Blogging's Writing, but Rarely Reporting

So, I wake up at like 10:30 in the morning and do what every American does on New Year's Day -- tune my high-def TV to the National Hockey League Winter Classic on NBC.

The game was played on an outdoor rink in the center of Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Red Wings were playing the Blackhawks and ...

OK, so almost no one would tune into the Winter Classic first thing New Year's Day. I did, though, because I'd heard that last year's Winter Classic outdoors in Buffalo, N.Y. was really amazing to watch. I barely find hockey interesting, let alone amazing. So, I tuned in out of curiosity. (I'd tune in to watch Julio Iglesias in concert on an iceberg is people said he was putting on an amazing show.)

There wasn't anything really different about the hockey match, beyond that it was being held outdoors. Quick flip to one of the meaningless college football bowl games...and, yeah, I know this doesn't have anything to do with the North Coast...and I see that ESPN's reporting that the Denver Post is reporting that the San Francisco Giants are "pursuing" free agent star Manny Ramirez.

And, like I just wrote, I know this doesn't have anything to do with Humboldt County or anything. It has something to do with blogging and writing and just writing and reporting.

I've only been a Giants fan since 1963, so I don't believe they'll do the right thing just because I read they are on ESPN. So...I get online and check the Denver Post. The Post baseball writer had, literally, a throw-away sentence at the end of his notes column stating that an anonymous source inside big league baseball said that the Giants are "pursuing" Ramirez.

Realizing a bat boy, equipment manager or the head of the grounds crew could be "an anonymous source inside big league baseball," I moved to MLBrumors.com -- a go-to spot to get a compilation of baseball notes, rumors and, sometimes, actual news. I go to the comments portion of the report...where one sentence became a story someone post on the rumors site...and read hundreds of comments from people who took the Giants/Manny story as the gospel truth.

That's what bugs me! Well, it bugs me that I'm technically a blogger...as opposed to a writer using a new forum to write about all kinds of things. It bugs me more that one sentence in a beat writer's column can become news and that the not-even-real news crosses the country like wildfire.

I checked Google news for Manny Ramirez stories and saw...links to blogs...commenting on the "story" that grew from one sentence in the Denver Post. Nobody reported anything. No one tried to shed light on how the rumor did or didn't tie into what the Giants have been saying they're willing to do to better the club. And, I guess, given that almost no one with a baseball blog seems to know anything about my Giants -- how could they shed any light on the rumor?

Nothing like a New Year's Day rant...but, I don't understand how people can write (or blog) about the same topic all the time. Oh, I know there are folks who check this spot for North Coast baseball stuff and then ignore everything else...and I'm even more aware the stories I write for my own amusement probably get overlooked. But...I just can't write about the same things all the time because I bore really easily. I'm easily distracted because...

What was I writing again?

Oh, I'm thinking about this all-time North Coast baseball team thing...and I'm always thinking about stories about stuff that went on back home...but, damn, I'm distracted by the fact that this Giants-Ramirez deal became a national story without a hint of journalism to be found.

Oh, journalism...how high and mighty are those people who call themselves "journalists" and talk about how they need to discuss things with "my editor." They bother me almost as much as bloggers...and, technically, I'm both a journalist and a blogger.

I laughed at the lead paragraph in the Times-Standard's piece about the top news stories of the North Coast year. It started with, "Journalists like lists." (Maybe "love lists," I forget.)

a) Who cares?
b) How is that sentence going to draw readers into the story?
c) It's editors who love lists, especially at the end of the year when there's no real news and lists of top stories, top personalities and best movies can fill pages that would otherwise be filled with wire stories about events in Iowa or Israel. (And, I'm in favor of us all paying attention to stories about the little fracas in Israel, right now.)
d) Lists have taking the place of writing in most newspapers.
e) See? I just made a list a, b, c, d, e...instead of actually explaining what bothers me about lists that get passed off as stories.

Happy New Year.