New Interview with Bob Costas and Buzz Bissinger, What makes a good writer?

Buzz Bissinger was recently on Costas Now on HBO. They ripped into Deadspins Will Leitch. Costas says he did not know Buzz would be so harsh, but it is obvious that he was a ringer. Costas is on record for not liking blogs. He is also on record for rethinking his stance on blogs. So, he brings in the left-hander Buzz to do his dirty work on his show.

I personally ran into Buzz Bissinger and did an impromptu interview. I call it “My Quest for a Good Sports Writer“. As we talked Bob Costas joined in. This was all a great surprise to me, but I was glad to get the great interview. It started off a little rocky, but then we got into a good debate.

• Ethan: Old newspaper writer.
• Buzz: Pulitzer Prize Winning Author.
• Ethan: Sorry I did not do my research for this interview. What makes a good writer?
• Buzz: I’m 53.
• Ethan : What?
• Buzz: I’m 53, I’m not old.
• Ethan: Well, I can’t just call you “man”.
• Buzz: You could say Buzz.
• Ethan: I didn’t know you were called Buzz.
• Buzz: Well, You didn’t bother to find out did you?
• Ethan: I did say sorry about the old newspaper writer thing, but from behind…
• Buzz: What I object to is, you automatically treating me like an equal.
• Ethan: Well, I am a blogger.
• Buzz: Oh, blogger, eh? Very nice. And how’d you get that, then? By exploiting the athletes! By cursing on about unsubstantiated facts which perpetuates the illiterate and idiotic sports differences in our society! If there’s ever going to be any progress…
• Costas: Buzz theres some lovely filth on Deadspin. Ooh. How do you do?
• Ethan: How do you do good Costas? I’m Ethan, NESW Sports Blogger. What makes a good writer?
• Costas: You’re a what?
• Ethan: I am a blogger.
• Costas: What is a blogger?
• Ethan: It is kind of like a writer. All three of us are writers, and I am a blogger.
• Costas: I did not know anyone read blogs. I thought Newspapers were the only publications.
• Buzz: You’re fooling yourself. We are living in a blogtatorship. A living in your mothers basement autocracy, in which the talented…
• Costas: Oh there you go bringing talent into it again.
• Buzz: That’s whats it all about. If only people…
• Ethan: Please, please good people. Let’s stay on topic. What makes a good writer?
• Costas: It’s not just having a blog.
• Ethan: Well, how do you become a writer?
• Buzz: We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as sort-of-executive writer for the week–
• Ethan: Yes.
• Buzz: But all the decisions of that writer have to be ratified at a special biweekly editorial meeting–
• Ethan: Yes, I see.
• Buzz: By a simple majority, in the case of purely sports updates–
• Ethan: [getting annoyed] Be quiet.
• Buzz: But by a two thirds majority, in the case of breaking sports news–
• Ethan: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
• Costas: Order, eh? Who does he think he is?
• Ethan: I am a blogger!
• Costas: Well I didn’t vote for you.
• Ethan:You don’t vote for bloggers!
• Costas:Well how’d you become blogger, then?
• Ethan: The Lady Wordpress,… [Angel chorus begins singing in background] her CSS clad in the purest shimmering HTML, held aloft NESW Sports from the bosom of the internet signifying by Divine Providence that I, Ethan Jaynes, was to use the pen name Ethanator1088. [Angel chorus ends] That is why I am a blogger!
• Buzz: Listen. Strange software companies having a dot com distributing web pages is no basis for a system of sports writing government. Supreme sports writing executive power derives from a mandate from the editors, not from some farcical online ceremony.
• Ethan: Be quiet!
• Buzz: You can’t expect to win a Pulitzer Prize just ’cause Techonrati gave you top 100,000 blog ranking!
• Ethan: Shut up!
• Buzz: I mean, if I went ’round saying I was a sports writer just because Ballhype had lobbed a good ranking at me, they’d put me away!
• Ethan: Shut up; will you SHUT UP?! [Grabs Buzz and shakes him]
• Buzz: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!
• Ethan: SHUT UP!
• Buzz: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being depressed!!
• Ethan: BLOODY WRITER! [ releases Buzz and walks away as other writers come to see what’s going on]
• Buzz: Oh, what a giveaway. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m all about! Did you see him depressing me? You saw it, didn’t you?

OK, hopefully by now you have realized that this interview never took place. I also hope that you get the joke. The inspiration came from this clip from one of my favorite movies of all time. I just wanted to make the point that, what Costas did with Buzz on his show was obvious. They attacked Lietch, and put him in a position that he could not defend himself.

Some bloggers are extremely talented and the difference from a blogger and a journalist can be blurred. Not all blogs use curse words. I do not. Some sports blogs are written with more style and skill than any newspaper I have read …. ever.

Examples.

• Awful Announcing
• Fire Joe Morgan
• Every Day Should Be Saturday
• The Big Lead — < They actually have a real interview with Buzz. Buzz says he is sorry and his wfie gets onto him about what he said. It is a great ” Actual ” interview

Just to name a quick 4. There are several others. Buzz, Costas, and several other elitists can be quick to judge, but the better written sports blogs will stand the test of time. They will outlast the newspapers. The voice of the profane blogs will get smaller and the better blogs will be the loudest voices on the internet. It all started with Deadspin and others will follow. The people use the internet. The people have a voice. Their language is ” blog”.

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