Can you cover NASCAR without fan bloggers? Not as well...

Full disclosure: I'm a contributing editor under contract for this project.

As the bloggerati continue to mull the future of grassroots journalism, bloggers vs. journalists and credibility, I'd like to raise a question about editorial quality.

Can a media property credibly cover the experience of mass-televised events without fan bloggers or "citizen journalists" at this point? Case en pointe: NASCAR?

Answer: No. Not as well.

Not when there are at least 100 television viewers for every one person who gets a ticket to the track. And that's a very conservative estimate: Last year, NASCAR claimed TV ratings higher than every major-league sport except the NFL, according to this article from Delaware's News Journal. And NASCAR won in a head-to-head competition with the Olympics for viewers in August.

Fortunately, the team behind Knight Ridder's ThatsRacin.com knows it--and now the quality of their Web site shows it. Earlier this week, Thatsracin.com launched a blogging team that General Manager Dick Van Halsema calls "unique in motorsports".

The line-up boasts a terrific combination of writers--a pit crewman, two experienced bloggers and a veteran reporter/editor, all fans:

• Kathy's PIt Stop, a blog by a self-described Rusty Wallace/Ryan Newman fan who manages to fit in her passion for racing while raising three kids
• Rantville, a blog by an Air Force vet/brat "Mayor Jimmy", who has plenty to say about Junior (Dale Earnhardt, that is) and everything else
• Over The Wall, blogged by pit crewman Trent Cherry, whose passion for mullet-watching is exceeded only by his love of poker and racing
• Checkered Past, a blog by Editor/Columnist Bob Henry, known for his expertise in covering motorsports

It's newsworthy that Bob Henry is the only "professional journalist" in this line-up--unless one counts the hand of seasoned Creative Director Robert Torres, who gave the blogs and ThatsRacin.com's new homepage their new, live feel (a serious departure from RealCities.com).

How did this happen? When Dick Van Halsema described his vision for the project, he told me, "There's an entire culture of NASCAR participation that's missing, the fan point of view. We need to celebrate that. It's a content strategy as well, to tap into the consciousness and the culture of the fans." Update: TR.com GM Van Halsema speaks for himself here.

In other words--and in my experience--Thatsracin.com's leadership is committed to being irresistible to its users, old and new. Being irresistible requires they deliver quality, relevant coverage of everything NASCAR. Blogging is ThatsRacin.com's last frontier in delivering users with everything NASCAR--in this case recruits Kathy's Pit Stop and Rantville, as well as seasoned columnist Henry and insider Cherry. I took this job because Van Halsema et al. appreciate that fact.

There's more: As with Legal Blog Watch, ThatsRacin.com is invested in the true voices of these bloggers and protecting their editorial integrity. So they have the real, blogging deal on their site.

Of course, I expect ThatsRacin.com, as a 360-degree news site, will never stop upholding the same tenets of exceptional journalism in motorsports coverage that (former Knight Ridder blogger turned grassroots advocate) Dan Gillmor describes so well--the values of thoroughness, accuracy, fairness and transparency.

What the team has gained, however, is an injection of "passionate" media, as Wired editor Chris Anderson describes it:

"...the writer's voice is louder than in traditional journalism, and his/her own observations and reactions are less suppressed. I see both of these as part of the fall of "dispassionate media" and rise of what, by contrast, one might call "passionate media".  I think passionate media is the only kind that will cut through the blur of commodification in the years to come. And I think that we, as readers (and writers!) can handle the lack of quasi-impartial hand-holding just fine."

It's a project I'm proud of.

Comments

[Diecast Dude]

Reading the obscenity-laced garbage in the Rantville blog makes me wonder exactly what there is to be proud of in this matter. Kathy is a class act, and both Trent and Bob bring something to the table. But "Major Jimmy?" A minor league potty mouth. Would Knight-Ridder print such filth in one of their newspapers? No. Why, then, is it on their Web site?

[Surfette]

Diecast Dude:

Apologies for my delay in reply - I was away on vacation.

I appreciate the time you took to share your opinion. Obviously I disagree--90+ percent of the time I like Mayor Jimmy's Rantville.

Fortunately--as another blogger recently said to me--if you don't like a blog you don't have to read it. That's the beauty of the Web.

[Diecast Dude]

The "if you don't like it don't read it" argument, outside of being overused to the point of it being a meaningless cliché that actually says "anything goes and who are you to complain" works... to a point.

Were Rantville in its previous location as a personal project by the author, it would be of no consequence and there would be no disagreement. However, it's not. It is featured on a Web site run by a national news organization. There is no indication that there is objectionable language contained in the blog, nor is there any disclaimer about the blog not being required to meet the journalistic standards, however they are defined, of Knight-Ridder. That is the problem.

As is the case with any blogger, Mayor Jimmy is free to say whatever he wants to however he wants to... on his own. The issue is with Knight-Ridder endorsing his message by presenting it as though it was their own. Since they have chosen to do so, they bear the responsibility of explaining why obscenity-laced trash talk is acceptable journalistic practice. I'm waiting.