When ESPN’s Michael Wilbon threw out the first pitch at last night’s Cubs/Cardinals game at Wrigley Field, and then proceeded to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’…just like the girls state soccer champs from Hinsdale Central, and the like…he finally crossed the tangible line from respectable journalist, into hated, vile sports bloggery.
True, ‘Pardon the Interruption’ is probably the biggest video blog of them all, but does its sanction make it any less snarky than any other blog in the world? Of course not. What is ‘PTI’ other than the grandfather of every sports blog on the internet?
Sure, they have ‘access’, but it’s not like they use their ‘inside’ info or high-profile guests to break stories…they use that privilege simply to sell commercials, just like the rest of us.
Wilbon is merely a ‘jet-set’ sports celebrity these days. He attends a-list parties…he hangs out with porn stars and prostitutes…he lets his insincere friendships interfere with his ‘reporting’…and yet he has the gall to attack us ‘regular joe’ bloggers who are simply less successful than he and aspire to his level of professional exploitation.
He has never made a secret of his allegiances, of course…most of which we share (except for his nonsensical Bartman bashing…we just don’t get how a quasi-intelligent person can honestly blame Steve Bartman for anything.)…but legitimate journalists just aren’t allowed to take it as far as Wilbon has without having their press passes forever yanked.
It’s exactly as if he were in the clubhouse training room getting banged silly by Jim Edmonds before a ballgame, then slinking out, clothes all sticky and disheveled, trying to cover the team with a straight face and a heavy heart.
The sports blogosphere is filled to the brim with hypocrites and poseurs (cough, cough Jay Mariotti, cough)…we only hope that Mike Wilbon will admit to his part in this shady world before ESPN replaces him with someone much, much more relevant.
