1. The majority of blogs I read are sports blogs, and the best I've come across so far is the Bleacher Report. Open-source and public, the Bleacher Report contains serious pieces of journalism as well as little humorous bits. Some of the stories come with a straight, reporting point, while others are written with the objective edge of a column. There is plenty of variety, and with a large list of sports covered, something to please any sports fan.
The website is also home to some early-breaking stories, suggesting that the anyone-can-write attitude of the Report can still lead to some writers with connections hopping on board. An example of this was a story that was on the site about the New England Patriots-Randy Moss negotiations. While the entire football world seemed to think resigning Moss was just a matter of time, Bleacher Report Rich Tandler thought differently:
They could have franchised Moss but they chose not to, apparently thinking
that he would give the Patriots a home town discount even though he’d been in
town for less than a year.
Wrong, or at least it appears to be right
now.
It was widely believed that Moss and the Pats had a deal in place
and were just waiting for Friday, the earliest he could sign a new contract, to
finalize it. Well, Friday has come and it’s about to go and Moss is a free
agent. There are reports that Moss is willing to take a free agent tour and
visit other teams.
Oops.
Moss did re-sign, but the two parties did endure tougher negotiations than expected. The Bleacher Report isn't perfect, but is a solid source for sports news from people who take it seriously.
2. What the Bleacher Report is for articles, FireJoeMorgan.com is for satire and humor. Once dedicated to the firing of an ESPN baseball commentator who has actually done pretty well for himself, FJM has become a site for mocking commentary on Major League Baseball, whether it be ownership decisions, games played or articles written by baseball journalists.
The articles at FJM, unlike those at the Bleacher Report, are mostly short, quick and to the point, and are not concerned with a well-written journalistic basis. The blog's tagline is "Where Bad Sports Journalism Comes To Die, and journalism isn't the only thing the site sets out to destory. The following excerpt was taken from an entry where the first paragraph was from an article praising the Dodgers and General Manager Ned Colletti, and the second was the FJM poster's take:
Torre put financial issues aside, benched Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones, and
stabilized the outfield - for now and years to come - with Ethier and Matt
Kemp.
Somehow, the fact of the existence of Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones on the
payroll and the fact that it required one hundred-some-odd games and the
addition of a Hall of Fame outfielder to compel Torre to bench Messrs. Pierre
and Jones are now points in Colletti's and Torre's favor? This is the equivalent
of two gardeners driving to your house, digging a twenty-foot hole in your front
yard with a backhoe, buying two bags of sand, pouring the bags into the hole,
and then getting lavished with praise for the sand part of the whole
operation.
Nice, huh? It's an emobodiment of what makes a blog popular: It's entertaining and opinionated. You just want to read more.
3. Let's leave the stadium and enter the political forum. America Blog is a highly effective source for political commentary, though it is not for the seekers of a middle ground. Instead, it is to the far left and extremely harsh, take for example this excerpt from a John Aravosis post. Like the FJM, the above paragraph is the criticized quote, a John McCain line about the economic crisis in this case, while the below paragraph is the writer's response:
As you can see, its a site with opinions that many, including my more moderate self, wouldn't necessarily agree with. But that's why I love it. I don't read the blog to educate myself about politics; rather, I look for updates on issues (for example, I first heard about Sarah Palin's email account being hacked into on AB) while looking for attitude at the same time. And AmericaBlog never disappoints. It's not the best blog to read and cite at serious political gatherings, but for a n entertaining spin on news features, I can't think of one I'd rather read."So, I’d like to tell you that I did anticipate it, but I have to give you straight talk, I did not.”Yeah, Doug Holtz would be the guy who claimed that McCain miraculously invented the BlackBerry. That's who McCain relies on for economic advice. The tooth fairy's best friend in the land of make-believe.
1 comment:
Sad to say PC in the pocket gave me evil and headthrobbing Drew (Bleadsoe not Bonnifant!) Flashback - no pocket mobility, underthrow ill advised tosses with a porous line and an inconsquential run game. Squish-the-fish morphed into Pummel-the-Patsy's and having to watch the cleanest uniform in the NFL for the past 5 years suddenly clutch his hip and leg now that he has actually been hit three times this decade was almost too much to take. Ahhh, how the migthy have fallen. Still Ellis H, had I been in the stadium I would have stayed through the 4th. But that's just me....
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