Basically, I've been on hiatus from this blog most of the semester - working on book, busy with classes and also expecting a baby in the next week or so. So now I'll make it an official hiatus as I'm about to go on leave. Hope to be back early next year, when things get back into a more regular routine!
So fall semester has started. I've been on hiatus from the blog most of the summer - I've been writing my book and it took most of my time and attention this summer. Plus I'm expecting a baby in November, and that made getting the book done even more important. It's not done, but I'm getting there. But now that I'm back teaching, I'm also hoping to get back to the blog until the bambino arrives.
I check out Poynter.org daily - mainly for Romenesko's media page. Today I saw a piece about blogs that cover certain sports in detail - usually sports that are ignored by the mainstream press. The example he gives is local cycling. Sometimes I think this is the future for coverage of women's sports - just look at all the blogs and message boards devoted to women's basketball where fans congregate for news, gossip, etc. These sites fill a hole out there - while the national press may cover or air a WNBA game here or there or a college game - they are usually straight game stories - for the most part, there is a dearth of feature reporting and commentary/opinion writing on the sport. Granted many of these sites rely on mainstream sports reporting for the basic news - they cobble together what's out there and expand it.
There was also another piece on the Poynter site about bloggers getting press credentials - the focus of the piece is the NHL - some teams are welcoming the additional coverage and issuing media passes to bloggers, others are not. As the writer Steve Klein argues, "For a professional sport that often has to go begging for coverage, blogs should be a godsend."
A few different articles to link to - that focus on what I thought was one of the main issues of the Imus incident - how his comments reflect how some people perceive women athletes. Here's on in the New York Daily News "Imus' bile places spotlight on state of women's sports"
A piece in the Capital Times in Madison, WI "Imus a part of relentess devaluing of women"
An Orlando Senitinel columnist tries to get golf pro Anika Sorenstam to comment on the Imus incident and writes about the awkward result.
NBC has dropped the Imus show - now it's down to CBS and what they will do next.
So I was listening to Tom Ashbrook's "On Point" NPR program this morning - the topic was Imus, etc. It wasn't what I expected - the focus became rap music and is rap music to blame for the use of words such as "ho." I guess I wanted to hear more about how women athletes, particulary black women athletes, are perceived because to me that is the real issue here. I know this whole incident has opened up all kinds of conversations on race, gender - which is a good thing, but I also want to see more acknowledgment that this also has something to do with women competing as athletes and how that is still not fully accepted as a serious endeavor - they're treated as a sideshow in some circles, even by some members of the sports media. But these incidents have a way of steamrolling away from the point (or what I think is the point) and they become a platform for everyone who has an opinion (I'm just as guilty here) and agenda. I'm glad the Rugters coach and players spoke yesterday because their voices were the clearest and most meaningful I've heard.
If you want to listen to the On Point episode, they post podcasts the day after the show airs.
And from the man who has championed women's basketball longer than anyone, Mel Greenberg of the Philly Inquirer weighs in with a nice piece on his blog
I've always been a Gwen Ifil fan and today she has an op-ed piece in the NYTimes and I love the lede:
"Let's say a word about the girls. The young women with the musical names. Kia and Epiphanny and Matee and Essence. Katie and Dee Dee and Rashidat and Myia and Brittany and Heather."
Further down in the piece she talks about how Imus once refered to her as the "cleaning lady" as in “Isn’t The Times wonderful, it lets the cleaning lady cover the White House.” (Ifil, who is black, was a journalist for the New York Times at the time).
And I don't think I can even discuss what Thomas Oliphant, former Boston Globe columnist, said when he appeared on Imus' show yesterday - it just makes my blood boil. I'm just glad that aging media types like him are on the way out.
I saw on the Sports Law Blog that there is an afternoon conference this Friday at Harvard Law School on Title IX - it's free and open to the public. I think I'm going to go.
USA Today has an article on Native American tribes that own sports teams or invest in sport ventures - including the Mohegan Tribe in Conn., which became the first non-NBA owner of a WNBA team - the Connecticut Sun (the team I followed this past summer for a book I'm working on about how the media covers women's sports).
Speaking of the Sun - they announced on Wed. that they are trading one of my favorite players - Taj McWilliams-Franklin - she's a class act. Sigh.
The New York Times had an article yesterday on how women athletes are embracing their bigger, stronger, and faster selves.
