It should be as simple as just changing the channel or, heaven forbid, turning off the program, but we have come to depend on sports media critics, as much for advance warning , as solid post game analysis as well…I suppose we all like to have our opinions validated and can’t wait for a “review” that generally agrees with our own…But is there a value to having a sports media column?<\/p>\n
Jack Craig<\/a> started the first column locally and parlayed it into a national column in the Sporting News, reaching millions in the process…Not surprisingly we now have Twitter critic<\/a>s, perhaps the prototypical “bloggers in the basement”…As a viewer, it’s your job is to differentiate between those choices…Ken Fang<\/a> has been following and writing about the sports media scene since 2005 and if you’ll forgive the reference, “he built it and they came”…What started as an outlet for his opinion has now grown to, by his own count, some 2.5 million unique visitors…But Ken takes a different approach unlike some \u00a0of his more celebrated brethren. \u00a0“They just seem to hate everybody. \u00a0They just seem to want to pound and say that nothing is right with sports television. \u00a0I’ll give credit. \u00a0I don’t want to say ‘get of my lawn’ which a lot of writers can’t seem to accept these days”…<\/p>\n Fang joined Chad Finn<\/a> of the Boston Globe recently at a Boston University sports journalism seminar and as the latest in a line of successors on Morrissey Boulevard, Finn’s approach is based, \u00a0first and foremost, in a fundamental journal principle. \u00a0“The checks and balances of anything are important. \u00a0If you’re dealing with people who try to take advantage of a situation, who aren’t honest about their intentions and its effects, you need to be the person when something isn’t being done right, or is being done disingenuously, you’re the one who let’s people know about that”…<\/p>\n Yet, the critic is just one voice and it’s important to remember that…Well, maybe you can’t \u00a0quite convince NBC Sports or Twitter of that…Witness the case of one Guy Adams<\/a>, who summarily felt the network’s wrath after taking them to task on their Olympic coverage… Adams is a freelancer…Grantland <\/a><\/em>, on the other hand, is a website that boasts deep pockets and Bill Simmons, among other notable contributors…When Bryan Curtis<\/a> wrote virtually the same column, \u00a0you didn’t hear a (spoken) word….<\/p>\n