Athens, GA (May 10, 2008) - Buzz Bissinger is continuing his "resurrect my personal brand" tour, following what many have described as his embarrassing appearance on Costas Now! for a panel discussion on blogs and sports media. In a Friday interview that appeared in the online edition of Vanity Fair, Bissinger made this jaw dropping statement:
I was a little bit surprised that people were so indignant about the use of profanity on a network that basically invented the use of the word “” as a noun, adjective, verb, and adverb through the show Deadwood. I mean—we were on HBO, were we not? It seemed to me that, when convenient, people seize on the fact that I used profanity. All of a sudden, they were prudes. When, in fact, many of these people when they comment on a blog—not all of them—can be very offensive.
One has to wonder where Bissinger's mind is when he says things like this. It should not matter what network this panel discussion aired on. He was appearing as a professional, Pulitzer-prize winning writer. He was not there as a guest star on Deadwood, The Sopranos, or even Oz. And during the tirade, it was just as inappropriate for Bob Costas to be an apologist by saying, during the show, that "after all, this is HBO." If had been a discussion that avoided the profanity, it could possibly had been a discussion that could be used in junior and senior high schools for discussions on blogging vs. journalism.
People were not upset with the profanity per se. People were upset that Bissinger went off on a profanity filled tirade to attach bloggers for the same type behavior. Frankly, if Bissinger wants to see written things that are filled with worse profanity and graphic sexual discussions, he should just wander over to SportsJournalists.com. It is there that sports writers from around the country, posting under anonymous screen names write things using words and descriptions that have no place in civil society. And then they have the gall to defend themselves by saying that "they are only words and words cannot hurt people."
Bissinger seems to be living in a different world than many other people. He needs to think about what he said, and the context that is leading people to criticize what he did. Then maybe he can do this "resurrection" tour with an approach that represents an awareness of the world around him, not what some might call a narcissistic view of life.
Related Link(s)
Vanity Fair:
Dan Shannoff: What is Mainstream Sports Media? (May 9, 2008)
Dan Steinberg: Bissinger's Blog Bashing: Under the Bottom, and Off Target (May 8, 2008)
One of the goals of Eye on Sports Media is to give you information and stories about the people that make the decisions about what you see, when you see it, and where you see it.
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