Pitino: The Media is a Bunch of Rudipoo, Candy-asses

Since details of his dirty nasty affair with local skank Karen Sypher have been made public, the …drip…drip…drip… of negative press coverage has quickly overwhelmed Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino’s carefully crafted image as a successful basketball coach and community leader.

Clearly Pitino has had enough. At a hastily called press conference yesterday afternoon, Pitino had a simple message for everyone covering the story:

"Know your role...and shut your mouth."

I think Rick Pitino just tried to have his own "Rock" moment.


For those not following the story, the Louisville police department earlier Wednesday made public more taped conversations they made of their interviews with Sypher. This obviously remains big news locally because 1) Rick Pitino is one of the most recognizable figures in the state, and 2) we just don’t get good sex scandals like this everyday in Kentucky. And everyone loves a good sex scandal.

The problem is that Pitino would just rather you not hear, read or see what is included on those tapes. So he came out breathing fire against reporters for repeating "lies" about him, told the press how to do their jobs, and basically tried to intimidate the media into not releasing the details of what Sypher had to say about him in the tapes.

At least it’s clear to me that Pitino understands the first lesson of public relations: when your penis gets you in trouble, blame the press.

In spite of that, it’s hard to lose sight of the fact that it was Pitino who had after-hours sex on a restaurant table with a woman he had just met, gave that woman money which apparently was used for an abortion, and then the same woman turned around and married his close friend and longtime staff assistant. Whether they would admit it or not, I think most people are dying for more juicy details on the case whether those details are truthful, somewhat truthful, or complete bald-faced lies. Basically we’re all a bunch of hungry little gossip mongers that love a scandal.

So I ask: How could the media not cover this story?

Nonetheless, I took away from the presser that Pitino still feels he needs to reassure a jittery fan base and wavering recruits that he was going to fight, leaving no question he intends to stay on as coach. My personal favorite quote from this afternoon: "All of this has been a lie. It’s a total fabrication of the truth - except what I’ve told you."

I wonder if that’s what he told his family.

It was Pitino – not the press – that created this mess in the first place. Only time and a forgiving, forgetful public will get him out of it. No matter how bad this situation has been on Pitino personally or how hard it is for his friends and family to cope with his indiscretions, raking the media over the coals for doing what they are paid to do seems pretty foolish and self-serving at this point.

-Posted by Rev. Shaw Moore

Follow us on Twitter@HHReynolds or Click Here to get HHR in your inbox.

WaPo: Fans Cannot Be Involved in Recruiting, but the Line Blurs

As more and more fan-based, school-specific blogs are being granted similar access and credentialling as members of the traditional media, they are radically changing the role fan-publishers are taking in the college recruiting process, and, in turn, creating headaches for NCAA and school compliance officers.

NCAA rules explicitly state that fans of teams cannot be involved in recruiting, but those regulations blur when the fan wears a media credential. Such credentials, which are issued by whatever entity is running a particular event, designate the bearers as media members, giving them access to prospects that even college coaches don’t have during the all-important summer evaluation period. College coaches are not permitted to interact with prospects during the period.

NCAA officials and prominent figures on the summer basketball circuit are alarmed at an increasing number of fans who are creating Web sites, obtaining media credentials and becoming amateur recruiters. Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA’s agent, gambling and amateurism director, said one of the organization’s biggest concerns this summer was who was obtaining media credentials and for what purpose.

Click here for the full story.

Follow us on Twitter@HHReynolds or Click Here to get HHR in your inbox.

Can You Dig It?

As MSMers put out an APB on bloggers trying to make it back to Coney following the Outside the Lines summit on ESPN, SI's Joe Posnanski serves as one of the few mainstream voices of reason as he offers a fair and honest account of the @Jerodmsf/Ibanez/Rosenthal/Gonzalez fallout.

In this week's issue of the magazine, Posnanski pens Without A Clue: In the steroid age, those who cover the game struggle to describe what they see, noting, "The shame of it was that the conversation reignited the tedious mainstream-media-versus-bloggers conflict when, instead, it should have been about how Morris was simply wrestling with the same thing we all wrestle with."

Appropriately, the story hits mailboxes the day people are blowing up over the NYT article indicating that slugger Sammy Sosa tested positive to PED use in 2003.

Follow us on Twitter@HHReynolds or Click Here to get HHR in your inbox.

Ibanez vs. Midwest Sports Fans Controversy: Blame the Philly Inquirer

Yesterday, I received a few random texts, Tweets and emails, as well as a call from my father in law to my wife "Hey, your husband's blog made the papers. Gonzo. What's a Twitter?"

From John Gonzalez's column in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer:

Shortly after the sun was up, a site called Midwest Sports Fans (MSF) posted a piece titled "The Curious Case of Raul Ibanez: Steroid Speculation Perhaps Unfair, but Great Start in 2009 Raising Eyebrows."

There was a time when a small, regional site like MSF could write something like that and no one would notice. Not anymore. Not long after the Ibanez post went up, Hugging Harold Reynolds - a popular national blog - linked to it on its Twitter feed. And just like that, we were off. Less than an hour later, I had several e-mails in my inbox asking if I read the MSF story and whether I believe Ibanez is chemically enhanced.

The MSF piece, by all accounts, was not a random finger-pointing post accusing a ballplayer, who by all accounts should be past his prime and is putting up monster power numbers, of using performance enhancers. Rather, the author sought to disprove the speculation by looking at statistical evidence. In summary, though, he noted that "...it would be foolish to dismiss the possibility that “other” performance enhancers could be part of the equation." Adding, "Sorry Raul Ibanez and Major League Baseball, that’s just the era that we are in — testing or no testing. Personally, I am withholding judgment until we see a full seasons’ worth of stats."

After the Gonzalez story, word apparently got back to Ibanez, who fired off some choice words to MSF via Inquirer staff writer Jim Salisbury in today's paper, "I'm clean, angry Ibanez says":

"I'll come after people who defame or slander me. It's pathetic and disgusting. There should be some accountability for people who put that out there." "Unfortunately, I understand the environment we're in and the events that have led us to this era of speculation. At the same time, you can't just walk down the street and accuse somebody of being a thief because they didn't have a nice car yesterday and they do today. You can't say that guy is a thief."

"You can have my urine, my hair, my blood, my stool - anything you can test. I'll give you back every dime I've ever made [if the test is positive]."

"I'll put that up against the jobs of anyone who writes this stuff. Make them accountable. There should be more credibility than some 42-year-old blogger typing in his mother's basement. It demeans everything you've done with one stroke of the pen."

"It's unfair because this story should be about how hard work, determination, and desire trumps chemicals and shortcuts. That should be the message: desire, character, work ethic. But some guy who doesn't know me - one idiot - says something like this. They should be held accountable. It's cowardly."

While Ibanez's speculation is justified, despite the "typing in his mother's basement" comment, his anger is a bit excessive. My guess is that he was presented the question (after "a team official made him aware of the speculation") by a reporter looking to pen a story - thus taking a fairly innocent post, and creating a regional, if not national, controversy out of it.

As such, the reporter is as much to blame - strike that MORE SO - to blame for fueling speculation than is MSF.

Following the Salisbury piece, MSF offered up a response of its own, and in the process opens up a much larger debate - that of the roles of the so-called "mainstream media" and those of, well, the average fan.

Midwest Sports Fans is obviously not part of the mainstream media, but rather is a public forum for grassroots discussion of topics that are of interest to sports fans in general, and topics that are not typically discussed by the MSM. As one of the main contributors of MSF, it is my job to direct the discussion to topics that are interesting and compelling and that are not always simple regurgitations of what readers could find elsewhere. In addition to our regular schedule posts that are aimed at simply providing useful information, I try to open up discussions that I might have with my buddies sitting around the table at BW3s.

That is where blogs and MSM sites differ, in my opinion: blogs are, by their nature, more interactive and more open — and oftentimes more controversial — and are more reflective of the sensibilities of real sports fans; whereas the MSM is usually more geared towards reflecting the sensibilities of reporters and informing sports fans of the facts by which we develop our thoughts and opinions. The best MSM sites have learned how to incorporate the interactive, fan-centric qualities of blogs and vice versa, but clear distinctions still exist.

When you look at the post about Raul Ibanez in particular, what it was was not, I suppose, was “safe”. It is not the type of story you would expect to read in the Philadelphia Inquirer. But much of it was based on facts and was an attempt to research and be objective about a subject, PEDs in baseball, for which emotion and subjectivity so often frame the discussion. And as you will see if you read the comment thread, I am clearly open to opinions that differ from my own, and to arguments that attempt to further debunk the Ibanez steroid speculation (my original aim in the first place).

In March, SI ran a cover story on Albert Pujols proactively denying any PED hanky-panky, to which I noted, "If someone told me today Albert Pujols was a raging roider or at least tinkered with some PEDs provided by a mysterious Dominican cousin, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised."


If someone of Pujols' caliber has the wherewithal to acknowledge that suspicion is part of today's game, suffice to say that while Ibanez too acknowledges this reality, his willingness to attack someone who brings it up is a bit presumptuous. If this is the first he's hearing of people questioning him specifically, he's living on another planet. Sad, but true.

Again, not to say that he shouldn't defend himself, but the fact of the matter is that he is only fueling fire to the story, no thanks to the reporter who put him on the spot. How the actions of MSF are any different (or worse) than that of the MSM is questionable. MSF didn't make this a story. And it's not even about Ibanez. You could have substituted anyone else's name into the MSF piece. The Philly Inquirer made this a story. And Ibanez, who could have very easily shrugged it off and squashed Salisbury's piece, didn't help himself any.

Follow us on Twitter @HHReynolds or Click Here to get HHR in your inbox.

Have You Gotten Your BlogsWithBalls Tickets Yet?

So You Want to Work in Sports?: Jimmy Traina, Senior Producer, SI.com

Over the next several weeks, HHR will be interviewing 20 and 30-something-year-olds in various careers in professional, amateur and collegiate sports to get a take on how they broke into their respective industries and to offer tips how ambitious sports-related job seekers might do the same.

Today, we interview Jimmy Traina, age undisclosed, Senior Producer at SI.com. A name known universally to sports bloggers, Jimmy runs the Extra Mustard page and Hot Clicks section at SI.com.

Name: Jimmy Traina
Age: Ugh.
Position: Senior Producer
Organization: SI.com
College Major: Broadcasting
Prior Sports-Related Experience: Worked at WBAZ radio on Southold, Long Island, Scorephone and AP

First, tell us about your work prior to SI. What were you responsible for at your stints at WBAZ, Scorephone and the AP.

At WBAZ, I was on air and read news. I hated it. It was a very local station and they wanted me to do reports on the Strawberry Picking Festival taking place that weekend. I was miserable and the job sucked. At Scorephone, I recorded sports scores and news updates every 15 minutes. That was a fun job. And at AP, I wrote game previews.

Can you give me an overview of your current position, and the course by which got you there?

My current position is Senior Producer and my responsibility is handling the Extra Mustard page and writing Hot Clicks. I started at SI eight-plus years ago as an editorial assistant and basically worked my way up, becoming an associate producer, producer and now senior producer. At one point or another, I've worked on almost every sports section on SI.com.

Basically, I run the Extra Mustard page on SI.com and write Hot Clicks. In addition to putting out Hot Clicks every day, I edit and post the rest of the Extra Mustard columns, do the production work for those columns.

Before the page was "Extra Mustard," it was "Scorecard Daily" and I did the same thing minus Hot Clicks. Before that, I mainly edited and produced columns for various sports across the site. I started here 8-plus years ago, and got the gig through a friend who was working here at the time.

So it's who you know not what you know?

Who you know plays just as big a role in landing a job in sports as anyting. The other big factor is luck. I think what you know is a very small part of it.

It seems you have mostly editorial responsibilities. How much original work do you produce for the site?

Well, I produce Hot Clicks every single day. I also produce our weekly "Did You See That" (formerly called "Caught in the Act") photo gallery. I'll also put together other photo galleries (Leryn Franco, Minka Kelly, Maria Menonous -- do you see the trend here?), do interviews and other miscellaneous features.

Given your college major and your experience in radio, did you ever think you'd not only get a job in print media, but remain there as long as you have? Any interest in pursuing something on-air or are you content with the direction that your career has taken you.

I wasn't focused on getting in radio or TV as much as I was focused on just getting a job in sports. The Internet really came into play just as I was finishing college, so the timing worked out perfectly for me. I think in this day and age, working for a sports site is just as good, if not better, than working for a sports radio station or sports television station. I'd have interest in pursuing something on air, but I'd still make sure I had some Internet presence as well.

We've seen you describe this elsewhere, but it's been a standard question that we ask...Can you take us through your typical day?

Get on my Long Island Railroad train at 7am. Fire up my laptop and start going through e-mail. I get to the office at 8. I either listen to Howard Stern on the Internet or, these days with it being election season, I put on Morning Joe on MSNBC or Saved by the Bell on TBS, and I go through even more email and start surfing the 'Net and I start to put together Hot Clicks. A big part of that is finding the photos to use. Some days, that takes more time than you'd think. I work on Hot Clicks until 10:30, when we have our daily staff meeting. After that meeting, I clean up any typos in Hot Clicks, switch out or Campus Clicks section, update our Hot Clicks Facebook page, and then I get started on my other work for the day. But all throughout the day, I'm still surfing sites for the next day's Hot Clicks and I'm still dealing with tons of emails.

How many different blogs do you have bookmarked in your web browser?

More than 200.

And what are your must-visit straight news sources?

Hmmm. I can't say that I rely on straight news sources much these days. I do read the NY Daily News and NY Post first thing every morning. The first sites I tend to go to are Drudge Report, Huffington Post, Perez Hilton, People.com, Big Lead, Awful Announcing and Ballhype. I usually check those 7 sites first each day and then go from there.

On average, how many emails do you receive from bloggers looking to push some of their work? How annoying does that get?

I don't know how many I get but I do know that I can't keep up with it anymore and it usually takes me a couple of days to respond to emails. I easily get more than 100 a day. The only time I get annoyed is when it's clear that someone has had all their friends send me the same link, and I get 10 emails within 2 minutes of each other, all telling me I should check out the same link.

Do you consider yourself a king maker and pseudo-celebrity among the blogosphere?

I definitely don't consider myself a pseudo-celebrity. I wouldn't say I'm a king maker, either. I'd say that I do have a little bit of power in that I can drive traffic to places. But I think that's more of SI.com's power than my power.

Which blog would you consider the model by which others would be best served emulating and why?

I think there are a lot of good blogs out there and there are different ones to emulate depending on what you want to do. The key is figuring out exactly what you want to be. Do you want to focus on one specialty a la Awful Announcing, which covers the media, or do you want to cover the entire sports landscape, a la Deadspin. Once you narrow that down, I'd say, just use a simple, basic, plain layout that doesn't shove tons of ads into the readers face. I'm a big fan of With Leather's layout because they really draw you in with a big, eye-catching photo. The Big Lead also has a simple, yet eye-appealing layout. And I'm still a fan of blogs that use the simple Blogger format, a la Mac G's World and The Big Picture.

When compiling Hot Clicks, is there anything specific that you look for in terms of content and/or format?

I'm just looking for things I think the readers will enjoy. I have to appeal to the regular SI.com reader and the blog audience, so things that have a broad appeal work best for me. The funny thing is that I think bloggers think they have a better chance to get picked up in Hot Clicks if they send me something chick related, but the truth of the matter is it's much harder for me to find good sports links that T&A links. Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the links that have to do with eye-candy. But I have the SI Swimsuit collection at my disposal, so I always have that in my back pocket. But unique sports pieces are harder to find on a day-to-day basis. I can't really say that there's anything *specific* I'm looking for. I know what I'm not looking for, though -- anything that's just straight analysis.

Do you take the time to read all of your email? Or do you have an intern to weed through all this daily armchair babble?

I definitely read all my email. I try to replay to all of it, too -- and I used to up until recently. But I'd say I still respond to about 90% of it. I don't have an intern but I want one -- badly. I want to do some sort of Hot Clicks contest where I find an intern, but I don't think the powers that be at SI.com would go for it.

While there is an (unnecessary) riff between new and old media, SI has gone as far as to list best team blogs in its print editions. Other sports news sites, and most papers, have brought on their own authors and set up blogging features on their respective websites. Your position is unique in that you deal with both factions very intimately. What is your take on the simultaneous adoption of blogging platforms by the MSM and their vocal displeasure with many independent blogs?

I am in a unique position because I work for an MSM site but the main part of my job is dealing with blogs. The ironic thing is that I'm not a blogger and I don't really consider myself part of the MSM, so the whole thing is screwed up from my perspective. I'll just say this: I think sports fans *need* MSM sites AND blogs. MSM sites can't do or say what blogs can say or do. And blogs aren't gonna break as much news as MSM sites. So I think both have an important role in today's sports media landscape. In my opinion, blogs are the voice of the fans. The MSM can't be that (although there are plenty of MSM members who are clearly fans of teams and players, though they'd like you to think otherwise), so blogs are only gonna gain in popularity. But the MSM still has access that most blogs will never get. So they'll always have that advantage. I say everybody should just get along and love each other.

How long do you foresee staying with SI, and what would your ultimate career goals be?

I don't know and I don't know. Hot Clicks has only been around for a year and a half so I've been completely focused on that and haven't really thought about the future too much.

Do the big wigs at SI purposely put teams they want to fail on the cover or do they deny the curse exists?

Ha. Good question. I don't think they do, but who knows.

You seem to have an affinity for old school wrestling.

Greatest tag team ever and why?

Oh man. I think I'd have to go with the Road Warriors. I used to be legitimately scared of them when I was kid. The face paint, the spikes on their shoulder pads, the vicious way they wrestled... I was in awe but petrified at the same time.

Better 1980's Champion: Hogan or Flair?

Ric Flair, hands down. I never ever got the whole Hulk Hogan thing. Even as a kid, I always wanted the bad guy to beat him. I always thought he was incredibly boring. Flair, on the other hand was anything but. From the robes to the hair to the Four Horseman and all the hysterical sayings (Space Mountain, to be the man, you gotta beat the man, etc) Flair, was a billion times more entertaining than Hogan.

Let's play a little word association:

Vince McMahon: He is wrestling.

James E. Cornett: I loved it when he used the tennis racket.

Sweet Saphire: How did Dusty Rhodes allow Vince McMahon to have her be part of his gimmick?

The Bushwhackers: I was always grossed out by them licking people.

The Fabulous Freebirds: Very underrated tag team. Great entrance music. But I didn't like when stragglers came into the Freebirds. To me, the Freebirds is Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy and that's it.


What's the most rewarding part of your current job?

Getting emails every day from readers who say they love Hot Clicks. I also love getting emails from people who respond to something I write or from people who react to something in Hot Clicks and send me follow up links. The readers will often drive Hot Clicks in the direction they want it to go in and it's awesome. Recently, I had a video in Hot Clicks of some amazing catch. The next thing I know, I have tons of emails from people sending me more amazing catches. I love that. The other rewarding part is knowing that Hot Clicks is always one of the most-read pieces on SI.com.

Biggest perks?

I've gotten a couple of free T shirts. That's about it. Honestly. More free shit would be nice, but oh well.

Biggest hassles or obstacles?

I can't use about a billion photos that I'd like to use because SI.com doesn't have rights to them. I get killed with photos every single day. Blogs just use whatever they want and I'm beyond jealous for that -- and that's another reason why blogs are important for sports fans. I also can't curse on SI.com, which sucks. Prime example was this past Monday. I featured the video of the referee forearming the South Carolina player. I had to write "What the hell?" What I really wanted to write was "What the fuck?"

Anything you would have changed during college to better prepare you?

I would've focused more on English, grammar and writing classes.

Relevant courses or internships you'd recommend?

Like I said above, take as many writing classes as possible. No matter what form of media you get into, writing is vital. And I'd recommend doing as many internships as humanely possible. That's how you make connections and that's how you end up in this business.

What advice would you offer those looking to follow in your footsteps?

Like I said, do as many internships as you can, make as many connections as you can, and if you can get a job -- ANY kind of job -- in the industry, take it and do it. Just get your foot in the door. Once that happens, anything is possible.

---
See all our "So You Want to Work in Sports?" Features Here.

MSM's Erroneous Reporting?

No, you hang up first!

On Tuesday we cited a Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal report that Brett Favre had used his "Packers issued" cell phone to communicate (illegally) with the Minnesota Viking staff.

Well shame on us for assuming the Sentinel-Journal was a legitimate source.

Today, ESPN is reporting "Packers didn't give Favre team-issued cell phone" according to sources of the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

We'd expect this kind of irresponsible reporting from "full of shit" bloggers, not from genuine newsman.

The Dumbing Down of Old Media

It's official.

Mark this date down in infamy.

The bloggers have won, Mr. Bissinger.

As I'm on CBS' New York affiliate's website reading about race baiter Al Sharpton chiding race baiter Jesse Jackson, my eyes wandered toward the links on the right to check out some featured content...


What is this? I thought.

Is it a link to Epic Carnival where we are competing in a "boobie bracket?" (Go Vote.)

Is it a World of Isaac special?

No wait!

It's CBS' hard hitting news.

Home of Walter Cronkite and the late Dan Rather (he's dead, right?).

This is the largest media market on the planet.

So, it's only fitting that it's THE place to go when suckas gotsta know who the hottest babes in sports are!

Correcting the Blogger Narrative

To: Members of the Sports Media
From: The Chief at HHR

Re: That Whole "Blogging in the Basement" Obsession.

Colleagues - the current and oft-repeated reference of bloggers inhabiting their mother's basement has been incorrectly applied to sports bloggers. While some may live at home - perhaps typing from the basement - those bloggers are probably in high school, so for that they should be forgiven their circumstance. For the rest, the evidence is overwhelming, and the narrative used in interviews when your opinion (or career, or medium) is challenged by a lowly sports blogger must be augmented to reflect the findings. Sports bloggers are not introverts in a basement. Sports bloggers are fucking drunks.

More pointedly sports bloggers are self-identified fucking drugs. In fact, they routinely tout their ability (or desire) to drink on the job or glorify their own recreational substance abuse. They are not secluded in a windowless room giggling like little girls, but it appears they are AT BARS, DRINKING HEAVILY, and in some instances almost-winning contests to go to a Superbowl with a rack-tastic chick. Disturbingly, while this kind of behavior might get a 'real journalist' suspended, these bloggers are managing to publish books, and work at mainstream american newspapers (well that one not so much anymore - why? You Guessed it - he was DRINKING 3 YEARS AGO!). Sports bloggers are drinking even when making impassioned, well reasoned arguments for media legitimacy. Some have even gone as far as discussing the best meals to eat when drunk.

With this new mountain of evidence, the narrative must be recalibrated to show everyone who these people really are. They are not in their basements, and they are no "friends of Bill." They are out getting hammered and meeting hot chicks at Maxim Hot 100 parties. Dicks!

In conclusion, these jerks never had to go through the crucible of working at a major daily to earn the right to spew conventional and often uninformed opinions to the masses. But in order to protect what you have won, you must adapt to modern day battle tactics. While sports bloggers have laid claim to drinking too much, it is not too late to seize uncontested ground! Consider sniffing copius amounts of wood glue, or developing a raging meth habit as a way of 'out-blogging' the bloggers. In an alleyway fight, who is more likely to be victorious - an amped up meth-head or a passed out drunk? Exactly. You can beat them at their own game. You can be that meth-head.

Sincerely,

The Chief.

"Nitwit" Bloggers

Former Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnacle thinks that you bloggers are nothing but "nitwits at home with computers" who think you're "part of the news media." Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart later agreed with his assessment.

Well, in a sense I'm glad to see that it's not just the sports reporting oldheads that feel that way.



UPDATE: the chief points out that Barnacle knows a thing or two about "sloppy" and "lazy" journalism, having been fired by The Boston Globe for plagiarism almost 10 years ago:

Just a week after fending off demands that he resign amid charges of plagiarism, Boston Globe columnist Mike Barnicle quit Wednesday as questions were being raised about two more of his columns...

The contrite columnist admitted at a news conference that he had been "sloppy" and "lazy" in writing the column with the Carlin jokes but maintained that he was not guilty of plagiarism. He said he hadn't read the Carlin book, although he had recommended it to viewers during an appearance on a Boston TV station.

the chief notes, that "You're not a member of the news media until you've been busted for plagiarizing, like some sort of secret handshake." (He wouldn't know, because he's in the basement on his little computers).

Barnacle vs. Libeling

73% Journalists Research via Blogs

Photo: Newsday

Editor & Publisher reports that among the findings in the "2008 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey" announced today, of the 1,231 people polled, including newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, and online journalists, "Nearly 73% of respondents sometimes or always use blogs in their research. The most often cited reason for using blogs was "to measure sentiment."

Except at the WWL and for Bob Costas, one can reasonably assume, of course.

H/T: Silicon Alley Insider

MSM has an uncomfortable infatuation with Clemens' ass.

I think the Rocket's backside gets more media attention then it should.

The latest to get on Clemens' ass is Jason Whitlock. He feels Clemens is lying about his steriod use not for himself but for his legion of fans/butt-kissers. Roger doesn't care about ruining the name of Roger Clemens, he cares more about ruining the legend of 'The Rocket.' A solid, and possibly valid, point.

Whitlock could have ended his argument there...but he took it one step further. He compared Clemens to a crackhead..named Pookie.

It took video evidence to get former Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Barry to admit he hit the pipe and 14,000 text messages for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to acknowledge he hit his fine-ass chief of staff. And you think Roger "Pookie" Clemens is going to crack because Brian McNamee has a couple of pictures, a few dirty syringes and blood-stained gauze? Hell, Monica Lewinsky had the president's happy ending splattered on her favorite Sunday dress and Clinton never copped.

It's for articles like this that I both admire Jason Whitlock for his honesty and candor and think he is batshit crazy. Other snippets from Whitlock's piece include the terms 'crackhead, happy ending, rear-ending Roger and his wife, and puncturing Debbie Clemens' firm booty.'

Crackhead? Happy Ending? Isn't FOX Sports a family website? I expect talk like this from the Trentonian but not from a member of the FOX family.

HHR's First Foray into MSM

We woke this morning to a wonderful surprise...a mention along with The Big Lead and KSK in Dave Darling's Weekend Watchdog Sports Media Year in Review in the Orlando Sentinel highlighting the growth of sports blogs.

Granted, the headline isn't all that flattering, but #9 in the list is.