From Twitter to Dykstra to Cuban to Sheen

For me, it was one of those weekends when the proverbial bar for standards of what the media would do couldn’t get any lower – and then it kept going lower. Please forgive the self-indulgence in the beginning of the rest of this post, though I promise it’s at least relevant.

Normally, I pretty much shut things down in terms of my blog on the weekends except for putting my picks against the spread on games I like on Twitter. This weekend was a little different. I happened to learn through a new Twitter follower that a Facebook exchange I had with another blogger had continued unbeknownst to me. I guess I missed the notification on Facebook.

Kyle Scott Laskowski falsely accused me of lifting a Photoshopped image from his blog as if it was his own creation. You can find the entire exchange via Philadelphia Sports Daily’s Facebook page (until it’s deleted), where he eventually admits that the picture he referred to was actually created by someone else. The picture, as I pointed out in an update of the original post, was all over the internet when I posted it, and certainly wasn’t lifted from Laskowski’s blog. (It was so prevalent on the web, I considered it in the public domain, and didn’t try to credit the creator. I’d be happy to do so if he/she can prove they created the image. UPDATE: In an e-mail I received tonight, Laskowski identified the creator of the image as Jason Jefferies. I’ve credited him on the original post.)

This all started because I criticized a ridiculous post of his on PSD. I’ll admit I didn’t handle the first negative comments I received on my blog years ago very well, but this is a guy whose apparently supposed to be a media member now. Responding to criticism by throwing around false accusations is unprofessional to say the least. Beyond that, he got simple facts blatantly wrong in one of his Facebook comments, claiming his blog or PSD (it was unclear which one he was referring to) had been around for 27 years. Unless he was referring to his own age, he was off by almost three decades on either count. Speaking of stolen content, he has posted video from a Sixers game that looks like he either DVR’d it or videotaped his television screen. I’m only guessing, but I doubt Comcast approved usage of the video or put it on YouTube with the embed code available. The post I originally criticized was his so-called commentary on the Holy Family incident in which the college basketball coach bloodied a kid’s nose with a cheap shot during practice. He compared it to some incident he had in a roller hockey game! He even linked to a picture of his broken wrist.

This is professional journalism? I actually submitted a post to PSD recently. I’m almost relieved that the fact that I had already posted it disqualified it for their site. Laskowski also found it relevant to point out that I had e-mailed him for a link exchange; he even had the date of the e-mail. What he forgot to mention was that he welcomed the exchange – meaning he got a link on my blog, too – and has since broken blogger etiquette by deleting all of his link exchanges without informing the other bloggers carrying his link.

Ok, self-indulgence time is over. The problem is that this is apparently where journalism and media in general is headed. Let’s make noise about something as if we have something worthwhile to say just to make noise.

Last night Lenny Dykstra looked like an old, drunken fool in an interview with NBC10. I’ll give the station the benefit of the doubt and assume that whatever he was drinking during the taped interview wasn’t alcohol. But as “the dude” actually tried to defend actor Charlie Sheen’s recent train wreck of a media blitz, he painted himself in the same pathetic light. If Dykstra hadn’t come off as such a jerk, it might have been possible to feel sorry for the guy.

He babbled on local television, cursing, likely lying, and defending himself against accusations that he ripped people off. He claimed to live in a $10 million house despite admitting he was recently homeless and compared himself to Ghandi. In the piece, he was also shown signing autographs at an event he was likely paid to attend. If you’re wondering why a guy who is doing so well at least appeared to be selling his autograph, I’m in the same boat.

It was a relatively pointless interview of a relatively forgotten former star athlete who has been accused of using steroids to achieve the success he had. It seemed like the sports world’s attempt to glom onto the Charlie Sheen mania of the last week or so.

Maybe it was only the local sports world’s effort. This morning SI.com reported that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants to do business with Sheen. “Cuban confirmed Sunday evening that he's had several conversations with Sheen recently about developing programming for HDNet, the cable network Cuban owns. “‘You’ve got somebody that everybody has a whole lot of interest in who’s doing some interesting things, to say the least, and we always look for interesting programming by featuring interesting people doing interesting things,’ Cuban said before the Mavericks’ game against the Memphis Grizzlies. ‘I reached out and we’ve had some conversations, and we’re going to work on doing some things.’”

Cuban apparently missed Sheen’s webcast Saturday night. The moments that I saw were light years from interesting. What Cuban meant, I’m guessing, was that Sheen is making noise right now that people are listening to, and that’s what counts.

I actually picked up a few Twitter followers thanks to the little Facebook flap with the other blogger. I’m not exactly averse to gaining attention for the Ink. But hopefully I can do something besides making noise to keep them.