Media Squabbles to hit our part of the world?

Washington Post columnist Norman Chad recently wrote an amusing column on media squabbles including the most recent big one of late between ESPN’s Bill Simmons and MSNBC Talk Show Host Keith Olbermann. It all started over a pretty screwy online chat comment Simmons made basically claiming Tiger Woods comeback would be much harder than what Ali faced in the 60's after his stance against the Vietnam War.

Olbermann chimed in criticizing Simmons, saying in part:

I am again left to marvel how somebody can rise to a fairly prominent media position with no discernible insight or talent, save for an apparent ability to mix up a vast bowl of word salad very quickly

Simmons shot back hard at Olbermann on his Twitter account stating:

You’re my worst case scenario for my career in 12 yrs: a pious, unlikable blowhard who lives alone.

And than latter on added this dagger:

I feel bad about saying Olbermann lives alone. I forgot about his cats.

Well maybe here in the Horse Racing world we have our own little media squabble. This one started with Steven Crist in his DRF blog harshly criticizing the new synthetic surface and the results at the Dubai World Cup.

Two members of the media immediately stepped up to strongly counter the comments of Crist.

Blogger Malcer in his blog “The Dresden File” wrote a detailed counter argument to Crist’s comments about the Dubai World Cup, which included this comment:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we regret to announce that Steven Crist's sense of reason had to leave tonight's event early.

Than in Monday’s Troy Record, respected racing beat writer Nick Kling stated:

I was encouraged to see more than half of the initial 56 comments to Crist's blog, from those who expressed an opinion, disagreed with his inflammatory conclusion. It seems not all horseplayers are so virulently anti-synthetic they cannot keep an open mind.

Sadly, Crist's appears to be closed, a disappointing outcome from one of racing's most influential and articulate spokespersons.

Blogger Pull the Pocket weighed in, declaring Kling the victor:

In the battle over the Dubai World Cup and synth racing in general, if we as fans only have these two articles to read, it's game, set and match Mr. Kling.

Of course the responses by Malcer, Pull the Pocket and Kling are written with great respect for Crist and certainly not as nasty as what Simmons and Olbermann wrote about each other, and Crist has yet to respond at all to the media criticism, but we can always hope, right?