Why BleacherReport Is Retarded: Part One of a Two Million Part Series

abyzmul · Mar 1, 2010

http://www.thejetsblog.com/2010/03/...-one-of-a-two-million-part-series/#more-22253

Why BleacherReport Is Terrible: Part One of a Two Million Part Series
Posted on March 1st, 2010 by Bassett

Warning, Media 2.0 / blogging / meta-news talk ahead …

There’s been some confusion, and poor David Wyatt of SBNation’s Jets blog GangGreenNation.com has been drawn into it, unknowingly. David has done a great job with GGN, so we don’t want to see any confusion or mistrust of readers on his behalf, that would suck. Apparently someone set up an account with his same name on Bleacher Report and wrote the following blatant rumor mongering at best, festering turd at worst about Revis being traded.

In an unexpected move the Jets have entered the talks for Antonio Cromartie and even more unexpectedly have offered Darrelle Revis. On the Chargers end they’ll be included a small army of players and the Jets might not be done including some value on their side as well.

As the trade stands now the Chargers would send Antonio Cromartie, Shawn Merriman, Vincent Jackson, their 1st and 3rd round picks in 2010 and their 1st and 2nd round picks in 2011. The Jets would send Darrelle Revis, Vernon Gholston, Kerry Rhodes and their 3rd and 4th round pick in 2011.

This deal is expected to go down fairly soon so stay close to the most accurate source of sports information, the Bleacher Report.

Umm what? Just more proof why B/R is trash.

So the Jets, who have already leaked that they want to sign Revis to a new deal … a guy who just challenged for the DMVP and who might be the arguably best player in his division right now are going to ship him off to San Diego for Antonio Cromartie and a tackling sled? Hell, the sled has more value to the Jets than would Cro … since you could actually start the sled. Why am I actually even dignifying this schlock with a response?

Here’s why … onto some old fashioned bare knuckle BleacherReport bashing …

I’ve withheld judgment as much as I could on Bleacher Report. I even met the CEO last spring at BlogsWithBalls who seemed nice enough. I’ve seen them screw over capable writers to put other folks into some enviable media embeds, and I was pretty much at the end my rope when I saw this article this morning and all the crap that the real Dave Wyatt had to take because of it on his Twitter account.

In my opinion, the premise of Bleacher Report is flawed from the start. While it seems to be gaining steam in terms of page views, I just don’t see it as a long-term viable media platform from a fan’s perspective and I’ll explain why. It’s nothing I’ve not said before to friends at bars or others in the business, but something I’ve never really written on or shared here on TJB. Maybe the company will change their model (I hope so for their job and investors sake) but at it’s base it needs serious refinement.

The premise of B/R for writers is to “provide our community of talented writers with the best possible experience … [and] … create first-rate content … [t]hus, for many writers, contributing to Bleacher Report is a superior experience than operating an independent blog.” For readers they claim to “provide more articles than can be found on traditional media sites, and our pieces offer true fan perspectives. What’s more, our stories reflect the diversity of opinions and styles that are inherent in our massive writing community. No other sports website exhibits more creative and original content than Bleacher Report.”

As I write these reasons below, I realized my argument stinks of class-ism, and if that’s the case, then so be it. At least I recognize as I publish it.

Reason Number 1: It’s a Punchline Among Serious Bloggers — Being a sports blogger myself, I’ve talked to a lot of other sports bloggers. For those who have cut their teeth on sports blogging and made something out of it … fighting with Wordpress Themes or Blogspot constrictions, having their host crash their blog, busting their ass to get readers, they see Bleacher/Report as something of a joke. Like a welfare state-sponsored version of blogging. It’s ideal is noble, and something that most bloggers would agree with in principle, but they also see through the lens of the meritocracy that their own blogging has allowed them. Their writing on their own blog has allowed them success, but why does some person who’s written three articles ever get their content fed to Google? That concept is obscene to a longtime blogger.

In contrast AOL’s FanHouse project (under the insightful direction of Jamie Mottram) sought out the best existing bloggers at it’s inception, and it’s created a runaway success with a solid reputation of blogging/journalism from the word ‘go.’

Reason Number 2: Shouting “Fire!” With a Megaphone in a Crowded Theater — So seeing someone garner attention just because they shouted “fire!” in a crowded theater like the writer did above, is just plain laughable. How does a fans perspective equate to blatantly irresponsible rumor mongering? Somehow though, this content will get propagated to Google, Fox and CBS, and then the forums and “teh internetsland” will be alight with this story today, just because some goon with no accountability hiding behind a big brand decided to write some incendiary crap about Revis. It basically brings down the profile of the whole company, yet for whatever reason, B/R readers will return to their own vomit. And this seems to happen all the time, we only see it when it relates to the Jets, but from what I can gather, this stuff happens a lot on B/R.

Reason Number 3: More s### is still s###, Mr. Kelly: I believe at Blogs With Balls, CEO Mr. David Kelly boasted that they B/R writes more content about sports than the AP does. The comment, which was maybe meant to be benign, still struck me as pure hubris. If it was simply meant as a “newspapers are dying and we can fill the gap” comment, then OK, I’ll partially agree with that. But still … is it more of a good thing if the the writing doesn’t meet basic standards? More of anything doesn’t necessarily make it better. There’s a reason why Peter Luger’s and Papaya King don’t charge the same price for food.

Reason Number 4: It’s a Gristmill — Like any Big Six (big five? big four? what is it now?) consultancy, they care more about your productivity than about bettering the actual producer. More comments, more views, that’s the bottom line and that what determines “success.” Writers cannibalize each other for links, eyeballs and approval. The model seems to suck the life-force out of writers as long as they can, not really caring about their goals and dreams or sharing profits with them. See it as a platform, and nothing more. Think of this as a cyber-internship while hating a real job. They seem to use writers until they move onto something else … in that way, it seems kind of like working at a Wal-Mart, “we’ll pay you less because we can, until you go do something else — you pick.”

Reason Number 5: What’s Good, and Why Should I Waste My Time Trying to Figure This Out? — Right now, there’s no way for me, newbie B/R reader to know what’s good and bad writing at B/R. While they’ve employed a weak filtration system, as best I can tell. I as a the new reader have to self-select and find what’s good for myself. If that takes more than a minute, why not just got to The Daily News or ESPN for the news, then hit the comments or something else wherever I like to talk about my team?

In and of itself self-selection by a reader is not a problem. I read Simmons (which is to say, rarely) more than I read Reilly (never), but with as much content as B/R itself now boasts to generate, it does a very poor job of filtering the good and bad content for the new reader or which it propagates out to the larger blogosphere. As far as I can tell, they just care about getting themselves out there, whatever way that might be. Because of this, I see Bleacher/Report articles as basically a clog in the drain of my RSS feeders, nothing more. I know many other savvy folks who feel the same way.

Reason Number 6: Who is This Again? — It’s ironic, that a brand so invested in championing the fan, brands themselves as a monolithic organization “Bleacher Report” — like the AP. There’s very little focus on the writer over the brand, which is a major problem long-term. You are reading this site partly because it’s Jets news, but probably more now if you are a returning reader because you’ve created a connection with the writers here — or so we’d hope — you trust the content because of the trust with the writer. It’s like buying a known brand of ketchup versus one that’s new. You know what Brand A tastes like already, why would you go test Brand B? What’s compelling enough to pull you away from spending your money (or in this case, time) on something you don’t know anything about?

After saying all this, the biggest cause of internal conflict for me with B/R is that there are great writers on B/R. I cannot stress how much I respect and admire a writer (who helps out here) like Angel Navedo. Angel is a better writer than I am, HANDS DOWN, but I worry that good writers there just get lumped in with the bad ones … and it’s hard as a casual reader to really tell the difference. Sigh. In the end, the individual blog branding along with umbrella branding of a company like SBNation seems a much stronger and sustainable way to go than the monolithic one that B/R offers.

My advice to readers? Unless you already trust the author (like say our own AWESOME WRITER Angel Navedo) read Bleacher Report at your own risk. It could be a waste of time, it could be awesome, but like that unknown brand of ketchup, are you really compelled to find out?

UPDATE: B/R has taken down the article.
Click to expand...

Milliner is your Mommy · Mar 1, 2010

lol the fact that people still read Bleacher Report is rediculous. I would stop watching football for the rest of my life sooner then i would read another BR article.

NDmick · Mar 1, 2010

CEO Mr. David Kelly?

Now I know who "Kelly~~" is.

BadgerOnLSD · Mar 1, 2010

From now on, posting a BR article should be a bannable offense. I'm completely serious. If we're changing rules in regards to the TT forum and such, might as well improve other areas of the forum too.

AlioTheFool · Mar 1, 2010

I have never once visited Bleacher Report. The only time I've even heard of them is when someone posts one of their "articles" on this site, and it's always garbage.

No offense to the "blogosphere" (hell, I blog myself) but you still can't beat the older outlets. I know everyone wants to pretend that everyone out there has better information or at least presents it with less partiality than the MSM, but the fact is, most blogs are made of puke sandwhiched between two slices of crap.

Why BleacherReport Is Retarded: Part One of a Two Million Part Series

abyzmul R.J. MacReady, 2018 Funniest Member Award Winner

Milliner is your Mommy Well-Known Member

NDmick Revis Christ

BadgerOnLSD Banned

AlioTheFool Spiveymaniac

Share This Page

Useful Searches

Why BleacherReport Is Retarded: Part One of a Two Million Part Series

abyzmul R.J. MacReady, 2018 Funniest Member Award Winner

Milliner is your Mommy Well-Known Member

NDmick Revis Christ

BadgerOnLSD Banned

AlioTheFool Spiveymaniac

Share This Page