http://deadspin.com/367883/bob-costas-thinks-youre-a-loser
Bob Costas just called me a loser. Yet, strangely, my pride isn't stinging. While this is not such an outrage as Geraldine Ferraro's comments earlier in the week [the bigot (for lack of a more vulgar word) stepped down from the Clinton campaign thankfully], it still does not sit well with me. First off, I've never really liked Bob Costas that much. He covers a variety of sports, which includes figure skating (I know this because my mom loves figure skating and has watched made serious efforts to watch it since I was a kid). Now, there's nothing wrong with figure skating. If you've ever ice skated (and don't figure skate or play hockey), it's hard. It takes a lot of balance, and I could never imagine jumping and spinning in the air or riding one skate with my leg propped up in air (not to mention wearing tights and all the frilly other stuff they have on). I also can't imagine having a choreographer, or having my leg beat in so I can't go compete for a gold medal (see Tanya Harding / Nancy Kerrigan). But I digress. Bob Costas has covered figure skating. I know because I've seen it with my own eyes.
And yet, Costas somehow maintains his integrity in covering the wide-world of sports. If I was another sports journalist or broadcaster, I'd heckle Costas at every juncture that I could. But Costas is just another guy to join the bandwagon of blog-bashers (also see Stephen A. Smith). The following is an excerpt of what Costas said:
it's one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother's basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they're a pathetic get-a-life loser, but now that pathetic get-a-life loser can piggyback onto someone who actually has some level of professional accountability and they can be comment No. 17 on Dan Le Batard's column or Bernie Miklasz' column in St. Louis. That, in most cases, grants a forum to somebody who has no particular insight or responsibility. Most of it is a combination of ignorance or invective.''Well, this blog has only been running for a few weeks now, but I've been blogging elsewhere for a while now. I've never felt that what I do creates a responsibility to a community. I guess the only thing I try and not do is lie, but that goes along more with living-as-a-human-being as opposed to blogging. I also don't try and pass off what I do as journalism or anything of that nature. I also don't try and pretend to be an expert on anything I write about. I'm just interested (albeit mildly sometimes) at whatever it is I'm writing about. It's also just a chance for me to write about things that interest me and let other people read it if they so chose to. I don't make any money off of it, I just do it to vent about my life or the things I come across.
"It's just a high-tech place for idiots to do what they used to do on bar stools or in school yards, if they were school yard bullies, or on men's room walls in gas stations. That doesn't mean that anyone with half a brain should respect it.
I've always considered that Costas was probably a pretentiously, smug bastard, and well...this confirms it to say the least. I'm not sure what makes this any different than an editorial section of a newspaper. Editorial columns lack everything but subjectivity. But I suppose that being hired on by a newspaper somehow makes you qualified to write about whatever subject it is that you have chosen. And what's worse is that those people write editorial for-profit. But that's the beauty of America. We can all have our opinion. I've read plenty of articles from these people with supposed responsibilities. And I've watched plenty of newscasts and sportscasts with people who lack integrity because of their objectivity towards whatever it is they are covering. Capitalism and freedom allow us to write about, and do, whatever we please. And if Bob Costas, or any other journalist feels threatened (and they should) it's because the public has clearly chosen to support an alternative forum where people who aren't pretentious jackasses have decided to voice their opinion.
Perhaps what I'm doing right now lacks focus, is a bit convoluted, and, to say the least, is a not my best work. But it's a blog. It's my product, and I don't pass it as anything but that. So in summation, go pound sand Costas. I'm enjoying my life and apparently you're an elitist who feels some sort of glorified right to consolidate power in mainstream media. But at the end of the day a blog is an opinion. And my opinion thinks your opinion sucks.
Oh and Bob Costas, I don't even have a basement, so the jokes on you. Douche.
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