SQ14 #5 Soapbox--Sportscasters, Drunks, and Willful Ignorance

It is a bit appalling to me that I have chosen to do most of my writing about sports.  Maybe the only thing more grating to my ears than sportscasters are infomercials.  Too many of those talking heads remind me of drunks in a crowded bar who keep repeating the same thing over and over, just louder and louder--as if the very act of their monotony, and the increase in volume, somehow lends more credence to their blathering.

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
― Daniel J. Boorstin, The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself

If you read a lot on the web, and I do, then it becomes apparent that some of the very worst writing is perpetrated by the sports bloggers.  It always amazes me (shouldn’t by now, but always does) how a few paragraphs tossed off in stream of consciousness (and I use that word loosely); obviously (and I’m being charitable here) not proofread; full of sentence fragments, malapropisms, misspellings, and misplaced clauses; and sparingly sprinkled with an apparently random assortment of punctuation and capitalization, should somehow be worthy of our time to read (or perhaps decipher is a better description) when it was not worth the author’s time to write well, or even coherently.  It is sometimes as if, having had a thought has so amazed them that they feel rushed to broadcast it to the world.

“If ignorance is bliss, there should be more happy people.”
― Victor Cousin, Œuvres de Victor Cousin: Introduction L'Histoire de La Philosophie. Cours de L'Histoire de La Philosophie. Cours de Philosophie Sur Le Fondemen

Some years back I was recruited to write about the Celtics for an internet site, one that produces quite a lot of material these days.  I took the time to read their articles for a few days and found that far too many of them I quit reading half way through, and that is coming from a voracious reader of anything Green.  I finally declined, politely I hope, because one is necessarily judged by the company one keeps. 

“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
― Benjamin Franklin

Now don’t get me wrong.  There are some wonderful pieces done in a most persuasive and elegant style, often with a refreshing dash of humor, that are both informative and thought-provoking.  Sadly they just reinforce how little effort their counterparts are putting into their sub par offerings.  There is a reason why you don’t put Mrs. Bartlestein’s first grade class’s crayon sunflowers on display next to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.  As the old saying goes, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
― Harlan Ellison

As always, one who lives in a glass house (or blogs about sports) should not cast the first stone (or epithet), so feel free to point out my miscues.  I will at least have the grace to feel ashamed, be contrite, and try to do better.

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”
― Isaac Asimov

Just 59 days until training camp.
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