Will the older members of the sports media please, if nothing else, at least become familiar with the concept of Twitter? Not the really old. Larry Merchant gets a pass. His pauses go way beyond 140 characters anyway. But if you’re on a daily to semi-daily show on the WWL, for instance, you should at least have a general understanding of the format. You don’t need an account. Just be cognizant enough to hold a conversation about it. It’s simple and it’s actually part of your goddamned job. Your supposed to be informing the masses. Feigned ignorance of lesser known players is bad enough, especially if they were prominent college players. Like all of a sudden, whenever say, Alando Tucker gets in a game for the Suns, it’s as if he’s some unknown from Belarus and not Wisconsin’s all time leading scorer and a former first team all American. That drives me nuts. You’re sports writers. You don’t do anything. You write 1500 word columns about Juan Pierre. You appear on Cold Pizza. If you’re lucky, you occasionally will appear on a show where your sports knowledge and debating skills are arbitrarily judged by someone half your age with a joystick. Make yourself a bastion of knowledge. That’s what’s in these days. Knowing shit.
More importantly, Twitter is now a vastly important news source. I know, it’s weird. I was hesitant myself once. But it’s relevant. In fact, it’s almost too relevant. And in the sports world, an interesting thing happened. Athletes became tired of the media’s mundane, roundabout bullshit questions and started saying interesting things on their own. It’s an integral part of the newsmaking landscape now. More than Facebook, BearShare, Minesweeper, etc. It gets discussed in some manner on practically every one of the WWL’s shows. So, this oft used crutch of “Well, I don’t use (new technology). I don’t even get it” needs to be eliminated from your vernacular. Or you need to retire. One of the two. But you should not be able to continue to appear on television, prattling on about how you’re comfortable dying with the current amount of knowledge your currently possess.
