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Leitch vs. Bissinger: The "future" of journalism

By now many of you have seen the "Costas Now" segment in which Buzz Bissinger, longtime Philadelphia journalist and author of Friday Night Lights, and Costas berate Deadspin's Will Leitch. If you haven't, here's the video.

It boils down to this: Bissinger hates blogs because he thinks they're the "future" of journalism. He doesn't like their tone, he doesn't like their lack of access or their lack of J-school degrees. He thinks Will Leitch -- "Jimmy Olson on Percoset" -- is the general of an opposing army fighting a battle in which Bissinger and his soldiers are sure to lose. What Buzz doesn't realize is that he and Leitch are on the same side.

My profession suffers from paranoia. 40-year veterans like Bissinger feel backed into a corner because they think newspapers are dying. What they don't realize is that newspapers aren't going extinct; they're evolving. A guy like Bissinger will still have a job in another 40 years; he just won't be read in newsprint. But he's so frightened of the Internet that he can't see that he is the also the future of journalism.

It's true that the Internet has changed journalism forever. Before too long, no one will be going to their newspaper box in the morning to pick up 32 pages of paper and ink. But that doesn't mean that journalism won't exist. It also doesn't mean that Deadspin will replace the Philadelphia Inquirer. They're different things entirely, and there's no reason for guys like Bissinger to get defensive. As Bissinger said, he's spent 40 years perfecting his craft, and he'll be damned if he's replaced by a snot-nosed, phone-pic-posting prick like Leitch. But the Internet is the future -- for guys like Bissinger as well as guys like Leitch. For newspapers to survive -- which they will, in a sense -- they have to not only understand but also embrace that shift. The longer they deride bloggers, the worse off we'll be in the meantime and the longer and more painful the transition will be.

In short, there might only be one seat on the bus, but it's plenty big enough for Buzz Bissinger and Will Leitch. Buzz needs to move over and give him room.