H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Friday Night Lights, appeared on a panel tonight alongside Deadspin blogger Will Leitch on Bob Costas's HBO show. It did not go well.
Bissinger launched into a profane rant against Leitch, Deadspin, blogs in general and "Big Daddy Balls," the latter being the name that Bissinger incorrectly used for the blogger who goes by the pen name Big Daddy Drew. Bissinger was completely unhinged. Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards, who for some odd reason was on the panel as well, looked frightened.
"This guy, whether we like it or not, is the future," Bissinger said, jabbing his finger in Leitch's direction. "The future in the hands of guys like you is really going to dumb us down to a degree that I don't think we can recover from."
Of course, Bissinger couldn't be bothered to cite even one example of anything "dumb" Leitch has ever written. And neither Bissinger nor Costas seemed to know the difference between a blog post and a blog comment.
Bissinger thought he was protecting the institution of journalism, but he was in reality turning what should have been an insightful discussion about the changing face of sports media into a farce. Leitch, who is an old friend of mine, didn't make any particularly salient points about blogging, but he didn't really have the opportunity with Bissinger screaming obscenities in his ear. Bissinger is a brilliant, gifted writer, but tonight he looked like a fool.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. The show seems to be trying to make a distinction between quality and volume, amateur hacks against "Journalists." Odd that the loudest, least informed, and most profane voice on the panel was Bissinger.
Posted at 11:12PM on Apr 29th 2008 by BrendanEff
2. I heard him freak out on a radio program in Philly during an interview when the Friday Night Lights movie came out. He behaved very poorly. Are their drug tests for writers?
Posted at 11:19PM on Apr 29th 2008 by Jay
3. Ironically, the Costas Now segment on a stereotyped monolithic "BLOGOSPHERE" (aaaiiiiiiii!!!!!)illustrates perfectly what is wrong with mainstream media. Instead of promoting an intelligent discussion of what is both wrong and right about unconventional voices of blogs discussing sports in a different manner, it turned into the typical talking head US versus THEM discussion of dizzying superficiality.
It has to be superficial because on TV it is all about the soundbite in that format. It was so bad, it was unintentionally hilarious.
Just as there are good and bad things in the mainstream media, there are good and bad things in blogs. That should be a "no duh" statement, but apparently not in the world of trying to jam stuff into a segment of Costas Now.
Nothing like MSM telling us the way it is in a totally wrong way. Nothing like Costas using the term "defame" in a very broad way, after MSM talking heads spent months destroying NFL draftees' reputations based on stuff they've heard from someone somewhere.
It was both sad and funny, but more sad.
Posted at 11:31PM on Apr 29th 2008 by Stephanie Stradley
4. More power to Leitch for not attacking Buzz with a chair
Posted at 11:31PM on Apr 29th 2008 by Oh No Romo
5. I'd just like to know why Costas/HBO picked a non-blogging, non-internet savvy athlete to be part of that panel.
And the moment when Costas asked Buzz if there was some fear about the obvious fade of newspapers -- and his ensuing response -- was just sad.
Posted at 2:16AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Will Brinson
6. As a Deadspin and Buzzy Bissinger fan, I had a lot of thoughts tonight. More than anything, and especially in this space, I want to focus on Bissinger.
I think it's very important to understand who this guy is before delving into Bob Costas Now.
He is an Ivy-leauge educated professional journalist. He hails from New York. He is smart. He is intense. At age 33 (which Leitch will turn in October), he won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting about the Philly court system. That's where he cut his teeth. Investigative Reporting about corruption in one of the oldest cities in the US.
Personally he is polarizing. While sports fans loved FNL, Mojo wanted his head. Sure he attended Brian Chavez' Harvard graduation, but some warned him to never step foot in Odessa again. Since writing FNL, he spent four years chronicling Ed Rendell, the mayor of Philadelphia, and later Tony LaRussa, the baseball manager-wizard. He is ambitious.
He's been married and divorced twice. He ripped up the Pulitzer Prize he won. Like Abe Lincoln, he has notorious mood swings. He is an absolute fire-rod.
And that's exactly what he was tonight on Bob Costas Now. A fire-rod.
-saulsierce.com
Posted at 4:33AM on Apr 30th 2008 by SaulSierce
7. Wait a sec, Buzz Bissinger = Abe Lincoln? Lincoln freed the slaves and saw the country through a civil war. Bissinger writes about sports.
Although I assume this comparison was innocuous I think the reflexive loss of perspective when discussion sports today is indicative of the core problem here.
Posted at 7:30AM on Apr 30th 2008 by kleph
8. As a right-winger who hangs around his own people's blogs, I can fairly say that no right-wing political blogger (or left one, for that matter) received the sort of reaction Will got. I'm fairly certain it's because no political blogger has ever seriously threatened some media outlet's revenue stream, despite exposing things like Rathergate and CNN's Eason Jordan.
Deadspin and others threaten that revenue stream. Hence, the response from Buzz Bissinger and the non-response from Costas. Will Leitch very astutely did not respond to him.
Posted at 8:33AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Brad S
9. Bissinger just gave so many people who work in MSM and do think that blogs are valuable a bad name. In one fell swoop, he reinforced everything that is holding on too tight. But the fact is that the MSM could have been in front of this. They chose to shun it, and now they (I got out in 2006) must pay the price.
Radio. TV. Talking movies. Color TV. VCRs. Computers. The Web. It's all been met with resistance, and it's all turned out OK. As I said on another site, the talent will rise, and the 90 percent of crap will fall off. And people will decide.
Bissinger just made himself sound like a bitter, angry old man.
Posted at 9:45AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Ian Cahir
10. I wonder what shook him up so much? Did Leitch ask him if the book solves the mystery of whether Riggins ever nails Lyla Garretty again?
Posted at 10:11AM on Apr 30th 2008 by Ben
11. Bissinger went to the same prep school (Andover) that Bill Belichick went to. What does that tell you about the level of entitlement you think he has with respect to his field of expertise?
Bissinger is a very talent writer, but I've heard him on several occasions, just rant incoherently on several topics.
Posted at 2:08PM on Apr 30th 2008 by johndewar
12. Bissinger made a fool of himself. He as well as a lot of old school sportswriters are scared. plain and simple. they know their relavence in the sports world has diminished greatly while the internet blogasphere has blown up big time. they are like the old guy who is afraid to look at a computer because he knows it is the new way of communication but instead says " i'll just keep using my rotary dial telephone to find out what i want to know".
Posted at 2:48PM on Apr 30th 2008 by samwise2206
13. Stephanie Stradley nailed it--this was a perfect example of why people are turning away from televised sports journalism and getting their fill of well-articulated, opinionated (and sometimes, gulp, profane) writing from the internet. I actually think Costas is doing his best to be fair, but it seems pretty clear that if he reads any blogs regularly he's not making much of an effort to understand what he's looking at.
It's really disappointing to me when journalists I admire (like Wilbon, for example) seem to be willfully ignoring the obvious fact that there's a huge variety among blogs, ranging from ignorant tripe to remarkable insight. Painting them all with one brush is just irresponsible.
As for Bissinger, he demonstrated how clueless he is when it comes to the state of sportswriting on the internet. I'm a big fan of his work, but after watching this I find it hard to imagine him taking an open-minded look at any subject. He sure seemed willing to take a preconceived notion and run with it.
Overall, it was instructive to see how almost all of these journalists look at the internet as an anarchic rumor mill populated by half-wits and liars. Obviously, that's not true. And just as obviously, millions of people seem pretty interested in interacting with and contributing to the medium. As even Bissinger seems to recognize, these guys (and gals) are going to have to find a way to deal with it eventually, because it's not going anywhere.
Posted at 3:00PM on Apr 30th 2008 by Jake
14. Perhaps the reason Buzz views the instant reaction, off the cuff commentary provided by blogs as insidious is because he is incapable of making valid points or even coming off coherent without painstaking research and editors.
Posted at 3:14PM on Apr 30th 2008 by Harrison
15. Please send me some links to the well written and articulated blogs. The ones I have found are more like low brow talk radio.
Posted at 7:33PM on Apr 30th 2008 by larry
16. The thing with this stuff, which really pisses me off, is the lack of clarity and context. Bissinger would be well within his rights to go bat-shit insane if a BDD column turned up on the inside-back cover of the WaPost or NYT, but it didn't. Yes it is in a sports context, but it is the equivalent of a Carlin routine in print. It is intended for an 'adult' audience that loves sports and likes to laugh.
The other thing, which none of the MSM seems to address, is that most of the columns online are no different to those that have appeared in Newspapers for decades. Those columns are patently OPINION, and though they may have greater standards with regards accuracy and editing, they are more restricted in terms of what they can say, and what they are allowed to write. Give me Leitch over Wilbon any day of the week.
Posted at 9:41AM on May 1st 2008 by Grim
17. I watched the video and, while I could understand where his rage was coming from, the underlining subtext of it all is the whole reason I started reading blogs in the first place. There is a smugness in the mainstream media that seems to assert that they are the only ones entitled to have an opinion and their opinions are the only ones worth reading.
Posted at 4:02AM on May 2nd 2008 by sploorp
18. @ larry: Scroll up, look around, you're on a blog, and there's an articulate conversation going on around you, for which you have been found wanting.
Posted at 3:22AM on May 3rd 2008 by Lee
19. Bissinger - and you blogger kids with your iPods and moveable type, stay off my lawn!
Posted at 1:59PM on May 5th 2008 by Hank