Those that get paid. The people who have complained and dismissed the blogger ban the loudest are those that have the most to lose. They are the ones getting paid. If the unwashed blogging masses have some masters among them, who knows what could happen to the balance of power in the sports media world. Of course, my preference had been to avoid having to make any qualitative decisions about which bloggers should be in or out of the locker room.
On Talk Soup a host throws out witty comments about some TV show. If it is witty enough, the show draws an audience. On the net, the most popular sports bloggers do the exact same thing. There is. Just as there is a market for Talk Soup on E! It even takes talent to be able to be witty and hold an audience, whether its on TV or online.
And from what I can tell, non of their readers complained that their blogs suffered in any way shape or form when they didnt have access to the locker room.
Rather, they did the smart thing and used the ban to promote themselves. Which is fine by me. I hope it drove them a ton of traffic. So I invite any blogger to post samples of their work here as a comment. All will be given equal access. Just as I did with Ben Collns.
I think I gave him his first shot to write for the Mavs website when he was If you can write, you deserve the same opportunities to communicate about the Mavs as someone who works for ESPN, a major newspaper or network. In the blogging business, the Joes can be better than the Pros. Lots of people suddenly full of literary bravado, and suddenly interested in the Jason Kidd trade. It was like a post-bad-chicken-in-the-burrito, just-got-done-cradling-the-porcelain, up-watching-the-3AM-SportsCenter-through-the-nauseous-haze re-run.
