Mark Cuban, that is. The NY Times updates some of the issues involved today in sportsblogging, and MC clearly feels that "someone on Blogspot" is less than legitimate. Granted, Cuban gets more traffic on his blog than we do, but did he get hits from Nigeria this morning? Well, maybe he did, but the global power of soccer is still something to behold.
11 comments:
mmm... that's really interesting. my favorite quote there:
“The First Amendment only applies to government,” said Mr. Hawkins. “Even if it is played in a publicly financed stadium it is a private event.”
must control the message
must control the message
must control the message
must control the message
Cuban is full of sh#t. Then again, he could be the perfect MLS owner: big mouth, big money, big deal.
With the dearth of coverage of MLS in MSM, independent blogs like yours are the way that those of us who want more than a couple of columns a week get the level of coverage available in the major US sports.
MLS seems to be smart enough not to kill the golden goose...
What's there not to like?
Ironic that someone who made his fortune via the Internet is afraid of it...
I wouldn't say afraid of it. Cuban's reason for banning bloggers was, in all honesty, a good one. He said bloggers don't really need locker room access to do their job. That it actually takes away from what a blogger is supposed to do.
Now, there are some blogs that basically acts as news outlets, but for the most part blogs are a place to provide observational anecdotes. A blogger doesn't really need to talk to players to write about what he just saw. That's what Cuban believes, anyway.
I'm guessing you know this, but I don't think Cuban's comments were aimed at you guys at all--you're professional journalists who get published in established outlets. Cuban's issues--fair or otherwise--seem to be with people whose blogs occupy that gray zone between iron-clad respectability (legit or otherwise) and total schmoe-dom. It's something all the sports leagues (and anybody else who issues press credentials) will eventually have to work out, though, because a lot of pretty decent coverage of issues is starting to come from people whose primary livelihood is providing news via websites in ways that are as much "blogging" as conventional journalism.
Luis and I are journalists, sure, but we also don't have a full-time gig with any outlet that would sponsor a blog for us and pay us for doing this. We started a blog anyway, and we post when we have time. Believe me, MLS isn't giving us credentials because we write this blog.
Maybe I'm not following. I was just assuming that you guys do get credentials for most soccer games because you're usually on assignment for established papers or sites (making this blog a side gig that you do for fun and to keep us interested in your paid work). Is Cuban saying that he wouldn't let in pro journalists who also blog as a side gig? Or am I missing the point? (I often am.)
The problem is that Cuban wasn't differentiating between the quality of blogs - he was in fact saying that all blogs, and bloggers were the same. Basically, sports organizations make distinctions all the time on media -- big papers and outlets get extra consideration and access. For Cuban to be unwilling to make a similar evaluation of internet media, including blogs, and to classify them all in such disparaging terms, regardless of their quality, shows a bias that seems rather small-minded and even more than a bit hypocritical.
Never thought I'd hear the words "small-minded" and "hypocritical" applied to Mark Cuban.
No, wait...
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