Two days after unleashing a profane tirade about blogs on Bob Costas's HBO show, Friday Night Lights author H.G. Buzz Bissinger showed some contrition on Dan LeBatard's radio show. Bissinger (at left in the photo, with a film executive and the director of the movie Friday Night Lights) didn't exactly embrace blogs in his radio appearance, but he did acknowledge that he took things too far (via SBB):
There were some things I should not have said. I shouldn't have used profanity, I shouldn't have been as hostile in my approach to Will Leitch...Bissinger also said a lot of his fellow panelists on the Costas show patted him on the back afterward. And he used the ignorance defense for part of his wrong-headed sweeping generalizations of blogs: "I'm not an expert in this field," Bissinger said. "I never want to be an expert in the field of blogs. That would be way too pathetic."
I don't take back a word of what I said. I have a tremendous amount of problems with blogs....
I embarrassed myself and I may have embarrassed other brethren in my profession.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. "I'm not an expert in this field"
No sh*t! The only real annoying part of Buzz's meltdown was his self-righteous indignation towards a person, blog and medium HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND.
There are obviously somethings that need to be worked out in the blogfrica, much like there were severe problems in journalism during the late 19th and early 20th century (see yellow journalism, Willy Hearst and our war with Spain in 1898) but the market began to correct and normalize the medium in time.
Such will happen with blogs. A higherarchy and accepted modus operandi will emerge naturally. The end result will still be writers writing and readers reading, but hopefully coverage will become more honest and less proclamations from ivory towers.
Posted at 9:17AM on May 2nd 2008 by August West
2. What’s pathetic is going on television and acting like a child by swearing and interrupting and spouting off on a subject you know nothing about. You know, like what he complains about on blogs.
Posted at 9:22AM on May 2nd 2008 by bizzo5000
3. "may have" embarrassed other bretheren in my profession?
Posted at 9:49AM on May 2nd 2008 by This Suit Is Not Black
4. Buzz's tirade is easy to understand: He likes the elitism that he believes being a sportswriter provides him and doesn't want to cede an inch of it to common sports fans like us.
Sportswriters and telejournalists occupy this fuzzy place between average Joe's and athletes. Take away the few ex-ballplayers among them (of which Buzz CLEARLY is not), and you've got a lot of people effectively no different than you or I. High school benchwarmers, maybe, but damnit, they're part of the sports world "in-crowd" anyways. How dare we, the casual fan and internet user, dare to have an opinion other than the ones they give us? What right do we have to discuss sports with anyone other than our coworkers and drinking buddies?
Look, there are some schlock journalists, just like there are some moronic bloggers. Big Frickin Deal if I have a degree in journalism. This guy just wants desperately to hold on to the modicum of fame he can now claim so that all 5'4" of his nonathletic pudgy butt can feel slightly more relevant than the rest of us.
Posted at 10:05AM on May 2nd 2008 by Tipcpup