Washington Post reports that blogs are taking over mainstream sports media

Here’s a piece of what was written in today’s Washington Post…
“In the arena of sports, the arbiter of what matters is increasingly shifting from the mainstream media to the freewheeling realm of the blogosphere, where impassioned fans opine about the playing field’s heroes, villains and controversies of the day.
That’s the conclusion of a Charlotte-based marketing firm, Sports Media Challenge, which has developed software to track the major topics being debated on the most influential sports blogs.
In several respects, what the Internet-based blogs — or “fan-generated media” — chatted about in 2007 mirrored the major story lines of the stick-and-ball sports that dominated newspaper pages and TV ratings, according to Kathleen Hessert, the company’s founder.
But in other instances — such as the remarks that cost Don Imus his wildly popular radio show — bloggers were ahead of the mainstream media, buzzing about the comments disparaging Rutgers women’s basketball players for days before it became national news.
“More and more, the fans are setting the agenda now,” Hessert said. “They’re rattling the cages and saying, ‘Hey, I have as much to say about this — and have as much invested in my sport — as any media person. And my opinion is just as valid as the mainstream media’s.'”

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