Buzz Bissinger, he who blamed the downfall of organized society on blogs during the Costas Now roundtables last week, has spent the time since speaking with people on both sides of the fence, reading up on a few things and thinking about how he handled the forum and he's come to a conclusion...maybe writing a blog shouldn't be punishable by death after all. Buzz has been making the rounds, taking a to a few sports blogs recently about the show, his opinions and the reaction.Two such interviews you should check out are over at The Big Lead and The Sporting Blog. In both, Buzz comes clean that even he wasn't too pleased with himself afterwards:
The more I thought about my performance, the initial glow of "telling it like it is" turned more and more into the reality of someone who had truly embarrassed himself and subsumed the very points he was trying to make. I believe in what I said (although the emails I received have also directed me to some excellent information-based sports blogs I was not aware of). But I made a terrible mistake in the manner in which I said it. I am a man of passion and my passion truly got the better of me. I should have considerably toned it down, in particular in terms of my treatment of Will Leitch. Without going into details, I have taken steps to remedy that. I have also publicly apologized on several radio shows that have been widely disseminated. Those apologies are sincere, just as my passion was sincere if terribly misplaced. I treated Mister Leitch like the worst kind of blogger.Check'm both out for the full flavor. Buzz's contrition will probably go over pretty well and it sounds like we're all gonna (figuratively) have a drink together and move on. But it doesn't change the fact that this was one of the game-changing events for sports blogs and blogs in general. A member of the old guard unleashed everything "they" have been wanting to say about blogs, realized the error of his ways and has come to terms with this new, scary world. Welcome to the fold, Buzz. Tell Wilbon to stop by sometime.
Oh and if you thought Buzz's old views on blogs were off-base, wait 'til you get a load of Mike Francesa.