Athletes covering media
Ah, Twitter, the voice of the underrepresented, as well as the overexposed.
I’ve tried to imagine why Twitter is so popular with actors and entertainers (I mean, isn’t it a chance to embarrass themselves?), and concluded its because it gives them a platform they never had before.
Before Twitter, if an athlete wanted to rip someone, especially a media member, he had to find a media outlet to do so. Now he can get the message out all by himself. For instance, a USA Today article says that Vikings punter Chris Kluwe despises ESPN’s Skip Bayless. The proof is in Kluwe’s tweets.
I haven’t talked to Bayless in a few years, but I always liked him. Apparentl strong opinions – which, by the way, are his job – make some people think he’s a complete jerk. Not so.
Anyway, the Twitter phenomenon has made it so an athlete can see an article or watch a show and immediately put his own spin on it, without going through a news outlet. It’s kind of weird in a way – athletes writing about media.
I figure that long after everyone else gets bored with Twitter, athletes will hang with it. To them, there’s nothing better than writing their own story.