Michael Wilbon Gets By With A Little Help From His Young Friends

Michael Wilbon has been rather upfront about how he's not a fan of blogging in general, bringing out the usual bromides that bloggers lack editing, standards, accountability, all that. We don't blame him for this; as he puts it himself, "I'm old. You build up your reading habits over a lifetime." Fair enough. But in an interview with The Fanhouse's Michael David Smith (who took a tour of "Monday Night Football" this week, we learn more about ESPN staffers than we do about Wilbon.

That is to say: It appears that younger staffers are on hand to help the "old" folk along with their talking points.

Wilbon also brought out a lot of the usual criticisms of blogs — no editing, no standards, no accountability, but at that point a couple of (younger) ESPN staffers sitting with him interrupted to point out that he was painting blogs with too wide a brush. At that point, Wilbon mentioned Deadspin and The Big Lead, and he seemed to realize that those blogs are higher in quality than the ones he dismisses as lacking in standards.

We love this idea: All ESPN staffers being followed around by kids whispering buzzwords like "HTML" and "hyperlink" into their ears, causing them to perk up and be, "Yeah! Uh ... some blogs are good! HTML! Hyperlinks!"

Just don't give that "Cold Pizza" crew female assistants, and all should be fine.

ESPN's Michael Wilbon Explains His Feelings Toward Blogs: 'I'm Old' [The Fanhouse]