Real Blogs, Fake Blogs

I like the UW athletic department website. There's a lot of great info there. We all know their "blogs" aren't really anything more than propoganda. And that's ok, it's UW's site, afterall. But 1st and Goal, their purported news aggregator, ends up disengenuous. If you want people to come to your site first to see what's going on out there in the world of Badger sports, but it doesn't include the biggest stories because they aren't positive for the University? Well, it ends up not being a particular good source. Example. No Carter and Pleasant story. Well, the Journal Sentinel wrote about it, Badger Beat wrote about it, the real blogs (bloggers, not just professional journalists putting out short stories without waiting for the morning copy of the paper) wrote about it. UW still hasn't acknowledged it. That's a pretty big story to fall through the cracks.

So, anyway, this brings up what a blog really is, and what it isn't. In my view, it's not professional journalists writing short stories that aren't tied to the paper's morning edition. That's just online news content. It's not UW putting out fluff pieces. That's propoganda. A blog is some independent out there recording their thoughts on the web. Now, some folks have done it well enough to actually make a living at it (in the sports world there's Brian at MGoBlog and . . .? Anyone else?). But most folks are just doing it for the fun of it, and because they know the journalists aren't really allowed to include all the invective opinion we little people can write.

Want news? Go to JSOnline or the BadgerBeat (they are both good for it). Want propoganda and details about two-deeps, rosters, etc., videos of presser's with Bielema et al, and game highlight films? Go the UWbadgers.com. Want real opinion pieces that are more likely to include a little UW history and fan perspective? That's where the blogs come in. Anyway, rant complete.