Soundchaser brought it up in the diaries. Last night on HBO the traditional media vs. the new media took center stage as Will Leitch from Deadspin was thrown into the lions den in defending what bloggers are and what we are about. He did a great job at controlling his emotions and not taking the bait as Costas sandbagged Leitch by hardly letting Leitch defend himself from the gratuitous attack by Buzz Bissinger.

If you haven't read about it Holly has all the links as to what you should read. If you didn't see it, Awful Announcing has the videos here and here.

The eloquent part, aside from Will's piece linked above, is from none other than Orson earlier today.

This is simply outstanding and his being transparent goes a long way to his legitimacy. Being open or transparent isn't for everyone and that's fine but when guys like Will Leitch or Spencer Hall (aka Orson) or Peter Bean stand front and center in this new media thing called blogging it does give the new media thing credibility.

Whether or not you agree with my opinions on what I write here; weather or not you participate by leaving a comment or posting a diary. The fact that you come here at all shows that you look to other outlets of information outside of the traditional media when looking for information on USC. Yes, a lot of my info comes from the traditional media but I get other tidbits from other areas as well. The relevancy of the blogosphere has been challenged and attacked by those who feel most threatened by its very existence.
That's too bad because the two can coexist and the blogosphere is not going away.

Bissinger might have made headway with his argument had he not acted like a loud mouthed teenager instead of the respected journalist and author that he is. Unfortunately a lot of that respect went south after his performance last night. Costas cheapened himself too by not trying to keep it within some semblance of civility on Bissinger's part, that really isn't surprising because Costas isn't a fan of bloggers anyway.

It's sad really because some real understanding of the new media could have taken place last night and the paranoia of the traditional media, mostly from columnists, not the beat writers could have slightly been assuaged had the latter not acted like how they accuse the former. They missed a real opportunity.

What a shame...