Dennis Dodd

AUSTIN, Texas -- John Bianco's phone blew up at dinner. That was the first sign -- of a Texas football apocalypse.

You should know that Bianco is the football SID at Texas. One of the best. Sometimes it seems he knows something has happened at with the football program before it actually happens. Not this time. Silly him for thinking that he could have a nice, quiet dinner with friends at a trendy Austin fish place on Monday night.  

His cellie began buzzing with cryptic texts as we were looking over the menu. Something about Colt McCoy's compound leg fracture. TV and radio guys were calling. If it was true ... well, no one around here wanted to think that it was true. Texas' promising fall would have turned into a nuclear winter. Still, when you're the SID at a big dog like Texas you don't ignore even the flimsiest of rumors.

Believe me, this one was flimsy. I might not have this right but apparently a radio production assistant in San Antonio had heard from a guy who had it on good authority that Texas' quarterback had broken his leg. That was news to Bianco and other three of us gathering around our fish. But in this instant information age, a message board post can become like a wildfire. You have to put it out.

By the time the check came, Bianco had it under control. No one of substance was going with the news that proved to be false the moment we stopped by Monday's seven-on-seven drills. There was McCoy, Heisman hopeful and Texas' leading career passer, zipping passes to his mates.

As he came off the field, we kidded him about how good his leg looked -- considering.

"Iced it up," McCoy said. "Shot me up, I'm good."

What was troubling was that five of McCoy's teammates had come up to him inquiring about his busted leg. This literally could have been something someone made up. For a couple of hours, it had Texas Nation trembling. That's what scares me. Wherever this came from, someone is likely to blame "the media."

This was not a media creation. As Dave Simon said last week at the National Press Club, "I don't believe in unprofessional journalism. I don't believe in bloggers." Simon is the former Baltimore Sun reporter who created the HBO series "The Wire". You should read and listen to him. 

Simon rails against the idea that Joe Six Pack sitting in his underwear can post his thoughts on the internet and be considered credible. His point is that real journalists take years trying to perfect their craft. Ours is more of a vocation than a job.

I blog. A lot of us at CBSSports.com blog. The difference is our names are on our work. There is someone, somewhere in the company who thinks what  we write is worth paying for. That's professional.

Persons with no formal training in how to communicate -- or how to write -- can become celebrities because they are able to spew a blog. My point is, that's essentially what happend Monday night at Texas. There is a lot to like about what the web has become. Example: A post on a Texas A&M message board led to the breaking of the Big Red Motors scandal at Oklahoma.

There is a lot to hate too. We Twitter, we blog, we gossip, we report facts. There needs to be a separation. You need to know where the line is drawn. Take the time to know and believe in Simon's professional journalism. Newspapers have cut staff, shrunk news hole and increased the price of the product. We're supposed to believe newspapers are better? They won't be until someone figures how to re-invent an entire industry. 

That saddens me because there are fewer watchdogs these days. That's why the media exists, to have an adversarial relationship with those in power. That will never change. This website has spent 14 years establishing itself. It is part of the CBS empire. It is accountable. Whoever vomited that rubbish about McCoy deserves a punch in the face from Dave Simon. He (they) diminished all of our lives a little on Monday.