Blogalists, Journologs and The Invention of Masal Bugduv

Lately, the racing community has been littered with blog posts and online articles regarding the status, reliability and future of race writing.

Teresa of Brooklyn Backstretch posted a great blog on the subject that received a huge response. Teresa also posted this piece on journalists at work which touched on the necessity of professional and responsible reporting.

There's been a huge number of responses on this subject from a variety of sources. My favourite of which is the response from Maryjean Wall which was posted here and includes links to Clare Novak's passionate Bloodhorse piece and the infamous ranting of Paul Moran.

I enjoyed the honesty of Wall's story and that someone with her impressive credentials recognizes the need for change and the absolute relevance of blogging in securing the future of the sport.

My own $0.02 on the subject (that's CDN, sorry for shortchanging you American readers) is that responsible reporting is based entirely on the individual regardless of credentials or involvement in the industry. With that, I bring you to the fascinating story of Masal Bugduv.

Masal Bugduv is meant to be a 16-year-old Moldovan footballing prodigy. He made the Times Online edition of Top 50 rising stars which is not that big a deal with the exception of the fact that Bugduv doesn't exist.

It seems Bugduv was invented as a prank by someone with a blogspot account named Masal Bugduv with one and only post regarding the pending transfer of Bugduv to Arsenal. The blogger claimed this breaking news was resported in Diario Mo Thon, a top Modovan sports page. As it turns out, Mo Thon is Irish for "my arse." The paper, fictional. This didn't stop the story from being told all over the world in a variety of reliable publications.

You can read the full details of this brilliant reporting here and here.

What does it all mean? Maybe something, maybe nothing. Is this irresponsible blogging? Is it lazy reporting? Both?

All I know is that pretty much all journalists are online working and writing and that a new level of research is required to verify a story.

So, that brings me to my last suggestion which relates to terminology for online race reporting. No one I speak to likes the word blogger. However, all the big name journalists now have online postings. Essentially, blogs - but with fancier titles and layouts. My proposal?

Blogalist - A blogger who posts responsibly researched stories.
Journolog - A "properly" credentialed writer who now happens to write online.

Perhaps a label is totally unnecessary.

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In other news, recently I wrote about Boule D'or, a G2 winner last year now competing in claimers at Santa Anita. Boule D'or is entered again in Sunday's 5th race going a mile on the near dirt with a tag of $12.5K. Boule D'or worked 5F on January 11 in 1:00.2. Once again, I will wager accordingly and see if I can send some more cash to the Long Run

And finally, a rally was held at Fort Erie yesterday attended by some 100 members of the community who have been asked once again to wait and hope for a bail out to save the historic racetrack. MPP Kim Craitor had hoped to provide an answer to the community by a self-imposed January 15th deadline but unfortunately could offer no new information. As reported by Ray Spiteri in the Niagara Falls Review and linked above:

"When I talked to Queen's Park today ... I said just tell me if it's no, and I will go out there and I will be the one that will say it's no. I will say it and I'll stand there," Craitor told The Niagara Falls Review after the rally.
"And the answer was, 'Kim, it is not no. We are still trying to figure out how we go about this and maintain it within the guidelines for government expenditures.' So, to me, the door is still open. But for the people here, they wanted an answer today."

I truly hope a deal can be worked out to save racing at Fort Erie. A beautiful racetrack and one where a lot of people and horses make their living.