The Blogger's Role

But in the end, I think we’re going to go in circles and come back to the same starting point.

Neither me, you, david, DvDvill, Xander has the power to change what the blogosphere is right now, unfortunately. And its frustrating.

External contacts are hard to come by, yes… but I think it’s all about being proactive. Unfortunately, we’re not the press as you said, so instead of them contacting US, we have to go after them.

Its definitely frustrating, John ( I think that’s what you were trying to say here ?).

I dont like that Andrew guy saying we’re fan advocates, thats a slap in the face to us IMO.

We are what we are. We provide news, analysis, and opinions, with a personal feel. Thats what the blogosphere entails now. Maybe in a year or two, it’ll change. We (SBNation) are just a microcosm of the blogosphere. We can’t change it ourselves. Its other un-reputable, garbage blog networks (I wont name names…..[[B/R]]) that give blogosphere the label it currently has. Just gotta accept it for what it is

Everyone on here that actively participates and comments on here are huge fans also. For example, I dont think anyone would ever question your fanhood, crack. lol. Just two common interests really. As john said, you all are no different then us and could probably do a lot of this also if you had the time. We dont sit on a high horse like some of the other places.

Negativity brings negativity. Thats why a Mike Francesa or Cimini attracks a negative audience.

I actually typed “attracks”. and i said we were professional….. lol

The writers here rightly refuse to give in. What good is compromising your site? It only hurts in the long run.

I agree with this, you have to write what is on the minds of the fanbase as a whole, that is what we are here for, to offer some insight, develop opinions and encourage debate. We don’t get much access, well at least it’s not spoon fed to us, we can get it but we have to be proactive in looking for it. Sometimes you have to post unpopular opinions about the team, the owner a certain player. Some media outlets, sugar coat problems to not tick off the wrong people. Fortunately for us, we don’t have to worry about that, we can say what’s on our minds, what is reflective of how the fanbase is feeling and not worry too much about the repercussions. Obviously within reason.

I think we actually get more info on blogs like this than just by reading the papers. We actually get some X’s and O’s type of information, while most of the articles are just based on the pressers. That’s why they’re always trying to bait the coaches and players into saying something juicy. The beat writers just take the press conferences and put their individual spin on it.

For all the access they get, it’s rare when somebody actually gets any solid inside information.

As for the “experts” out there like Adam Schein and Mike Francesa, think about how many hours they are on the air, and all the sports they cover. How much time does that actually leave them to watch game film or even re-watch the games on DVR?

I think it’s amazing that John, David and Matt can write about the team so insightfully while having to balance that with their real lives.

I’ve worked in print media in both the US and Greece, where I now live.
Here media bias is assumed and expected. No rants about liberal media, because there are liberal media, socialist media, conservative media, Communist media, rabid nationalist media, take your pick. You basically choose your prejudice and enjoy it, or take one of the few papers for which a political slant is not a foregone conclusion, which are sometimes criticized specifically for that.
The same exists in sports media to a certain extent: certain publications (there are daily sports papers) are known to favor certain teams, while some newer ones find a way around this by maintaining a multitude of perspectives, having one staff member cover each major team, etc.
What it seems to be that GGN and similar blogs either are or should be trying to do is to combine an openly declared fan bias with a relatively solid journalistic standard. To explain it better: we like the Jets here and want the Jets to do well and win. That doesn’t mean we’re above criticizing the Jets or we ignore the truth to make things look more in our favor. You won’t see “the Patriots are a great team” but you might see “the Patriots outplayed us” if that’s what happened. You will see references to “vanilla play calling” or to good play calls, but not the homerism of “if you don’t agree with our playcalling you’re an idiot (or not a true fan)”. You might see “Greene is better than Maroney” with some reasonable arguments that explain why, you won’t see “Greene is better than Maroney because he’s our guy and that’s the end of it, if you disagree just shut up”.