It’s one thing for a reporter to disrespect a blogger, but it’s another for a reporter to advocate wiping bloggers out as Bill Conlin from the Philadelphia Daily News has done.
Let’s start with an innocent e-mail sent by Bill B., a sabermetric Phillies fan who also runs the blog crashburnalley. After he read an article written by Conlin about Jimmy Rollins winning the National League Most Valuable Player, he wrote an e-mail to Conlin saying based on the numbers, the Mets’ David Wright had a better year than Rollins. He made the case for Wright, informed Conlin that he wrote a blog and added this:
Hi Mr. Conlin,
Hope all is well. My name is Bill as well, and I run a blog called Crashburn Alley. Needless to say, I’ve read many of the blogs bashing your article, such as Fire Joe Morgan and the discussion at Baseball Think Factory.
So, I’m not going to bash you since it’s already been done……
…It’s a bitter pill for me to swallow — to make the case against Rollins — being a die-hard Phillies fan, but I try to be objective. I don’t even think Ryan Howard deserved the NL MVP award last season over Albert Pujols.
I added the bold to that phrase. It’ll be important later on. But Conlin who rarely sees the forest through the trees replied this way:
Know what, pal? Bash this. . .Tell your bloggers, my career against theirs. . .
Nice. Instead of reading through the entire e-mail, Conlin goes on the attack with an idiotic statement. And Bill replied back:
Well, Mr. Conlin, I have to say that I’m disappointed….
…I will take it by your evasion of my questions and the facts I’ve stated that you are unable to make any legitimate case for Rollins over Wright for MVP. But, hey, whatever helps you sell papers.
Bill stated that emphatically that he was a Phillies fan, gave Conlin a link to his blog, but despite all this, Conlin fired back:
Don’t you need to contact the 30 electors–including the two Mets beat writers–who failed to give write a single first place vote instead of a commentator who does not vote for the awards. You’re a Mets fan and you had your little bubble of arrogance and smugness burst. Your team choked big time, an epic gagaroo. At least the 1964 Phillies had an excuse–they were probably no more than the Cardinals, Reds, Braves, Dodgers and Giants that year. One question: When a Mets team chokes in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a gagging sound? Next time bring more to the table than wishful fan numbers that bear no semblance to reality. I wonder how it feels to be the Phillies bitch.
Again, Bill B. wrote that he was a Phillies fan, but Conlin didn’t see or want to see it. And it all might have ended there until Conlin wrote the following inexplicable statement. Again, I add the bold.
The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler’s time on earth–I’m sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called “Pamphleteers.” They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO. Shakespeare accidentally summed up the genre best with these words from a MacBeth soliloquy: “. . .a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. . .”
Now to paraphrase Lou Dobbs of CNN, where in the world does Conlin come off comparing bloggers to the persecuted Jews who were sent to concentration camps? This is the most vile, disgusting comment someone can make. Yes, I’m a blogger, no, I’m not Jewish, but this is extremely offensive.
You can read the entry and the e-mails in their entirety over at crashburnalley here. Am I out of line thinking what Conlin wrote was outrageous? Let me know.
