By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

There really was no bigger media story this week - and yes, we mean ALL of media - than the slightly over-discussed, but still educational, Buzz-on-Will episode from HBO’s Costas Now special on Tuesday night.

The discussion has successfully spun off into all sorts of subsets of the two men’s thoughts, accusations and misinformation - as we should expect it to in this Internet Age. But it has also generated some truly visceral reactions from a diverse group of sports media’s modern-day thinkers and tinkerers. If I may be so bold, here are a few secondary reactions from what was a very compelling look at the underbelly of various feuds that now exist in the delivery of your sports news/analysis/coverage.

1. Buzz Bissinger isn’t just a sportswriter and Will Leitch is not just a blogger. And neither of the gentlemen are completely right or wrong on the complex evolution of their primary mediums. But Bissinger miscalculated big-time when he came out to play the role of everyone’s crazy uncle with a vim and venom usually reserved for grudge-match, prize fights. Bissinger was rude, condescending, under-informed and not the least bit sympathetic (as he certainly could have been if he played it right).

[One astute reader gave Shots a giggle when she reminded us that Bill Belichick and Bissinger were private school chums. The kind reader actually thought my Wednesday description of BB (The Writer) was similar to some descriptions of BB (The Genius).]

Leitch was a bit too hyped up at points and his Pantomime Buzz bit felt a little too playful at the time when Bissinger was using nuclear bombs and Leitch was left with a malfunctioning squirt gun.

Still, even as ever-dwindling Costas piled on, the most embarrassing performance remained in the body of Bissinger. Clearly he wasn’t looking to win fans but it almost seemed as if he was trying (very hard) to earn enemies. Which he did. Forever.

2. ESPN will surely try to one-up the HBO effort and turn the Blogger vs. Old Media vs. Mainstream Media into a reality series. Can’t you just picture the dudes from Kissing Suzy Kolber, The Big Lead, Deadspin, Bissinger, Beano Cook, Bill Plaschke, MJD (see below) and Henry Abbott living in a Bristol condo and performing feats of strength on the ESPN campus as mascots cheer them on from cubicles?

3. A lot of what Leitch and his ilk seem to be getting blamed for is the drivel put forth by Commenters. While we understand that web site operators are responsible for what is on their site, it’s terribly unfair to not recognize the often creative, sometimes insightful and usually copious amount of writing that Leitch and others perform daily. Commenting at most sites is the “talk radio caller line” portion of the site and its minions are usually miserable, immature and when prodded, downright childish.

Still, if a letter to the editor appears in a newspaper and that letter is found offensive or off-base, the ensuing outcry isn’t against the writer of the article that prompted the letter, is it? It’s against the letter writer, as it should be.

If Costas and Bissinger, et al can’t distinguish between the “writer” and the “commenter” then they need to further investigate how this whole Internets thing works.

4. Mitch Albom, in his segment, looked only slightly less foolish than Braylon Edwards in the Blogger segment. Wonderful, Mitch, your journalist friends have degrees and advanced degrees. I’m very unclear on how that leaves them more qualified to comment on what they watch than people without such “rigorous” training. Just because some people went to years of school at a young age doesn’t mean they don’t become lazy and repetitive at an older age.

5. The only thing worse than Bissinger’s ignorance on the matter of bloggers is the ignorance and stupidity of sports talk radio hosts who attempted to to dissect the Buzz-on-Will segment. We didn’t hear it, but we’re old the Pete Sheppard take on WEEI 850 AM on Thursday afternoon was about what you’d expect from a complete meathead with zero understanding of the dynamics in place.

• A brief follow-up to our item earlier this week where a former off-Broadway blogger-turned-mainstream media blogger MJD had, what we perceived to be, some pretty offensive NFL Draft commentary. Responding to our inquiries on the matter, Yahoo! Sports editor, Dave Morgan, emailed the following statement regarding MJD:

“While I respect MJD’s explanation about the intent of his post, his remarks did not meet Yahoo!’s editorial standards and were promptly removed by our editors.”

Problem is, the comments were removed and made to seem as if they never appeared, which they obviously did and for more than 24 hours. (A problem of standards and procedure, we surmise.) In reviewing other MJD posts, it’s clear that Yahoo! has a long way to go in establishing said standards and editing procedures for its bloggers. If they - or others - think you can just simply snatch up popular bloggers from independent sites, add water and generate traffic to make money, they are sadly mistaken. It’s just not that simple.

Unfortunately, the only way these major companies are going to learn this lesson is through some type of lawsuit or major protest and that day is probably not all that far off. MJD’s subsequent emails to Shots, where he tried to deflect criticism back on me for daring to criticize him, were a strong indication that the guy just doesn’t get it and at some point his own bravado is going to bring him down.

Morgan would be wise to keep tight reins on the supposed Mighty MJD before he mightily brings down the Y! sports brand that Morgan has worked hard to build up.

. . . Speaking of wasted money, our perusal on Yahoo! also led to the discovery of a long-time mainstream media gatherer who apparently has convinced Morgan and his staff that his opinions are worthy of some of Jerry Yang’s cash.

Check out this cached entry from Yahoo! contributor Roy Johnson (ex of Sports Illustrated and the New York Times).

[No, we don’t mean to pick on Yahoo! this week, but our MJD matter got us to surfin’ the nooks and crannies of the Yahoo! Sports site. Loyal Shotsists will recall all kinds of praise for Yahoo! in prior weeks and months.]

Johnson had trouble spelling (and seemingly more trouble spell-checking or self-editing) such rudimentary basketball names as Erick Dampier and PJ Carlesimo.

It took me a total of 20 seconds to search those two names and get the spellings correct. If established media veteran and self-important sports observer Roy Johnson doesn’t have 20 seconds to check what he puts forth, why on earth would Yahoo! think I’m going to waste that much time with something he (recycles or) writes? Trust me, those weren’t the only two careless errors made by the established veteran of the business (probably someone Albom would hold up as a highly trained professional).

Yes, it’s only spelling but that’s sort of the point, isn’t it? If Johnson doesn’t care enough to get it right, what makes us care enough to read what he’s writing? Even if his points are valid, we can’t get past the indication that he’s simply going through the motions.

. . . Still looks like Gordon Edes is going to wind up at Yahoo! but his appeal of the Globe’s denial of his buyout is going to delay things. Interestingly, a Globe mole informs us that the only other denied buyout was submitted by Sacha Pfeiffer, from the business side - a name that has not surfaced in this week’s piecemeal compilation of Globe goners. An email seeking clarification from Shots to Pfeiffer’s Globe email address earlier in the week was not returned.

. . . Careful observers will notice that Globe-departee-to-be Peter May has shown up on the Yahoo! site as well but Morgan, via email, indicated it’s just in a freelance role and “we don’t have anything with him beyond that at this time.”

• This week’s (month’s) fawning goodbyes to Bob Lobel sure were pretty and sweet. But let me ask you this? When Curt Schilling goes into retirement are there going to be these kind of puff pieces tossed his way? Or do you think, ya know, the Shaughnessys of the world will actually point out some of Schill’s failings and foibles? Why then, do people like Danny Boy neglect to mention that Lobel has been awful for the better part of a decade or that his very medium has become nearly irrelevant?

Yes, Lobel is a “legend” in the market, but to only sugarcoat his overdue farewell is a disservice to the readers.

• It seems Shots has been dropped from the NESN press release distribution list, which is a shame because we would have loved to tell you about the re-launch of NESN.com on Monday. Instead, NESN can rely on its bed-mates at the Globe to give you the pertinent information.

Interesting way of publicizing new ventures, wouldn’t you agree, Monsieurs Feld and McGrail? It’s not like the city is crawling with sports media columnists and you’d think every little bit would help. Guess not.

. . . Comcast SportsNet too, is now, sharing content with Boston.com as it provides special Celtics content for the site.

• More discouraging newspaper world news as Shots is told the Nashua Telegraph has taken its Boston beat writers off their respective pro beats, in what can only be considered a cost-cutting measure.

Other suburban paper writers are now getting more and more nervous by the day as newspapers continue to look to wire services for coverage of the pro teams and focus man hours on local coverage.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shotsATbostonsportsmediaDOTcom.

Scott’s first book, with Memphis Coach John Calipari, is scheduled for release in the Fall of 2009.