Some leftover items…(my twitter followers may have seen me mention the other day that Matt at Mets Blog “beat” me to this topic…I originally had this scheduled for Friday but then the survey thing came along.)
Here’s Andy Martino in the News the other day:
The conference call with bloggers served a different function; obviously, the Mets did not control the questions, but they offered fan bloggers—whose advantage is their independence—access, the very thing that corrupts many journalists. By dialing into that call, bloggers stepped into the same ethically murky conflict of access vs. the ability to criticize that we MSM types face every minute. Many bloggers will be able to manage this inherent conflict well, as do many journalists—for the Mets, though, it was a smart attempt to corral some of the creators of public opinion. Worth noting, is all.
I enjoyed Andy’s breakdown. He is correct (elsewhere in the article) that fans need to understand that an official message from the Mets is an official message.
I saw a few people on twitter mention that the Mets were manipulating the bloggers. I understand the theory of keeping your enemies close and fat bloggers like me closer…but again Andy gives us credit for knowing that some bloggers will be able to manage the access/criticism thing.
I applaud the Mets and their efforts this offseason.
Good read…and a good followup discussion including some words from our old pal Ceetar.
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Once again I will bust out the “at least it’s blue” backhanded compliment. The only reason to ever use NYM is if you are a lazy blogger who can’t be bothered to reach all the way to type 4 letters or if you are operating the out of town scoreboard. I do concede that I like saying “the NYY’s” but see how I save two characters doing that? That’s twice the savings that typing NYM instead of Mets gets me.
