Mark Cuban penned a blog post about the media. It’s two quick-hitters, so we could really just skip talking about it and move along to something else. Except for the fact that he said something that is really — and pardon my lack of couth, Cubes — stupid.

That is to say, he believes that blogs who engage in blatant rumormongering for the purpose of driving traffic should be blacklisted by ESPN. This makes no sense on a number of levels. But first, Cubes’ quote, for the proper context (emphasis his).

Unfortunately, ESPN and local newspapers, radio and TV media have become the patsies of bloggers. If some random blogger reports that “he has heard that a trade of Joe for John is being discussed”, then the traditional media, as they have told me many times “is requested by their editor to run it down and see if its real”. Its almost like a sad joke. How do you make an ESPN reporter jump ? Make up something and put it on your blog. Somewhere a bunch of sports bloggers are playing a drinking game. Chug if the other guys made up trade rumor makes the ESPN crawl.

(Quick aside: at least there wasn’t a pantless joke in there somewhere. Drunk frat guy stereotypes are fine. But pantless losers covered in meatloaf crumbs? NO. SIR.) Anyway, I’m not sure what got Cuban so fired up about this topic, but I’m kind of surprised he came with the angle that he did.

First of all, if you’re going to criticize bloggers for speculating, then what do you do with the mainstream media? (As always, an outdated term, but necessary for this argument.) Do you allow them to run rampant, just because they have “sources” and “a history of breaking news”? Because if that’s the case, then ESPN needs to fire — God bless him, he’s great on Twitter, but he’s still not right more than 12 percent of the time — Chris Mortensen right now.

I’m not sure who they’re supposed to hire in his place, though, because no one is 100 percent right all the time. Should ESPN also blackball Mike Florio and Pro Football Talk just because, sometimes, like any sports reporter, he’s wrong, even if he’s just throwing something against the wall to see if it will stick? And if they do, are they required to then blackball, by association, NBC Sports? Because that doesn’t seem like a very profitable or wise venture to me.

Further on, what imaginary line is being drawn in the sand that precludes someone from speculating? And is there a stone-cold calculable litmus test available in order to find out if said blogger/MSM person pushed the limits? Because I’m pretty sure that the whole “Raul Ibanez is playing out of his mind” thing wouldn’t qualify anyone for a blackball, even if a guy like Kenny Rosenthal is getting his unmentionables all wadded up because a member of the proletariat blogger actually did research and concluded that, “HEY! Raul Ibanez is outperforming his normal season at a very old age and since everyone does steroids, maybe we should consider not giving him a free pass.” You know, just like every other “mainstream” person writes about every other baseball player who is muscled and smashing the ball.

I digress, (and badly I might add) but only because this sort of stubborn-headed, numbskulledness — especially from a guy who actually has a blog and is supposed to be on the cutting edge of technology and whatnot — just drives me f*cking batmess. It’s not that hard to figure out and there’s a reason why the internet and everything else in terms of sportswriting and sports reporting and sports analysis qualifies as a meritocracy: eventually, if you suck at your job and you make things up and you fail to report the truth and you just fish for shock value, well, people are going to catch on.

That’s exactly why NFL Draft Bible (look, ma, no links! Guess why!) got two days in the Google Trends’ sun and then vanished as the draft approached. They accused several future draftees of steroid use and were summarily dismissed by the mainstream media and the blogosphere. When people go around making wild and stupid accusations, that’s what happens. There doesn’t have to be some list held by Norby or Rupert Murdoch or Al Gore or whoever in the dark cave where the interwebz originates from: if your content sucks you will fall by the wayside. It’s just amazing that Cuban doesn’t get that.