Afterward, the New York Times sports media critic wrote that "if the sports blogosphere needed someone to symbolize the mainstream media's fear and suspicion of its influence, it found him in Buzz Bissinger."

"I was way over the top and I regret that," Bissinger said about his now-infamous Costas appearance. "I read some of the political blogs and they're very good, very thoughtful. I'm into photography and some of those blogs are really useful, too. But the vast majority, especially in sports, are terrible.

" . . . Deadspin praises you and then bites you in the ass. That's what they do. They deal in a certain kind of humor. Personally, I find it sophomoric, but a lot of people like it and that's fine. . . . That's what I was trying to point out when I was on the Costas show."

Bissinger's fury betrayed the professional journalists' growing unease about blogs, more than a decade after these personal "Web logs" began appearing. This despite the fact that most major newspapers now have Web sites with their own blogs and bloggers.

"[That mistrust is] often encapsulated in the phrase, 'blogging isn't journalism,'" Alfred Hermida, a University of British Columbia journalism professor wrote recently on MediaShift, a PBS Web site dedicated to tracking how new media are changing society and culture. "This is a tired argument that mistakes form for content.

"Blogs, just like magazines, radio or television, can contain journalism, but they may not. The content, rather than the platform, defines whether or not it is a work of journalism."

All the arguments and animosity were on display this week when Morris, in a lengthy, statistically based post composed in response to a query from a Fantasy Baseball colleague, wondered whether the 37-year-old Ibanez's great first-half might be due to some illegal substance.

Inquirer sports columnist John Gonzalez saw the post on another Web site and questioned it on ethical grounds the following day. The Inquirer's baseball writer, Jim Salisbury, then asked Ibanez for his reaction, which turned out to be both angry and disparaging of bloggers.

A defensive Morris later wrote that he was raising an issue many baseball fans have been discussing. And if not for The Inquirer's mentioning his work, he said, it might have been viewed by 300 or 400 people and quickly forgotten. Fellow bloggers claimed Morris' post was extremely well-reasoned.

In any event, by midweek, Morris was on ESPN, taking the blog side in a debate with Gonzalez and Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, a former newspaper reporter.

"It's unfortunate because I really don't think the kid's blog post was anything to get that upset about," said Daulerio. "It's not reckless and I don't think he did anything wrong in pushing that conversation to the forefront. In fact, I think he did it in a pretty responsible way."

Perhaps predictably, some bloggers felt Morris was being ganged up on. But in defending him, they likely buttressed their detractor's arguments. Morris' brother, in another MSF post, referred to Gonzalez and Rosenthal as "the biggest turds."

It's possible, of course, that despite all this sound and fury, the wider public fails to see any significance in what is essentially an internecine feud.

Nathan Marinoff, a New York City attorney and an avid reader of sports blogs and sports pages, pointed out in an e-mail to The Inquirer this week that the two media may be more alike than they'd care to admit.

"Are there excessive, irresponsible bloggers?  Of course," Marinoff wrote.  "That said . . . one doesn't have to look too far to find examples of similarly excessive, irresponsible figures in print and broadcast media.  As with all things, the key is to read and think critically."

Contact staff writer Frank Fitzpatrick

at 215-854-5068 or ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com.