A journalist by any other name...

[Levi1]

This is a battle cry for those of us within the Redskins community to start calling a spade a spade and cease calling journalists "experts" on certain subjects (namely, football) when their only claim to "expertise" is a degree in journalism and a few (or even many) years writing on the subject. Perhaps I am just a geek for the precise use of terms, but it drives me nuts to see these same people, over and over again, lauded with this honorific as if they did something to earn it. Because you write about something does not make you an expert. Because, in the past, you had done something for a living, does not make you an expert. This does not fly in any other profession, so why do we allow them to deem themselves so? For instance, I work in a fairly specialized scientific field, but I am by no means deemed an "expert" by dint of my employment. In order to achieve that mark I would need to be overly learned in the subject, to the point, where, and this is the rub, I would be able to translate my mastery into accurate predictions, when given all the necessary data. As we all know, journalists are notorious for being incapable of prescience when it comes to their so-called area of expertise. We don't call journalists who cover the supreme court "law experts", those on the political beat "experts" on politics, or those who specialize in science writing "scientific experts"; so can we stop elevating mere journalists to the level of "expert" when they happen to write about football?:2cents:

[Art]

Trust me guy, no one here thinks of journalists as experts. The majority of fans on THIS board are more expert about the Redskins than journalists. Of course, there's the crew of absolute dolts too, but, some are learning just being around people who gather information and present it in a discussion.

The difference is the people here care about the team they follow. Journalists don't, and they don't necessarily cater to the audience who reads them and does care. I was visiting the Post's blog this weekend and there were three Post employees chatting back and forth in the blog. It was so lonely Jason actually asked if anyone cared about the draft. This was at the same time we had a huge 2,500 post, 30,000 read thread with literally hundreds of participating members.

Point?

We'd rather hang around each other, for good or bad, than hang around someone who doesn't care. At least we do and that bonds us.

[Loxley]

He makes a very valid point about the so called experts though, ive never actually considered it before, but now it just looks so obvious. I guess its all about media spin.

[Levi1]

That is a great point, Art (BTW, I've enjoyed reading your posts over the last couple years). My point being that most of us ( myself included) get worked up over declarations made by these so called "experts". And in any other profession they would be roundly ridiculed and dismissed for mis-representing their credentials ( which, I realise, they frequently are on this board). So my point is twofold: 1) we shouldn't grant them the expert status which they have no claim to; and 2) i have just always wanted to post a "call to arms".