The most influential sports journalist working today?

21 makes great points here. I'm not so sure any of the "big-time" columnists make that big a splash anymore. They seem like part of the background noise. Everybody's got an opinion. Half the guys at the bar have a blog. The most influential (to me) are the guys in front of their sports -- Olney, Rosenthal, Stark in baseball, for example.

 

I think we're all still struggling a little to accurately define "influential."

 

The media's too splintered to have anything like the icons of the pre-cable, pre-Web world. There's a million outlets and each one of them have their own version of an opinion leader. In the end, the only journalists who resonate are the ones providing both quickly and accurately the most important news on their beats. In the end, there's genuine demand for news and information while opinions are a dime a dozen.

 

21 does make good points, and I think somebody is influential when they can have an effect which is greater than the column. It doesn't happen as much today because there are so many people who can blast their opinion anywhere. When people involved in the sport pay attention and might be affected, that is influence.

I chose Feinstein because he can move a book onto the best seller lists, and that is very difficult for any sports book and even more difficult for a sports book which isn't a biography or autobiography.

 

Marc Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams, and T.J. Quinn.

 

The word "influential" is tough...

Powerful? It's probably Doria.

Best? Well, that's a really tough debate...

Best known? I know Whitlock has been on Oprah, but Albom is an Oprah regular. I would say Albom or Reilly.

Influential? I see this as the writer who everyone tries to be... Three decades ago it was Jenkins. Two decades ago it was Deford. A decade ago it was Reilly.

Now? I would probably vote for Gary Smith. I think if you asked the younger writers who they want to be the most like, the most popular answer would probably be Smith, who has already clearly influenced some of the top younger writers.

 

I think I am. No, I really do.

 

Sirs, Madames,

A throw a question out there about the evolution of influence -- my sense is that, oh, say 30 years ago, there used to be a lot of columnists and other media types who were big in their own backyards (say Myron Cope, Joe Falls, Blackie Sherrod for instance). I'm sure it was even more pronounced in ancient times. Are there still regionally/locally influential types or does someone in that profile just seem minor-league to the lay reader / fan?

YHS, etc

 

Williams and Fainaru-Wada did one story that had a huge impact on the sports landscape. But when I think of influence, I'm not sure that's exactly what I have in mind. I think they were merely reporting on a topic for which the agenda had already been set. And anyway, I'm not sure I'm 100 percent comfortable with the idea of reporters setting agendas (and, by extension, peddling influence). That's tip-toeing pretty close to losing objectivity.

Like it or not, the person who put Stuart Scott might be the most accurate on here. He's routinely panned here, but dude's got millions sayin boo-yah. If you can create behavior that way, that's influence. Feinstein is widely read, but he's not changing anyone's behavior.

 

I'd make the argument that Mr. Scott's not a journalist.

 

That is not argument, that is fact, jg.