Buzz Bissinger and Nik Richie Get on Air Together and Somehow Nothing Explodes

You would think that Buzz Bissinger and Nik Richie (theDirty.com, not pictured) ending up on the same radio program, Bill Littlefield's outstanding Only a Game on NPR, would result in the world's first airwave strangulation. Surprisingly, the short interview went pretty well.

There were only a few seconds of real tension in the interview (about 4:24) when Richie attempted to point out the Dirty's "Gossip Disclaimer" as it related to his accusations of Kobe Bryant's infidelity, and the Bissinger starts to go off and mentions "Leitch" again.

But more to the point, since America is clearly tired of talking about Buzz, what really stood out for me was a disturbing statement that Richie made relating to blogger stereotypes.

I'm not really an investigative journalist. I'm just a blogger.

That is a problematic statement. First of all, again, blogging is a medium. "Being a blogger" does not necessarily force one to be a sarcastic gossip/rumor monger. Nor does it preclude one from actually being an investigative journalist.

Richie can say "my blog doesn't deal with journalism" and I would be fine with that, but to perpetuate the stereotype that bloggers do not care about actually being journalists simply because "they blog" is a silly, outdated copout. It is also the primary reason why -- dying medium aside -- newspaper writers dislike bloggers.

I'm not asking Nik Richie to stop doing what he is doing. Blogs and journalism do not have to go hand in hand. But just don't use the "Hey man, I'm just a blogger!" line. Blogs really aren't -- as Buzz pointed out -- "as counterculture as you think", and embracing the anti-journalism stereotype certainly will not help dissipate the notion that a certain medium lacks standards or reasonable perspectives on sports and society.