The mainstream media has been held tightly under the microscope by the blogosphere for a while now, be it the sports blogs or political blogs. It's a great thing to restore a sense of the checks and balances system, and, of course, the mainstream media hasn't taken a liking to it. Lots of bloggers, including myself, have opined on the matter and we might be teetering towards beating a dead horse, but maybe you haven't heard the news: Bill Conlin is in trouble again, this time for what he said, not what he wrote.

Conlin was a guest on Tuesday's edition of Daily News Live, a round-table (semi-circle?) sports talk show that lasts an hour and a half. They've recently started reading viewer E-mails on air, and host Michael Barkann read one from "Raul," from Vineland, New Jersey who criticized the media for blowing up the injury to Donovan McNabb, since it's only shoulder tendinitis.

Conlin – the same guy who wrote to me in an E-mail, "The only positive thing I can think of about Hitler's time on earth – I'm sure he would have eliminated all bloggers" – said of Raul's comment, "Amazing that guy would leave the blueberry harvest to send that off."

Comcast SportsNet apologized at the start of Wednesday's show and distanced themselves from Conlin. You can watch video clips of Conlin's comment and Comcast's apology here.

These aren't just isolated incidents; it's a trend with Conlin. Deadspin reports that, in an E-mail to someone who had questioned his "fastball," Conlin bragged about his flexible work schedule, signing bonus, performance bonus, the Daily News' subsidy of his condo in Florida, pension, and Social Security. To put the cherry on top, Conlin included pictures of his condo.

So, are Conlin's recent comments really racist? The article was from Raul, a common Hispanic name, from Vineland, New Jersey. Hispanics/Latinos of any race make up 30% of the population there. Fruit-picking is a common (and incorrect) stereotypical chore of Hispanics. I think based on the context, we can reach the conclusion that Conlin's comment was racially motivated.

Conlin wasn't the only one in the media making stupid comments this week, either. U.S.S. Mariner, the great Seattle Mariners blog, has a scathing rebuke of former pitcher and current ESPN color analyst Rick Sutcliffe for some comments he made about Erin Andrews during the Braves-Cubs game last night. To quote the blog:
I was watching ESPN’s broadcast of the Braves game tonight, and there was a really, really weird moment where they were discussing Rick Sutcliffe taking time off to go get cancer treatment, and Erin Andrews was in the stands and wished him well or something — I wasn’t really paying attention, it seemed totally pointless — at which point Sutcliffe went off on a bizarre rant about her, how good she looked, her skirt, and how everyone was watching her and her skirt and when they cut to the broadcast booth, his partner had this weird look of terror and shock on his face, and they chatted about how distracting she was around the batting cage.

This should be Rick Sutcliffe’s last job announcing anything. He shouldn’t be hired to do dog races. He shouldn’t be able to ever get a quarter for hawking wares at garage sales.

I don’t care that he has cancer.

I don’t care that Erin Andrews is attractive, or that she wore a skirt.

He should be fired for making comments like that. More than that, he should be fired for this rant, about her.
If you recall, sexism is an issue I think gets ignored in the sports and media world. I was enlightened in an interview I had with Sooze of Babes Love Baseball and Lisa Horne of Straight Talk from the West Coast.

There's no two ways around it: Sutcliffe's comments are sexist and immature, and I think U.S.S. Mariner is correct in saying what it said, however strong it was. Do they not require ESPN employees to watch those "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace" informational videos or at least give them the pamphlets?

Sutcliffe's an ex-ballplayer so his behavior isn't as likely to be filtered as it is for professional broadcasters and journalists who have had to watch what they say and do for many years. It doesn't excuse the behavior, however.

In a perfect world, no one would ever be offended by anything, but this obviously is not the case. Similarly, in a perfect world, there would be no censorship and citizens of this country wouldn't be so uptight about sex (a result of this country being founded mostly by Puritans). But we don't live in a perfect world, so we have to try and coexist with everyone as peaceably as we can. Sutcliffe's comments were simply uncalled for in any circumstance, but especially for live broadcasting.

Andrews did an interview for One More Dying Quail last year. She talked about the first time someone criticized her as a member of the media, and it has some relevancy here (even though Sutcliffe wasn't criticizing her... at all):
I remember one of the first times I ever saw something on the Internet that was written about me I ran out into my parents’ living room and I started to cry. Somebody had written about the size of my nose and that I needed a nose job. And my dad is in television, and I grew up in the industry, so I never found it weird to see my dad on the six o’clock news because that’s what he does, but when I came out crying - and this is when I first started - he just said, “Look, do you want to do this?” And I said, “Yeah.” And he’s like, “Suck it up, because this is what it’s about, and because you’re a female, people are gonna take notice more than anybody else."

She probably brushed off Sutcliffe's comments and it's bloggers who will end up making a bigger deal about it than she will, but it's all with good intentions. In 2008, female journalists are still being judged overwhelmingly by their looks and not by their skills. Andrews is one of the most prepared, dedicated, and professional journalists ESPN has had in a while, and it'd be a shame for that to be overlooked because simply because she's attractive.

I wonder what Buzz Bissinger thinks about Conlin and Sutcliffe's comments...