Rather than prattle on today about bad the White Sox are (South Side Sox has you covered) I thought I would stick my head in the noose that is bloggers vs. mainstream media in light of the current situation regarding Midwest Sports Fans and Raul Ibanez.

The story for the unfamiliar is a writer at Midwest Sports Fans wrote a blog in which he marveled at the year the Phillies Raul Ibanez was having and hinted that perhaps Raul had a little chemical help.  Somehow, word of this filtered down to Ibanez, who angrily said he was not enhanced and that MLB could test any of his bi-products to prove it.  He also played the "42 year-old in his mother's basement" card which really ticks off bloggers.

The situation was further exacerbated when ESPN's "Outside the Lines" picked up on the story inviting the writer who wrote the story, JROD on the air along with Fox's Ken Rosenthal and John Gonzalez.  And, in my opinion,  ESPN was setting this up as a way to discredit bloggers to make themselves and the big boys look good.  I'm not saying JROD was General Custer, but ESPN was definitely Sitting Bull.  Certainly, the production staff at ESPN coached some of the combatants.

During the course of the discussion, Rosenthal grew defensive and said that ten years ago, this would have never happened.  While this is true, it wouldn't have happened thirty years ago either because we didn't own PCs and there was no public access to the Internet.  That makes it a moot point.

This interview has really fired up the bloggers who are all over Rosenthal and the mainstream media.  The shouts of "newspapers are dying" and "mainstream guys are panicking" are popular themes.  To a certain degree you are right, but not because of why you may think.

The difference between writing a blog and being a member of the mainstream media is accountability.  I write this blog everyday and am accountable to no one.  I have no editor, no investors, no corporate consultants to challenge anything that I might dream up. If I want to take a shot at something, I do.  If I want to theorize that Carlos Quentin's struggles this year are because he isn't eating enough spinach, I'll write that.  It's my opinion and I am entitled to it, even if it may be far fetched and I haven't had to seek confirmation that it's true.

Which leads me to Ken Rosenthal and the mainstream guys.  For you bloggers who have never worked in mainstream media and are basically fans with opinions, Rosenthal answers to a much higher standard.  For one thing, he has to back up everything he writes or says.  Why? Because he has to maintain his credibility.  Ken Rosenthal along with Jay Glazer, Chris Mortensen, Peter King and others get their information through carefully cultivated sources.  Many of them work inside the teams, many are players.  In order to sustain that relationship, they have to be credible. 

In addition, they actually face the players on the field and in the locker room.  It's easy to write a scathing blog about Josh Fields, but is another having to face him and his teammates everyday in the locker room.  Maybe that's why Jay Mariotti stays out of the locker room.

When I was covering the NHL in Nashville, I was at a game where Joe Sakic, one of the best faceoff guys on the planet had a 45% night.  In the post game circle jerk (reporters crowded around a players locker) I asked him if he was concerned about that.  He looked up at me and told me it was early in the season and that he would be fine.  You could have heard a pin drop.  He wasn't very happy with me, but I felt like I had to ask the question.  There is a difference between having to stare down an NHL legend and simply writing on line that Joe Sakic had a crappy night with faceoffs. 

When I was a PD in sports talk radio, I made sure that whatever rumors we had were substantiated before we put them on the air.  This was the source of endless agony for my staff, but I felt that for the radio station to be considered credible, we had to back this stuff up.  Because we had to deal with the teams and the players.  And I can tell you from experience that if a Milwaukee sports station, no matter how small or inconsequential in the ratings, comes out with juicy, unsubstantiated Packer story, you can expect a phone call from an angry PR guy who will threaten you with everything from having your entire organization's credentials pulled to bodily harm.

We even had some of our talk show hosts that upset the Packers.  We had Mike Sherman on after the press conference that announced that he was fired and asked him some pointed questions.  He called the Packers and said he was ambushed, even though he wasn't and even though he was no longer with the organization.  Bloggers do not face that kind of reaction or scrutiny by the teams because they don't need the team's cooperation to be successful.

Ken Rosenthal just can't run with a story.  There are editors and programmers and even lawyers who might have to sign off on something.  Same with Glazer.  And I'll bet both of those guys have gone crazy waiting for someone to get back to them to let them run with something.  There are checks and balances in mainstream media that bloggers don't have to deal with and those are the things that drive a guy like Rosenthal nuts.  It's not a level playing field.

If a well connected blogger like Brooks or Deadspin catches wind of a story, they can run with it and break it.  Rosenthal can't. 

I support both points of view because I, personally, have been on both sides of the fence.  Before you as a blogger go off on Rosenthal, understand what he has to deal with and what you don't.  It doesn't cheapen what you do, but it does put in perspective that maybe he's not upset because you have an opinion, he's upset because he has to be rooted in fact.

Please indulge me one other quick point.  I'm a trained broadcaster who has been behind a microphone since Jimmy Carter was President.  I do not believe that anyone can do this job and I certainly don't believe that most people understand what it takes to do it well on a daily, weekly and yearly basis.  Yet there are those who believe that this is easy work and that they could walk in off the street and perform at an acceptable level.  I get agitated with that, probably the same way Rosenthal gets wrankled by citizen journalism. 

There is nothing wrong with blogging and nothing wrong with sharing your take with the world via the internet.  Just remember though, you never know who is reading it, who is reacting to it and what the fallout, as JROD is finding out might be.  

And, oh, by the way.  My parents don't have a basement.