It would require a heady company of riffraff to make The North Jefferson News feel itself above the fray, but that’s apparently the case today. Every year the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover hosts the SEC Media days so that real live salaried journalists with degrees in actual journalism can look down upon the hoi poloi bloggers and grumble about how anybody can get press passes these days.
The SEC handed out over 1100 passes. Some went to newspapers, television stations, etc. Most went to anyone with a domain name so long as they promised that they were working towards a legitimate purpose and no fingers crossed. How did I miss this? I have at least two posts that relate to football! I should be involved in the fun!
From the circus floor:
and:
and:
And those people have legitimate writing jobs. Think of what the slack jawed basement dwellers are saying. I’ll be there next year. I will make it my mission. MSYS will be a credentialed newsish service.
There are too many people credentialed, and I feel bad for the people who are there to get serious interviews.
But I support the chaos. Finebaum or the Birmingham News are not getting shut out of an interview because Todd from RollBamaRoll is there. These are fans having fun. The only people getting upset are the people who assume it is their right to be the middle man. I am going next year. Hell or high water.
Once you accept that serious journalism is dead, all principles are negligible!
I think they always were. The blogger is not not always as polished, but readers aren’t idiots. They can see a bias or a series of inconsistencies and decide who is worth reading and who is not. I don’t understand the worship of journalism. It is telling people stuff. If you prefer to hear about a game from a part time house painter with a computer in his dining room instead of a graduate of The Columbia School of Journalism, the only person that hurts is Mitch Albom, which I support.