—-> This image could take some getting used to.

I’ve never been a newspaper hater.   I’ve worked at three now, and it’s just not rational to hate newspapers and the people who work for them as much as some people hate them.  Yes, newspaper writers are biased sometimes, especially when it comes to sports (and politics).  Everyone is biased, though.  While a fair point could be made that newspapers are expected to be the only institutions that are bias-free, that’s not a realistic expectation, at least in the way that UK fans demand it.  And really, how much fun would UK fans have had these past few years if it weren’t for Jerry Tipton?  Kentucky fans tend to dislike him strongly,  but you’ve got to admit that it at least gives them something to laugh about during the offseason.  Tipton-hating has almost become it’s own sport.

All of that is just a preface to what I’m going to say about the Rick Bozich/Eric Crawford situation.  As you’ve probably already heard, both of the Courier-Journal columnists left the newspaper for WDRB in Louisville.  Count me as one who had never even heard of that TV station, but that’s beside the point.  The point is that this is the changing of the guard for sports media – at least in our corner of the world here in Kentucky (it’s already happened in most other places).   Chip Cosby had already left the Herald-Leader a while ago to join our KSR bosses over at KSTV.  The transition from the traditional print media to the more digital kind has been happening for a long time, but maybe never as dramatically as when two pretty high-profile columnists leave one of the top two newspapers in the state for a relatively unknown TV station in Louisville.

When asked about the move, Bozich said, “It’s going to be a cutting edge opportunity for us because there’s so many components to it.  There will be the television part of it and there’s the Internet part of it.  And we’ll still be able to continue to write columns, and comment on things, and blog, and do video.  There’s just limitless opportunity.”

Funny how that new-fangled thing called the Internet works, huh?

Regardless of why the two left the newspaper, the point remains: the Courier-Journal took a hard hit this past week in the sports department, and I don’t know who will be able to fill their shoes.  Heck, Rick Bozich used to moonlight as a Sports Reporter on Sundays.  He’s nationally respected, and Eric Crawford is by no means a shabby writer himself.  These two guys, regardless of their “Uof L bias” or anything else they’re accused of, are very talented writers.  The fact that they chose to make the jump to the digital and broadcast side of journalism speaks volumes about how the times, they are a’changing.

KSR gets a lot of crap for being a blog, rather than a “respected” media outlet, but the truth is that the majority of people nowadays are bloggers too, at least part-time.  It’s time to start judging people on the quality of their writing and reporting, not by the outlet that they work for.  There are a lot of talented people in the world of sports reporting, and they’re starting to be spread out everywhere now.  The news about Bozich/Crawford this week just served to underscore that development.

Follow me on Twitter @AshleyScoby because I’m a blogger, and proud.