The Art of Blogging: A Facetious Take From ESPN's Tony Kornheiser

I have always liked Tony Kornheiser and his varying opinions on sports and life in general, whether it be on his radio (which I can and cannot stand at times), his articles in the Washington Post and on his infamous show, PTI, or Pardon the Interruption.

Ok, so I think he's sub-par on Monday Night Football, but that's not important here.

Well, Dan Steinburg, one of the premier bloggers online of the great D.C. Sport Bog (online via the Washington Post) in post this afternoon takes a look a recent discussion that Tony Kornheiser had on his show.

Needless to say from the title, Tony does not look highly upon small bloggers like myself, nor bigger, established ones like Deadspin (um, Will Leitch seems to be all over the place); however, that may not matter to Mr. Kornheiser.

From Dan Steinberg's blog (he gives a little intro): Having thought long and hard about how best to attack the advancing scourge of bloggers, Tony Kornheiser apparently settled on this novel approach: he could make a joke about how they do nothing but sit in their collective mothers' collective basements and watch television. This dialogue comes from Friday's show, in which Tony and Jeanne McManus were rightly discussing Simon Cowell's increased nastiness during Idol eliminations the night before.

Jeanne: He was much meaner than usual, but what is so annoying is that then Randy and Paula undercut him and try to talk over him and he's the only one with any honesty.

Tony: It's a real, it's a real mistake, and it happens. And I don't want to single anybody out in this area, but, you know, some people sit at home and they watch TV and they watch radio and they "blog" about certain "things," and they think they know what they're talking about, and they think they have sources. They have no sources. They make stuff up. They're toads. They're little toads. Actually, they're pimples on the behind of the greater body politic in this country and in this city (everyone in the studio cackles for no reason). And because, because they have access to airwaves and three or four people read them, they think, 'Oh, I'm very important.'

In fact, in fact, if a huge dumpster landed on their mother's house (cackling), and got all the way into the basement and crushed them (more cackling), nobody would care. Nobody would miss them. They provide nothing good, no service that's any good at all. They, they are, they are, they are sucking mole rats (more cackling), and that's the nicest I can be to them. But because, because they have a name, or, you know, because they get feedback from others, you know, they think they're very important. Randy and Paula think the show can't go on without them.

Jeanne: I was wondering how you'd get back to that.

Tony: Here's how long the show would go on without them: for the rest of time. Because as long as Simon is there, there's a show, right Jeanne?

Well, for anyone who does not know, Kornheiser is nothing but highly successful in his various media ventures, and I dare say part of the old guard.

However, I think he's extremely off-base, arrogant and asinine with his comments on bloggers in general.

Whether someone hosts their blog on a free network on Blogger, Wordpress or is part of a blog conglomerate, they have changed the face of reporting and method that news is now disseminated.

Mr. Kornheiser, an obviously smart man realizes this, but when he admits it, we in the world will be better for it.