My friend Anthony Ramsey from Los That Sports Blog had these quotes during the 2 hour long debate on ESPN 1st Take between Jalen Rose, Skip Bayless & Stephen A. Smith.
I can talk and analyze sports with the best of them and I’ve never played a minute of pro ball. Doesn’t make me any less knowledgeable And I’ve never taken a single course on journalism. But I have been wise enough to read and educate myself on the craft. Some people learn things through schooling, some people learn through experience. I chose the latter. This is 2012. Google exists and almost everything is search able with one click.
The reason why this quote is so poignant is because it points out the gift and the curse of Journalism in the new age media world we live in.
It is like the point guard position in the NBA. Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo play the same position, but in totally different ways, so it is hard to compare their skill set.
Anyone can buy a domain and call themselves a “journalist”, just like any athlete can retire and end up on ESPN the next day, even though they have zero television experience. Then you have long time journalists like Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser & etc who because of television become celebrities in their own right.
The problem for athletes, old school journalists and new age Internet personalities is can you handle the fame and still be objective?
Skip Bayless feelings were hurt over 1.4 PPG.
Skip Bayless makes his living slandering people, that is how he makes his money. He is an entertainer, a shock jock and personality.
No different than Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh. ESPN’s Jemele Hill said it best.
You can criticize, analyze, insult
@RealSkipBayless about his opinions & HS career, but I bet you’re watching right now.
The problem is when you are throwing all the punches, you can’t have Drake like feelings when someone punches back.
Entertainers though run shows and Skip runs 1st Take. Not Jalen Rose, not Stephen A. Smith, so when Skip’s feelings were hurt he made sure it was address on his terms and they way he wanted it to be addressed.
At that point you are no longer a journalist or an analyst.
You are Vince McMahon.
That is what this has become, a version of the WWE, so while Skip wants to call out Bloggers or Internet reports, the facts are those online writers are doing more journalistic work than Skip does right now.
There is no inaccuracies in the fact Skip exaggerated his High School stardom. He can blame his coach, the coach’s son and whoever. If you can ball you aren’t last on your squad in PPG. So, he can make all the excuses he wants the report was accurate.
It doesn’t discredit Skip’s 30 years in the business, but 30 years ago I was in my baby crib, we need to focus on the here and now.
In the here and now I trust Sports by Brooks more than I do Skip Bayless.
You can’t with a straight face say it is cool to call Chris Bosh, Bosh Spice and be upset when someone calls you Water Pistol Pete Jr. There is so much hypocrisy in that it is ridiculous. You can’t be Nelson Muntz and then cry when you are exposed as Millhouse.
Jalen Rose was in the ring with Mike Tyson, hit him with the Buster Douglas uppercut and all Skip could do is look for his mouthpiece.
Stephen A. Smith says that everyone wants to be where Skip and himself are professionally. That is partially correct, no one is jealous of Skip Bayless, especially myself specifically. I don’t need ESPN or a major outlet to move the needle, but the reason we as online media ask for opportunities is because we know be bring something to the table that isn’t out there.
A rawness and honesty that is lost on mainstream media.
I started BSO because I wanted to people to see a different perspective and I have achieved that goal, but with that growth and expansion the people want more. They want the envelope pushed, so I am going to keep pushing those buttons.
There is a reason why veteran quarterbacks don’t mentor young ones. Why help the person under you take your job? There is no upside for mainstream media to allow online media an avenue to take their jobs.
Because the reality is mainstream media wants to be more like us, than we want to be like them. We are the innovators, we are the trend setters and it is us that starts the crack in the dam before the flood.
Right Skip?
It is Deadspin, Big Lead, Sports Grid, Larry Brown Sports, Busted Coverage, Cosby Sweaters, Jocks and Stiletto Jill and so many others that are the foundation of New Age Media.
It reminds me very much of the infancy of rap music. For the longest time rap wasn’t acknowledge by mainstream music critics.
It was a gimmick, it was a fad. They weren’t going to play them on mainstream radio, didn’t want them on the Grammys. In the mainstream they were just thugs who weren’t classically trained musicians.
But just like NWA, sometimes you just have to say F** The ……and see what happens.