B is for Brown Nose
There is one big problem in being an outdoor writer: Other outdoor writers. Nowadays, most are only writers in title only, lacking the discernible skills necessary to avoid embarrassing themselves or their craft. Anyone who embraces the title of “blogger” pretty much fits this description.
In essence, “to blog” means to write some rambling, stream-of-consciousness diatribe and hope no one recognizes the lack of coherent thought. In outdoor blogging, you can also forego the bothersome journalistic responsibility of telling a story truthfully and simply go all-in as a shill for the advertising department. Kissing every ass humanly possible also gets high marks from these on-line multi-taskers.
The recent FLW Cup on Louisiana’s Red River was a perfect example of how far some bloggers will push their nose up into the netherworld of the rich and famous. For bass fans, the blogosphere is unfortunately populated with people whose most valued possession is a dog-eared thesaurus and a book entitled “The Brown Noser’s Guide to Clichés and Exaggerations”.
In this most recent avalanche of lips on backsides, we are told how the FLW Cup changes a winner’s life – forever – leaving those of us who could look up a list of past champions scratching our heads. Without much argument, at least half of the FLW Cup champions were already household names before they won the event and a couple were already BassMaster Classic winners. Admittedly, a small handful did get a kickstart from the victory but the rest have faded into that huge repository known as “The Who’s He?” of professional bass fishing.
In all fairness, the 2013 FLW Cup did have its share of drama with a Randall Tharp versus Jacob Wheeler storyline. But, where I draw a very wide line in the sand is when our little blogger states that a Larry Nixon victory would have been “the biggest thing to ever happen in pro bass fishing.” Ever? Really? If the depth of this guy’s thinking could be shown on sonar, you could walk across his mind and scarcely get your feet wet.
Yeah, let’s ignore everything that has ever happen in professional bass fishing and proclaim this moment - at what is and always has been a second tier championship - as the best ever.
As much as Larry Nixon is deserving of hyperbole, the idea of blowing smoke to this extent only cheapens his accomplishments and those of many others. It’s this “Church of What’s Happening Now” mentality that always brings the knuckledraggers to the trough. It’s easy to say that something we just witnessed is the very best ever. It’s so much harder to remember less recent moments and do some hard comparison. Sorry, that requires something generally referred to as “effort”.
The FLW Cup and its sponsors need something more than bloggers on the payroll to raise the status of this event. You can say it, they can write it, but we have to believe it. And, judging from the attendance at the 2013 edition, I would say folks in Bossier City, Shreveport and surrounding locales aren’t convinced. If you can’t draw big crowds in bass fishing country, I’m thinking this wasn’t the bestest ever, by golly.