Bleacher Report co-founder responds to Leitch

And all the rest of the "haters" ...

http://pandodaily.com/2013/03/01/how-i-respond-to-the-haters/

(Did I DB this? I didn't see it anywhere. Sorry if I did.)

 

Too long. Would have been better as a slideshow.

 

Some thoughts.

1. Responding to "haters" -- not matter how even-keeled you try to be about it -- makes you sounds like a whiny wuss.

2. Saying you figure someone might be a nice guy because his colleague is a nice guy is extraordinarily poor logic.

3. Using words such as "disparate" and "efficacy" do not make you a good writer.

 

"First, I’m not sure how much sports “reporting” we need in the era of Twitter. Most athletes can’t stop themselves from giving interesting quotes to the masses via Twitter or Facebook (much to their agents’ displeasure). And as for the type of stories that “insiders” need to “break” — i.e. today’s news that Alex Smith was traded for a 2nd round draft pick — do we really care who found out first? I believe it was Jay Glazer, but I’m having trouble finding the initial source. Needless to say, I don’t think that he risked his life or dodged rocket-propelled grenades to uncover it."

He worked to get the story, you putz, the kind of work your web site uses and profits off of. I wish nothing but the worst for this idiot.

 

I'd like to see some of these Bleacher Report hacks put together a story on deadline or handle a breaking piece of news with moving parts.

While I love BLOGS! as much as the next guy, so many of these sites go out of their way to try and devalue what we do/did before we left the business, as if anyone who's semi-literate and has a recorder app on their phone can be a journalist. It's beyond tiring.

 

Would have been better as one bullet: There are a lot of businesses that thrive by putting out a bad product.
Bleacher Report is like those movies that litter Red Box that appear to be "like" big-time blockbusters but are just dreck.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/10/03/attack-of-the-mockbustser-movie-hobbits-zombies-and-2-headed-sharks/

 

He makes some valid observations about the Luddites in the newspaper business. But his attempt to argue that he "created jobs" is myopic. The suggestion that Bleacher Report contributed a net positive to the total number of available jobs in sports media is laughable. BR figured out the cheapest, most effective way to rack up pageviews, and in doing so siphoned off advertising revenue that would have gone elsewhere had BR not existed. Whatever size footprint BR's legacy has, it is one of wage deflation and the cheapening of content. I don't begrudge the guy. It worked for him. But don't try to portray yourself as some holy warrior

 

So he thinks he's a good writer, eh?

 

"Yes, I am a business person. I am an equally strong writer. "

 

They do that all the time. How do you think they get so many clicks? They are incredibly fast if nothing else.

None of these thoughts have to do with his points.

 

They aren't exactly putting a story together, Vers. Two or three paragraphs summarizing what somebody else wrote isn't a story.

 

A story can be told many ways. I'm not defending Bleacher Report. I'm saying there are enough good ways to attack it that deadlines shouldn't be part of the conversation.