot.

From Athens Banner Herald:

By Lee Shearer  

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
John Rauch, one of the University of Georgia's greatest football players, has died at the age of 80.

Rauch died unexpectedly in his sleep late Tuesday night at home in Oldsmar, Fla., said Jane Rauch, his wife of nearly 61 years.

When his four-year college football career was over in 1948, quarterback Rauch was the NCAA's career passing leader with 4,044 yards and had led UGA to two Southeastern Conference championships and four consecutive bowl games.

After a brief stint playing professional football, Rauch began a long career in college and professional coaching, including tenures as head coach of the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills.

In 1967, Rauch was named the American Football League's Coach of the Year after taking the team to the AFL championship and the second Super Bowl. The Raiders lost to Green Bay in Vince Lombardi's last game as the Packers' coach.

He is survived by his wife, a son, a daughter, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Published ion OnlineAthens.com on 061108 <!--EndFragment-->

As SG Standard noted the blogosphere can be likened to sports talk radio. While there is probably less screening of commenters on blogs, if you have listened to any talk radio for 15 minutes, you have definitely heard some lame callers. And with blogs, you don't have to deal with "Hey, Paul, love the show, how are you?", which begins EVERY freakin' call (if the last 5 callers asked, you don't have to ask also).

And as MaconDawg noted, the best bloggers usually rise to the top and get the most traffic. People who offer something more than just the ordinary opinion or schlock, get readers (just like newspapers or viewers for TV).

And as Joel noted, there is definitely a misconception that all journalist are qualified professionals. As a J-school grad, I can tell you that the only things a "professional journalist" learns that someone else might not learn is:

1. What makes something newsworthy?
   
2. Make sure you find a second or multiple sources.
   
3. Laws regarding slander and libel
   
4. Writing techniques, like using active voice

Frankly, the newsworthiness standard has been blurred when you consider all the "news" that gets espoused on various media outlets.
I think some of the blogosphere does come short on #2 at times, but there are some very responsible bloggers as well.
As Orson and the proprietor of this blog noted, just about all of you are lawyers, so hopefully you all understand libel and slander.
Finally, good writers will always attract readers.

But as SG Standard and DavetheDawg noted, probably the bigger issue is the massive change that is occurring in the media.

I agree with what most of Dave said. As someone who worked for 9 years in small and medium TV markets in the southeast, I can attest that ESPN has changed the face of local coverage of sports. I have argued with station management about this with little avail. Specifically, I remember when the station I was at decided to permanently drop the sports tease in the 6pm news. For those of you who don't know, that's when they are about to go to a commercial break after weather and say, "The Braves were in another game decided by 1-run, did it turn out like the other 1-run games this season? Fred will have the answer in sports." When I asked why the station had made this decision they said viewership in sports was down and so they weren't putting as much emphasis on it. My response was, "if you draw less attention to sports, it isn't going to gain any viewers. Why not try to improve the product?" There are 2 ways that most TV stations have addressed the sports issue caused by ESPN and the internet's emergence: 1) cut time allotted, cut staff and reduce coverage or 2) go more local in your coverage. Unfortunately, many stations chose the former. I prefer the latter. In big markets, this usually means a lot of stories about the local professional franchises, which ESPN may not have time for. In smaller markets, it means more coverage of local colleges and high school sports. If you haven't noticed, Friday nights in the fall are a big deal at some TV stations (thankfully).

But a more recent trend is the effect caused by the increase in the speed of information transmission. We can get info very fast these days and in news, being faster is important. Unfortunately, it is becoming more important that being right or being good. "Get it on now!" has replaced "Is this important?" or "Is this quality journalism?" And it is not just small market "bush league" stations that are guilty. If you watch the nightly news, you get coverage of a campaign chalked full of polls instead of coverage of issues (of course, you also get a hundred ads for pharmaceuticals, but that is another issues). I fear, and maybe Bob and Buzz do to, that journalism is in decline, as news operations have become assembly line purveyors of "fast food" information. Maybe the blogosphere does serve up its fair share of junk food, but it isn't any worse than what is becoming the norm in papers and on TV stations. I think rather than collectively bash the bloggers; maybe Bob and Buzz should talk a look at their brethren and focus on improving that group.

However, the blogoshere is subject to the pitfalls of the need for immediacy. Since many bloggers are not full-time journalist and writers, it is quite easy for someone to run with a story or photo without having good or complete info. While there is some need to prevent carelessness among bloggers, I think that in many cases, readers can discern what is true and what is not or what is farked.

As Kyle and others noted, there is room for the mainstream media and the blogosphere to work together or at least compliment each other. I think you only have to look at ESPN to see that is true. Like him or not, Simmons is a blogger working for "The Worldwide Leader...". And what is SportsNation, but a community much like that built up by Orson, Leitch, Bean, King, PWD and others.

I use a Mac OS X and Safari to surf and lately I have been having problems, but I noticed most of them are related to this website. When ever I click on comments or try to link to another site from this page, my Safari inexplicably quits. Are there any other Mac users that experience this with Kyle's site.

(Obviously, if you can use links on Kyle's posts, they you lose the effect of reading Kyle's stuff).

I saw someone else comment on Ole Miss' tradition this week and basically they said, "I don't think there is another program out there with a more inflated sense of who they are in the world of college football." (I'm sure whoever said that had a momentary lapse of memory and forgot South Carolina, but I digress.)

Seriously though, what has Ole Miss done since JFK was in the White House?
Scanning the "History" page on their official website, I see 3 National Titles, which is great, but they were all between 1959-62.
The last of their 6 SEC titles was in 1963 (with a 7-1-2 record I might add).
The last bowl 2 of significance they went to were the Cotton Bowl in 2003 and the Gator Bowl in 1991. Since '91, it's mostly Independence, Liberty, Music/Motor City and such.
In the past 15 years, Ole Miss has posted a 98-89 (.524) record.
Overall, the have a record of 594-453-33 (.565) which ranks them 48th among Div 1-A schools (in there were San Diego St., Hawaii, Stanford and UNC).

So, I guess Ole Miss does have a tradition- a tradition of mediocrity. Sure, there was the OLD tradition of winning, one that doesn't count for much in today's college football landscape.

After reading Kyle's piece on why he is a Georgia fan, I decided to write about my journey, which in a way is similar, but quite different.

Continue reading this post »