None of the pieces below deserved to be the focus of an entire piece, but all deserved to be mentioned in some way or another. Hence, the Monday Tuesday Media Round Up.
The Diss All Around the Web
Last week The Diss was all over the internet. First, on Monday Jacob joined up with Tauheed & Ngozi on Crush on Sports BlogTalk Radio to talk a bunch of different NBA topics. He goes on around the 35 minute mark. Not to be outdone, on Wednesday Jacob and Discussant Symbol Lai were on the wonderful Joy Dunk Club to talk Jeremy Lin and a whole lot more. Last month we did a loooooong interview with Joy Dunk Club founder Terry Park, in case you are wondering what it’s all about, before checking out Jacob and Symbol below (look at that giddy face).
Shut Up, Basketblogger
Somebody has started a blog mocking the self-indulgent basketball writing found across the blogosphere, and aptly named it Shut Up, Basketblogger. While a bit juvenile to anonymously make fun of bad wannabe Free Darko writing…there’s a lot of bad wannabe Free Darko writing out there that probably deserves to get made fun. If the geniuses behind Shut Up, Basketblogger want to make fun of The Diss, a piece entitled “Kobe Bryant and His Band of Merry Mensches” is probably a pretty good place to start.
Beat Sweetners
Jack Shafer, a Reuters columnist who writes about the media, has an interesting piece about “Beat Sweetners”, which he describes as “an over-the-top slab of journalistic flattery of a potential source calculated to earn a reporter access or continued access”. Next time you read a profile of an NBA player or coach, see if the piece actually reveals insight on the subject, or is merely a piece of PR puffery.
