The Times, which has some pretty thoughtful blogs in its stable, offers in Sunday's editions a lengthy piece by David Wharton that strongly suggests sports blogs have finally started cleaning up their act - once again operating under the assumption that every blog was gossipy trash in need of janitorial. Lip service is barely paid to the idea that most sports blogs have had integrity long before a site like Deadspin even came into existence, or that there are newspapers out there that can outshame almost any blog.

If I were the Kamenetzky brothers, who bust their humps on at least three local websites - two under the Times umbrella - I'd be seriously offended.

Guess what: If you want to write about blogs like Deadspin - that is, blogs that offer a spicier brand of quality but quality nonetheless - feel free. But the ongoing preoccupation with those blogs just reminds us that given the opportunity, newspapers are at least as eager to focus on the sensational as anyone else. If that's the case, so be it - but don't act as if you're above it all. At the risk of being self-serving, it speaks volumes that a site like mine - though it hardly has to be mine, because there are plenty of others to choose from in Los Angeles - can operate right in the Times' hometown and not earn a mention in an article about sports blogging. Mainstream newspapers and writers claim to want integrity in sports blogging, but when it's right in front of their face, they don't find it particularly worthwhile to talk about, do they?