While on hold waiting for my turn to talk, you get the radio feed pumped in as the "hold" music, and everything they said just screamed that they didn't really have a clue what they were talking about.  Like normal they are a couple of days behind the story that truehoop, (a blog btw) and Mark Cuban started. Because a caller is only given so much time, I had to be brief and just said that while I agree that a governing body for bloggers, or some kind of ethics panel, who can judge which blogs are worthy would seem ideal, I don't see that happening. I said Blogs are going to be here, they are a new media and sports teams should embrace them, like the Blazers have with Blazersedge, and even hireing their own blogger. They obviously have done some research on Blazeredge before giving Ben his pass, and felt that it was a crediable site for Blazer info to be passed along. In the end my opinion was that for now, I think it is up to the teams to decide who gets in and who doesn't, and I think they should look to give access to bloggers, if they feel the blog lives up to normal journalistic standards.

However there was much more that I wanted to say.

1. Issac and the Big Suck, are not internet guys. I don't know if Suke can do much more than navigate internet explorer, and for the most part he only goes to websites that his friends send him, like www.allballsallthetime.com. Their view that all bloggers are writing out of their momma's basement is basically slander on every good blogger out there. They are not the only media people to have this view either, as Bob Costis(sorry I can't spell his last name) recently said that all bloggers are losers, or something to that affect.
   
2. They kept going on about how some blogger is going to go too far, and there is no way to get back at them if they do. Well there is a way to get back, you deny them access, or take away the access you have given them. It is very easy to sit someone down and lay the ground rules down before you give them access, and if they break the rules, then their access is revoked. Slander lawsuits are not needed, but could be used if someone really wanted to, (with free speach, I doubt you would win a case like that unless it was really blatant).
   
3. Credibilty, they talked about how do you decide who gets in and who doesn't. Well there are some very easy ways to decide this, (truehoop and some good ideas as well) but the first that come to my mind are; readership and advertising. If a blog has a following that can generate advertising then it should be worth a teams time to take a look at that blog if they request access. If a blog is getting 10,000 hits a day, then they might want to consider giving that site some access to spread news about their team, after all it is basically free advertising for the team. For now the team will have to make the decision if that same site has high enough journalistic integrity for them to get access, but again with ground rules set, I don't see it as much of an issue.
   
4. Both of 1080's hosts are way behind the times. The internet is where the people of my generation get our news, (I am 29). Unlike Issac and Suke suggest, I am more than capable of telling the good blogs, from the bad ones. There is a big difference between Blazersedge, which has advertisers, and a set code of ethics, and John Doe sports page, that is filled with rants about his favorite teams. Rational, reasonable people can tell the difference and don't believe bs when they hear it. Listening to these two makes one believe that people are generally morons, and just believe whatever they hear or read.

5. And on a side note, wouldn't it be great if the only sports radio station in the Portland area would have at least one show dedictated to the only pro sports team in the area? I mean the Mike Terico(again I can't spell his name) is gawd awful terrible. Why can't we have a local Blazers centered show on the air in the middle of the day, espcially during the season. 2 hours of Blazer talk by reasonably informed people would make me listen at work, and in the car more than any other show they have on their station at the present point.  Blazermaina is going to hit full force next season, you would think that the sports radio station would want a piece of that. It amazes me when I think of how bad the coverage of this team is on the fan now that Gavin is gone.

I remember this summmer (when there were no games on) they talked alot of Blazers.  It wasn't great, but at least they were talking about them.

AND

Paul Allen is going to switch 95.5 FM to sports programming and pick up ESPN Radio. Blazers games and other local sports would move to FM as well. I hope this happens.

http://feedback.pdxradio.com/messages/5/5.html?1205811862

Under the thread: 1080 The Fan: "Coming Soon, the New On-Air Lineup"

Here is where my conspiracy theroy is:  Cuban was the person who really made a media spectacle out of bloggers with media credentials.  Of course radio shows (sports based and others) ran the story because it came over the "wire".  The next morning Colin Cowherd had it on his ESPN show.  I heard it there. That evening it was a topic on Suke & Ropp's 1080 show.  Suke basically copied all of Cowherds feelings on this and played them off as his own.

"Journalists" get paid, but they are mainly paid by sponsors, and the bosses of those journalists favor doing things that make sponsors happy, or that can make more money for the media group.  Bloggers are not "journalists" and do not have bosses censoring them.  They do not have sponsors censoring them.  They do not multi-billion dollar people controlling their livelihood.  Bloggers are a REAL media outlet where communication is a TWO-WAY street; rather than a ONE-way media stream that the USA is used to.  Meaning: media companies use Journalists as their One-direction communication of what they want others opinions to be.  For Journalists and Media groups, Pro Sports isn't just big business it is an entire industry.  They want to remain relevant and "a great source of information".  People, ,like us bloggers, do make these sports journalists irrelevant to a point.  Take Suke for example...

If his opinion is the only one NOT censored... then he is relevant.  The second we are all on a blog posting about how stupid and ignorant he can sound when he rants about something, he has lost all his relevancy on that arguement and can loose "fans" simply by other people reading negative comments about a radio personality that has not been challenged (because of the radio format).

Blogs are a great way to learn and understand many different sides of any story.  Blogs are a now a serious threat to Media companies trying to keep control of the sporting news industry.