The subject of blogs and newspapers has been a hot topic, both inside the Herald & Review and in other media, over the last several days.

It all started with a Bob Costas-hosted special on HBO in which journalist and author Buzz Bissinger went off on blogs, specifically Mattoon native Will Leitch who is the founder of the sports blog, Deadspin.com. In a total meltdown, Bissinger used a string of curse words to complain, well, that sports blogs were too crude and too mean.

That set off a string of columns from newspaper sports writers complaining about bloggers and bloggers complaining that most newspaper folks were stuck in the past. There's a little bit of truth on both sides.

There are plenty of blogs, both sports and news, that are interesting, funny, witty, thought provoking and a few even break some relevant news. There are also plenty of blogs that are little more than complaint forms on the Internet and a few are downright disgusting and vile.

Without a doubt, blogs are a creature of the Internet and there is a certain Wild West, anything goes, attitude that pervades cyberspace. It's also the case that many bloggers don't often face the folks they are writing about. It's a lot easier to be cruel to people you never have to meet face-to-face. If the person you called meathead, or worse, is going to see you the next day - well it's a little tougher.

At the same time, there are some newspaper and broadcast people who are stuck in the past. Many columnists, commentators and experts would like to return to the days when they were the only ones offering opinions on a wide scale.

I'm sure some of the newspaper and broadcast folks are frustrated by the blogs, as well. On the Internet, it's possible to offer up information at a second's notice. It's also easier to put out information that may or may not be correct and brag about the stuff that was right and ignore the stuff that was wrong.

What's interesting about the discussion is that both the blogs and the more traditional media folks benefit each other and need each other.

The bloggers, for example, depend to a large degree on the traditional media doing the heavy lifting of reporting. Most bloggers also borrow heavily from the reporting of traditional media. Deadspin, for example, uses newspaper stories as the start of many of its features and the site is full of video clips from network TV and other sources.

In order to enjoy most blogs, you have to be fairly knowledgeable about the subject to begin with. Studies on readership seem to bear out that most people who spend time reading news and information on the Internet also read newspapers. And vice versa.

At the same time, bloggers can increase the public's interest in a subject. A person who reads a political blog everyday is much more likely to also pick up a newspaper to find out what happened. Most avid sports fans comb through the daily newspaper and look at a variety of sources on the Internet.

The "traditional" and "new" media address different needs from what is often the same audience. There's no doubt that readers have certain expectations of what they will and won't see in the Herald & Review. The expectations of what they find on the Internet may be entirely different.

One of the beauties of the Internet is that it has infinitely expanded the amount of information available. While the information isn't always reliable, it's hard to be against more information and more viewpoints.

There's room for the more traditional media forms and for the new, and still evolving, forms.

Editor Gary Sawyer reads newspapers, magazines, books and blogs. He can be reached at 421-6975 or gsawyer@herald-review.com.