Bissinger Contrite, Embarrassed After "Costas Now" Appearance
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Bissinger Contrite Following
"Costas Now" Appearance |
Author Buzz Bissinger Thursday appeared on WAXY-AM and expressed regret for some of his comments during HBO’s “Costas Now” Tuesday night. During the program, Bissinger got into a heated discussion with Deadspin.com Founder Will Leitch over the proliferation of blogs, and Bissinger Thursday said, “I don’t take back a word of what I said. I have a tremendous amount of problem with blogs. ... I’m a man of passion. When I care about something, I care about it deeply.” However, he added, “I honestly think in this case there were some things that I should not have said. I shouldn’t have used profanity. I shouldn’t have been as hostile in my approach to Will Leitch because it makes me look bad.” More Bissinger: “I came across as so angry and so crazy in some ways that it really subsumed the valid points that I was trying to make and I regret that, and I don’t care if it’s Will Leitch or anyone, no one should be treated the way I treated (Leitch).” While Bissinger said he believes blogs “are a threat to writing and reporting,” he said his comments were “maybe too sweeping a generalization. There are some good blogs out there.” When WAXY’s Dan Le Batard asked why his comments were as pointed as they were, Bissinger said, “I was angry and overly impassioned and for some reason ... (Leitch) rubbed me the wrong way, and that was not his fault.” When asked if he has apologized to Leitch, Bissinger said, “I’ve had communication with him that I initiated and we have agreed to keep it private, but you can draw your own conclusion.” Following the interview, Le Batard said, “That is not what I was expecting” (WAXY-AM, 5/1).
COSTAS SAYS FAIRNESS NEEDED: In a Q&A with the K.C. STAR's Aaron Barnhart, Bob Costas said Bissinger "realizes that he did a disservice to his own points" while on the program. However, Costas added if "fairness prevails, you keep in mind who he is and that more than outweighs a subpar performance on his part." Costas added the "heat" Bissinger brought to the discussion "obscured whatever points he made. And then some people made the leap that because I am critical of some -- precisely SOME aspects of the web -- that my sentiments are the same as Buzz's. And they're not" (KCSTAR.com, 5/1).
BUZZ CUTS: In DC, Tim Lemke wrote, "I am utterly baffled by Bissinger's behavior and his attitude" toward Leitch. Unless Bissinger "decided to go crazy on purpose to draw attention to himself and increase book sales (which I doubt), then he fails to realize that embracing the blogosphere could actually be quite beneficial to him as a writer" (WASHINGTONTIMES.com, 5/1). BOSTON SPORTS MEDIA's David Scott writes, "Bissinger miscalculated big-time when he came out to play the role of everyone's crazy uncle with a vim and venom usually reserved for grudge-match, prize fights. Bissinger was rude, condescending, under-informed and not the least bit sympathetic" (BOSTONSPORTSMEDIA.com, 5/2). In Toronto, William Houston writes Bissinger "despairs of the dumbing down, the poor quality of writing and the coarseness of the conversation on the Internet." But he made "no real effort to distinguish between a sleazy blog and the Internet editions of respected news organizations" (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 5/2). In Milwaukee, Bob Wolfley writes of the Bissinger-Leitch argument, "It was 16 minutes of terrific television, mostly due to Bissinger. You don't see Pulitzer Prize winners in rhetorical stalk-and-destroy mode all that often" (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/2).
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