While I am always reluctant to promote myself, I have no problem doing it with my SportsBlogs network, now headquartered at
SBNation.com. The reason is simple, we are collecting some of the greatest sports blogging talent under and outfitting them with top-of-the-line Scoop sites. For the sports fanatic, what more can you ask for?
The New York Times has a write up on our tiny new company. It includes this passage, which has lessons that transcend sports, politics, or any other niche, and gets to the heart of why blogging is so important:
When Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's, traded the team's two most popular pitchers last December, fans howled in disgust. A month later, Mr. Beane gave a lengthy interview to Athletics Nation, a Web log devoted to the team, explaining the deals. Afterward, the site's moderator, Tyler Bleszinski, polled his readers, asking if they now approved of Mr. Beane's trades. Fully 93 percent said yes.
Mr. Beane, the central figure in Michael Lewis's 2004 book "Moneyball," had given interviews to the site before. "The reason why I would opt to go do the interviews with them is that it's been a great forum to get the actual message across rather than having it filtered through someone else," Mr. Beane said. "There may be seven newspaper reporters covering one team, and they may be more interested in covering something first than covering something right."
I don't buy this whole "the blogs will supplant the 'MSM'" B.S. But one thing is sure -- the corporate media's ability to dictate the terms of a debate, and to apply the filters it deems appropriate, are coming to an end.
To me, it's exciting to be part of that both in the political realm, and now, in the sports world.
