Bleacher Report: Entertaining sports news, photos and slideshows

By Linyi

Interactivity between fans and sports programming has blossomed to overtake even journalism. In a recently created news company known as Bleacher Report, sports fans can express on the World Wide Web what has previously been restrained to small-friend-circle conversations and beside-the-television debates: their opinions of the favorite sports teams and players. As the title of this site indicates, the news presented comes from the “bleacher”—i.e. from the fans themselves. Anyone can register an account and write an article for publication on Bleacher Report’s website.

The headlines that come up on Bleacher Report are certainly more eye-popping than the average sports article. How about, “The 25 Most Gruesome Injuries in Sports History?” or “Ranking the 40 Hottest WAGs of All-Time?” or “The 50 Greatest Mustaches in MLB History?”

At the same time, the quality of the writing of many of the articles—and the quality of their contents—is suspect. Although some articles attain publishable quality, many show themselves as what they are—the opinion of an enthusiastic fan. For instance, an article like “Indy 500: Why the Action at Indy is Better than the Daytona 500,” which evidently is coming from a NASCAR fan, is unlikely to appear on any professional sports news site.

Bleacher Report has even made its way into Google News, a fact that may be unsettling to many readers. Today, Google News searches for sports subjects are often dominated by Bleacher Report articles (Top Ten Reasons Why [insert obscure sports statement here]), though the quality of their content may be low and unprofessional. One way to avoid these articles is to include the term “-bleacherreport” in the search to remove any references to the site.

So, the next time you are wondering about the “Top Ten Reasons Why” the Miami Heat players are crying, or the top “10 Prospects Who Aren’t Afraid to Shoot at Will,” or which of the top ten “Draft Picks Will Turn Into Biggest Busts”—or, if you’re wondering why these articles are popping up on Google News—look no further than:

Bleacher Report: Entertaining sports news, photos and slideshows.