A wing too far

I really enjoy Eric McErlain’s Off Wing Opinion. It’s a great sports blog, very well written, with a lot of hockey coverage that I’d otherwise not get. Eric’s a Republican, and from time to time he makes political posts. So what? For that matter, Jim Pinto is pretty conservative, and it doesn’t stop me from reading Baseball Musings. Again, why would it? If I had to agree politically with everyone I talked to, there are a lot of good people who I’d never see again.

All this is preamble to the observation that Eric’s got a bunch of very good guest bloggers posting while he’s on vacation. Sadly, he’s also got this guy named Jim McCarthy, who happens to be a paid lobbist. Among his clients are Augusta National and the College Sports Council. The latter is a group advocating some poorly defined change in Title IX.

So far, 90% of Jim’s posts have been about Title IX. Up until I asked him about it, he didn’t mention that he’s paid to advocate “Title IX reform.” He even ran an interview with the Executive Director of the College Sports Council, without bothering to mention that the guy is a paid client.

This use of blogs to drive opinion is exactly how he defended Augusta National. There’s little question that Jim is using Eric’s blog to further the agenda of his clients. I find that regrettable.