Mark Cuban is somebody sports fans can appreciate on a lot of levels. He's a self-made man, he's living his dreams, and he owns a pretty damn good NBA team. He's even parlayed that into reality TV stardom and probably gets all the tail that he wants. More power to him.

Unfortunately, Cuban -- who built his empire on internet commerce -- has decided to smack technological progress in the face.

Per his own blog, Cuban has decided to ban bloggers from the Dallas Maverick's locker room. While he claims to like bloggers, his entry indicates that he doesn't understand them -- or at least what the good ones do. Cuban denies it, but many are speculating that this is a retaliatory move against a particular blogger for the Dallas Morning News. That writer, Tim MacMahon, has openly discussed the issue and presented his case very succinctly.

Will Leitch over at Deadspin also put it succinctly when he called it as he saw it: Bullshit.

We recently ranted about Tony Kornheiser's anti-blog comments, but at least he couldn't take any measurable action against this entire genre of journalism.

What Cuban seems to fundamentally misunderstand is that there is a difference between bloggers:

I am of the opinion that a blogger for one of the local newspapers is no better or worse than the blogger from the local high school, from the local huge Mavs fan, from an out of town blogger. I want to treat them all the same.

That's like saying anybody with a xerox machine is as (il)legitimate of a reporter as somebody from the New York Times. That's like saying anybody with a local cable access show is as (il)legitimate as Walter Cronkite. That is saying Cuban has no idea what he's talking about.

Welcome to 2008, where there's no reason a top blogger can't be as professional and have as much experience as any other journalist. Frequently, bloggers can break news faster and provide more hard evidence (pictures, video, text, links, etc.) than any one traditional outlet can hope for. Many are far more professional than the people you'll find in main stream media. Plenty of blogs reach more people every month than live in Cuban's entire Dallas market.

It's sad when rich, educated, and powerful people fail to understand the basic tenants of media literacy -- possibly the most underrated cause of the modern era. We are bombarded by messages in our daily lives, and it's a pretty good idea to question what influences those messages. Medium is nowhere near as important as understanding who is transmitting the message, who is in their audience, and what sorts of standards and ethics they apply (voluntary or mandated). Is this person working to inform the public with fair and balanced commentary? Is this person being professional and reaching a large audience? Those are the type of things that should count in the Maverick's credentialing procedures.

Instead, Cuban wants to blindly favor traditional media like print -- which is universally losing circulation and seeing ad sales plummet. Way to pick a winner.

AP photo.