What the hell happened on Costas Now last night?

Last night on Costas Live there was an hour and half round table on a number of subjects including race in sports, talk radio, and the Internet/Blogs.

On the Internet panel was Will Leitch Deadspin Editor, former Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards, and Pulitzer Prize-winning and Friday Nights author Buzz Bissinger. In a previous Sports Talk Radio panel Mitch Albom participated.

I would first like to congratulate Mitch on being one of the most talented writers I've ever seen. His take was that everyone on radio and the Internet now has an opinion and it's affecting how regular journalist write their columns. For example his point is, what training or background does BigHouse Bob have to publish a Blog everyday? Journalist write to a higher standard and have to follow specific ethics . Blogs or Sports Radio can say anything they want and most of them are "negative".

Bissinger followed on the Internet/Blogs panel and came off as an angry and tormented writer. He went quickly on the attack on Blogs and the Internet in general. He continued to tell Will that he sucked, used a number of F Bombs and even pulled out some reader comments from Deadspin from "Big Balls". His overall point was that Blogs and the internet "are dumbing down all of us". That he has perfected the art of Journalism over 40 years and now he is competing with the internet or blogs with people with little to no training.

Both Mitch and Bissinger had similar points, to Mitch's credit he came off with much more class then the "looked to be drunk" Bissinger. To boil down their points: Nobody under the age of 55 is reading newspapers any longer, they are feeling pressure and losing readership, Blogs are new media and it's scary to them.

My Take: How are Blogs unlike any other media? Some TV shows suck, others are great. Some sports writers couldn't find a story if Barry Bonds ran over them on his way into BALCO. How come all Blogs are negative and terrible? Of course some Blogs will run the picture of Matt Leinart drinking from a beer bong with 3 blonds in a hot tub. While other blogs will question who should be the QB of ND next year. Not all Blogs are negative and not all Blogs suck. Another point is, you don't take the content from the comments field from a Blog Post and say that's part of the overall quality of the post. If Buzz wasn't Buzzed all the time he might have wanted to log on to his local newspaper to see even qualified journalists articles has comments fields under them.

Sure anyone can start a blog in 10 minutes and start writing about their cat or Paris Hilton's underwear. What's important to remember is that people are now getting their information "now" from the Internet and not reading the paper. People want more information then ARod went 2-4 with a double. Times are changing and more people are in the game. Mr. Bissinger needs to calm down and understand where this medium is going so that he can either be a part of it or remove himself from it completely.

BTW: Braylon looked like a deer in headlights as Will and Buzz went after each other.

Last point, yes Mitch now everyone does have an opinion on sports or on "coach x doing a good job or that coach Y should be fired." I'm sorry, but that is a good thing, because most of us have a brain and can have an opinion. We now have a way to express it. Shouldn't we have the right to?

Enjoy the show.