Philadelphia sportswriter Bill Conlin invokes Hitler in admonishing a blogger!

by David Fucillo on Nov 23, 2007 5:24 PM PST in San Francisco 49ers News

This is completely off topic as far as the 49ers are concerned, but as far as blogging goes, it's right on point. One of my fellow SB Nation bloggers passed along an interesting little article from CrashBurnAlley.com, a Philadelphia Phillies blog. Apparently the writer at CrashBurnAlley.com wrote to Bill Conlin in regards to voting for Jimmy Rollins for MVP. This Phillies blogger (again PHILLIES BLOGGER) was trying to explain why a guy like David Wright (among others) deserved the MVP award over Jimmy Rollins. The two emailed back and forth that say Bill Conlin go absolutely crazy in his condemnation of bloggers. Here's a link to the blog post, which details the background of the initial email and the subsequent email exchange. I HIGHLY recommend reading the entire post to get a better idea of everything. However, specifically, I wanted to bring to your attention one of Bill Conlin's responses:

The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth-I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers. In Colonial times, bloggers were called "Pamphleteers." They hung on street corners handing them out to passersby. Now, they hang out on electronic street corners, hoping somebody mouses on to their pretentious sites. Different medium, same MO. Shakespeare accidentally summed up the genre best with these words from a MacBeth soliloquy: ". . .a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. . ."

Now I can see newspaper writers getting annoyed with bloggers infringing on their turf. When something new comes along traditionalists feel threatened. And if you want to wage war with bloggers so be it. HOWEVER, invoking a man who instituted mass murder in the name of ethnic cleansing goes beyond just being a bad idea. That's reprehensible and just hideous.

I first learned of this from the SB Nation Phillies Blogger and he made some interesting comments in regards to the pamphleteers comment.

From The Good Phight, our Phillies blogger:

"Pamphleteers" embodied a supremely important development in the history of media: the first step in the democratization of discourse. In other words, civil and religious authority no longer had a monopoly on mass communication: you could go to the printer, get a few hundred copies of your message run off, and distribute them or sell them in the streets.

This was, in part, how we got the American Revolution.

Perhaps it's to Conlin's credit (intellectually if not morally) that there is a strong similarity between the pamphleteers of the 18th century and the bloggers of the 21st. Just as the Thomas Paines of that time helped spread radical new ideas that ultimately undermined old, corrupt power structures, bloggers too refuse to passively accept the "wisdom" of pundits in every field of human activity--including sports. All of the sudden, we can talk back.

He sees us, all of us, as a threat to his enormous self-regard as an "expert." The discourse no longer goes just one way. As was never the case until the mid-1990s, when Conlin writes crap, we can call him on it, whether through direct e-mail--my god, how he must loathe logging on and having to endure the uninformed opinions of the hoi polloi--or by writing about it our own damn selves on blogs.

That he invokes Hitler is sufficiently offensive on its face that I feel no additional need to comment on it.

I'll throw up contact information in the comments if you feel like firing off an email to Mr. Conlin's bosses at the Philadelphia Daily News, as well as the opinion section. I think this is clearly something that is so far overboard that people need to learn about this.

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Ha!

I can't even count how many bloggers I read who are better on no more than a simple writing level than most old hat so-called "professionals." In terms of content the argument can get muddy because people getting paid for their work don't have the same freedom as a blogger in terms of content, but just on a writing level, the distinction still stands.

By the way, Fooch, thanks for being one of the good guys.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Nov 23, 2007 6:35 PM PST reply actions

Mr. Fucillo,

Do you recall the Simpsons episode in which Homer is elected sanitation commissioner (episode title "Trash of the Titans"). At the end Homer carelessly tosses an empty bag of chips onto the roadside. A somber looking Native American sees the piece of refuse float by. Seeing yet another example of the pollution of his native land brings a tear to his eye. Just then, a friend leans in and says "Do yourself a favor-dont turn around." The camera then pans behind the two men to show a landscape absolutely obliterated by garbage as he lets out an anguished wail.
I guess my point is this: If Nazi references really get you into a lather, dont look at the stampede blue (sbnation's indianapolis colts blog) entry from Oct 30,2007. While Conlin only mentions the nazis in passing, stampede blue compares the Nazis to the Patriots and uses that comparison as the central theme of the whole entry;they've even got pictures to drive the point home. I hope you are able to check out that stampede blue post in question. If Conlin's rhetoric is "reprehensible and just hideous" I cant wait to see what damning pejoratives you use to characterize that stampede blue entry.

by doublecross on Nov 23, 2007 11:12 PM PST reply actions

nazi's and satire

Thank you for pointing out the Stampede Blue post. While I personally would never use the Nazi's in any type of post (well aside from this one), if you go through the entire post, you can see that it was meant to be satirical. If we're going to condemn that kind of satire, maybe we should also condemn things like Hogan's Heroes.

I think the difference between the Stampede Blue post and the Conlin emails was the use of satire versus wishing ill-will on a group of people (bloggers) by invoking the idea of mass-murder.

Niners Nation - The premier 49ers blog on the Internet!

by David Fucillo on Nov 23, 2007 11:32 PM PST up reply actions

Have to call BS on you fooch

Nobody in their right mind would think that conlin literally wants to exterminate bloggers from the face of the earth. As Dave the Falconer puts it, conlin's comment was likely a bad joke that shatters the bounds of taste and decorum. Labeling something as humor does not give one a free pass to indulge in something offensive. How can you compare Hogan's Heroes to what stampede blue did. On the show, no one was compared to the nazis-they were the bad guys. For example, if the show compared the French Underground to the Nazis, no matter how tongue-in-cheek the style, it would have been gravely offensive to everybody. I get the sense that you are more interested in rationalizing the stampede blue post in a hypocritical and self-serving effort to protect one of your own.

by doublecross on Nov 24, 2007 9:58 AM PST up reply actions

Castle Wolfenstein

No, I think the use of a video game as part of the post is where some of the satire comes from. Mr. Conlin simple made his comment w/nothing to indicate whether or not he was joking, whereas the use of a video game that many people played is a little bit of a more clear indicator.

As I said before, it's not something i'd personally choose to do, but I'm not going to condemn clear-cut satire.

Niners Nation - The premier 49ers blog on the Internet!

by David Fucillo on Nov 24, 2007 11:02 AM PST up reply actions

Gotta agree with doublecross

You can't have it both ways. If you're going to call out Conlin for being a flippant asshole, it's disingenuous to say that the Colts post calling the Patriots Nazis is any less tasteless.

by KLundy on Nov 24, 2007 11:26 AM PST up reply actions

Oh give me a break

I don't know if the two of you are actually just missing the point or if you're just stuborn. What I do know is that both of you have only ever posted on this blog to insult our blogger, and you'll have to excuse me for not taking particularly kindly to that. because with all due respect, as a regular here I can say with confidence that Fooch is a fantastic sports blogger and an intelligent man with an exceptionally reasonable sensibility.

There is, in fact, a distinct difference between what Conlin said and what the Colts blog was doing. I'll explain myself later because I have to go watch No Country for Old Men now (the theater doesn't wait while the blog can). But needless to say, I think the both of you are being shortsighted and critical for little more than the sake of criticism.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Nov 24, 2007 11:35 AM PST up reply actions

Actually

I do think that Fooch said it best. The difference is completely tonal. The Colts blog is being satirical. But it doesn't go farther than that, really. It doesn't carry any real weight or suggest anything legitimately disgusting, and is obviously a form of jest (satire being politicized jest).

Conlin, on the other hand, is ACTUALLY saying that the world would be better if there were no bloggers, that bloggers are disgusting people, and that if he met one he would be happy to spit in their face knowing nothing about them except that they blog. It's nasty. That he invokes Hitler to make the point is an attempt at a joke gone too far, but the joke itself comes from his rather disgusting conviction about these people.

I keep reliving the moment when Steve Young almost fell down. Over and over. / My Blog, For Writers

by howtheyscored on Nov 24, 2007 9:52 PM PST up reply actions

Bill Conlin

As I recall, Bill Conlin is an old fart, a very old fart, who should probably be making remarks about the Kaiser instead of Hitler.

Like any other historical reference, the invocation of Hitler or genocide can only be judged from its context. People use Pearl Harbor ("The first Seattle game should have been the fans' Pearl Harbor..."), Stalin (Belichick), etc. That Bill Conlin is without good taste has been known for decades. If Tim Gunn ran the Philadelphia Daily News...

by Bob In Pacifica on Nov 24, 2007 8:18 AM PST reply actions