Speaking of piracy...

I just came across this news story about a sports-radio talk show host named Colin Cowherd who is apparently known for stealing content from blogs around the internet and presenting it as his own material on the show.

A few blogs have called Cowherd out for his plagiarizing (the ugly cousin of piracy). It seems that to show his "superiority" he told his listeners to flood one such blog "The Big Lead," with hits, causing the server to shut down. The blog was off line for two days because of the technical failure, yet Cowherd will face no punishment even though his action is beyond reproach. Why, you might ask? Well, because he works for a big time company (ESPN.) Since he works for ESPN, nobody will call him out on stealing opinions for the blogosphere or being a jackass and shutting one down.

Now imagine if a blog were to steal one of their broadcaster's opinions? ESPN would be livid, and since they are a big company, you can be sure that a lawsuit would ensue. And if a blogger ever did such a thing to a big media channel or retaliated by shutting down ESPN's website? Perish the thought.

What this really is is just another example of traditional "big" media being petrified of the little guy. Cowherd's job is being threatened as more and more people realize they can get the same rants or raves for free on the blogosphere. When people get scared, they do stupid things, like try to shut the competition down and rebel against the blogosphere.

It will be amusing to see where this goes, because I know sports fans, and most are pretty dedicated people. Pair that type of personality with the blogger's enthusiasm and this writer's apparent displeasure with authority...this could get interesting.