Sports Bloggers in the Press Box

I know this has been tossed around here before, but I am looking for some opinions for a piece I am working on. I have a simple poll at my blog...check the left sidebar. www.sportsmediajournal.com.

The poll question is simple...I know the answers may not be. I welcome your comments through the site. Thanks in advance for your input!

 

Keith -

The fact that your question on the site reads...

"Should Sports Bloogers Have Access to the Press Box?"

pretty much answers itself. Typos matter. Many sports bloggers hearts may be in the right place, but they aren't professionals and it shows in everything they do. The best ones do unique stuff which wouldn't benefit all that much from press box access anyway.

 

I say hell no to the question. There are already far too many loser fan-boys who get their crusty fingers around credentials and then in turn fill up press boxes and clog up locker rooms and make the job of those of us who are actually working ten times harder than it needs to be.

 

Locals here send writers to playoff games to do in-game blogging.

I just don't get it.

I that different from Joe Fan? These aren't beat writers, and what they're cranking out isn't different than JF would crank out from his sofa between sixpacks.

 

If you can site one -- just one -- example of a blogger making your job ten times harder than it needs to be in a press box, I'm listening...

 

OK -- a certain prominent Division I team I cover credentials bloggers, fan boy sites and seemingly anyone else who can figure out HTML language and calls themself a journalist.

And these idiots are always easy to spot because they are the ones wearing their fanboy clothes and matching hats and they think they are getting insider information by asking questions like "That was a great game you played and the fans are really happy about this win what can you tell them about how fired up you guys were....."

The problem is, the locker room is tiny and it is filled to the brim with a whole bunch of these idiots who all run down there after the game (none are typing a gamer or a running story so they all just have to be in there) to be first and waste valuable portions of interview time with their hero worship and inane questions while the rest of us who have real jobs and are on deadline try unsuccessfully to push past them while bitching to the SID to kick their asses out......

Capiche?

 

Cite, not site, but blog-on, dude.

 

Bloggers don't adhere to journalistic standards of spelling, grammar, facts, etc. It seems they want all the trappings of being a journalist without having to abide by its standards.

 

The press box or press row will not pose problems. It's locker-room access that is muddled and harmed by the presence of any additional people who have no reputable business being there. Fans cannot be journalists.

 

I would rather have 50 bloggers than three idiots from the local all-sports talk station making my life a living fucking hell.

 

I won't go that far because at least they still have some shred of journalistic purpose.....but I would think long and hard about it if given the choice.

 

So nothing specific then?

And yeah, site...cite...my mistake. Still working off the beer buzz and the unmatched joy that was "The Office" season finale. I'm in the process of painting my office black as we speak...