What Bob Kravitz doesn't understand

As made obvious by his own statements (and self satisfaction in his ignorance)

I’ve asked some of my more ‘Net-savvy friends to fill me in on what’s out there in terms of Indy sports-related Web sites.

and by his obsession with Real Names, Bob Kravitz doesn't understand how blogs and the internet work. In Newspapers writers have their positions, they have their audience, so the writer's name is what identifies them. On the internet and sports blogs in particular the barriers to entry are gone, allowing anyone with the desire to write the opportunity for an audience.

With that openness comes competition. If you post the unsourced, rumors and crap that Kravitz is so worried about then you won't have an audience. Journalists put their name and their credibility out there, bloggers put there creditability out there too, but instead of their name, it's their readership on the line. If you don't post quality content you don't get read. That's how the blogosphere works.

If someone doesn't trust or doesn't respect the opinion of a blogger then they can be at another site in seconds, newspapers have near captive audiences as Kravitz said while talking to "weenie" and author of "dreck" Deshawn Zombie,

"Why read the Star? Well, what else are you going to read? Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options",

but that's changing with the internet and that's what scares the newspaper writers, if they don't try to put blogs and bloggers down on a lower level than themselves then they risk having to compete with them. Competition is bad for them, look no further than Kravitz dedicating a column to trashing bloggers on the day that Mudd and Moore offically retire. That's what's important to them, even more than the news, to keep themselves as "The" opinion for sports fans to read.