LOL :-)

So how did the big Internet Culture special on Sports Talk Live turn out? Depends on who you ask.

For those who missed it, the idea was to put representatives of the "new media" (internet) in a room with "old media" (radio, print, TV) and let them duke it out over topics like recruiting, message boards, rumor control, journalism versus rooting, the whole nine yards. The panel included Bianchi and Brady, plus Pat Dooley of the G-ville Sun, Steve Ellis from the Tallahassee Democrat, and three website administrators from sites that cover Florida, Florida State, and Miami: Marty Cohen (gatorbait.net), Jim Lamar (warchant.com), and Sean Delaney (miami-hurricanes.com).

Brilliant, right? Of course it was. My idea, after all.

One small problem, as Ray Hines of Gatorcountry.com pointed out: too many people, not enough time. We did one hour and could have done two, easy. The topic is simply too big to cover in sixty minutes. I felt like there were conversations left short. Still, I liked the big panel idea, because it brought the show "out of the box," to use a nebulous marketing-guy term that I really hate.

Many fans on some of the FSU sites were ripping the show afterwards, saying it was "pro-Gator." Everyone gather around the campfire one more time: Sun Sports is pro-everybody. A rising tide lifts all boats. If you'll check the first blog entry below, you'll see my position on this. In a perfect world, every team in the state goes 11-0 every year. It's good for business. But you can't make everyone happy.

I will grant you this: the panel was tipped toward UF alums. Then again, I can't control where these guys went to college, and they had to go somewhere. I've learned in the last 48 hours that Mike Bianchi, to many Florida State message board fans, is the Antichrist himself. Who knew that the Prince of Darkness was so short?

It's amazing what people hear, and remember. The same 60 minutes of content is interpreted one hundred different ways, usually to fit the preconceived notions of the viewer. People on fan sites looking for ways that Sun Sports is "anti-FSU" will derive four pages of subtle meaning from a 15-second Bobby Bowden sound bite. You hear what you want to hear, and you see what you want to see, and never let the truth get in the way of a good rant.

I would love to do this show again. If I can talk the people at Sun Sports into it, my plan is to post a message on every fan site in Florida, basically dropping the gauntlet. You think you can program a TV show? Do it. Tell me the guest list, tell me the topics you want covered regarding the internet, tell me exactly what you want to see, and you'll see it. That way, at the end of night, nobody can bitch. Okay, they WILL bitch, but I'd have a built-in defense.

The odds of me getting this idea past the decision-makers at Sun Sports? Slim and none, and Slim just left town. But I'll work on it.