Jay Mariotti hates blogs; blogs hate you too, Jay.

Sports blogs cause Olympic sex romps -- more at eleven.

On Around the Horn, Jay Mariotti used his thirty seconds of face time to bash the IOC's idea to let athletes blog during the 2008 Olympics. After taking time to criticize blogs for being "vicious" and starting bad rumors, he pointed out that if athletes were allowed to blog, there could be false stories about sex romps in the Olympic village.

This is the same Jay Mariotti who contacted Wikipedia to make them edit his entry, so maybe he might be the slightest bit paranoid and biased against the entire series of tubes that make up the Internets.

Mariotti is on the growing list of ESPN personalities to lash out at blogs.

• ESPN labeled Deadspin.com as an "underground site" that could not be used as "a source of credible information ... under any circumstance."
• Sean Salisbury has been a frequent target of bloggers. From being accused of saying "Jew" instead of "chew" during football analysis, to being outed as the man who sent pictures of his penis to female staffers at ESPN, Salisbury has been easy fodder for the sports blogosphere. Recently, Salisbury -- somewhat understandably, considering his personal circumstances -- lashed out, saying among other things that "I've got bigger fish to fry than bloggers. I've got a dad going through lung cancer."
• Apparently, Stuart Scott tried to go after a blogger who made this report:

On the stairwell, we noticed Stuart Scott leaning up against the railing, talking on his cell phone. The conversation overheard was about "getting together later on" and he was obviously disappointed that someone wasn't meeting up with him. But who?

Later, inside, as I approached Stuart Scott to get a picture taken with him ("No thanks, dude" is what he said), I leaned over his shoulder and caught him text messaging and the name of the person he was sending the message to:

"Lemme know."

Now, obviously, "Lemme know" is pretty non-descript. But at 12: 30 a.m., in Miami, well, it means "Are you coming out tonight to fuck me or what?"

Certainly, Scott and Salisbury have legitimate beefs. This opinion may not be popular, but the blogosphere has been very hard on both of them -- and not for the fact that they are both awful at what they do. By making possibly false reports that directly impact their personal lives and careers (the Salisbury chew/Jew thing was dubious at best), criticism of the two has gone over the line, beyond "boo-yah" and frightfully bad analysis.

Mariotti, on the other hand, has no right to complain. As one of the worst sports columnists in the country, and one of the most obnoxious, unpleasant and generally despicable human beings to ever appear on television (he's on a short list with Bill O'Reilly and Skip Bayless), he certainly has no right to criticize a blogosphere that truly hasn't been that tough on him. Aside from JaytheJoke.com and being scorned by the general blog population, Mariotti hasn't felt nearly the heat that Salisbury has.

He might after this -- but then again, nobody watches Around the Horn.