I've been quick to mock the mainstream media as being out of touch with the internet, but I think ESPN is almost dead on with its new Twitter ban.

Two things separate ESPN from any other sports fan: access and journalistic standards.

Before you roll your eyes at the words "journalistic standards", think about Michael Jackson's death. You may have read about it in some social media forum or at TMZ, but you didn't really believe it until CNN, the networks and the LA Times confirmed it, did you?

It doesn't make sense for ESPN to allow its reporters to post juicy gossip and scoops on non-advertising supported non-ESPN sites. At best, it devalues ESPN's own content and makes the reporter, rather than the network, (whose access ESPN provides) the news source and at worst it makes the viewer or reader questions whether they're hearing facts or crazy rumors from ESPN. And if that's the case, why go to ESPN when you can get that level of information from a thousand other different sources.

But here's where I think ESPN gets it wrong. By all means, they should allow on-air talent to express opinions galore on social media sites. If someone is interesting on Twitter, my thinking goes, then maybe they'll be interesting on ESPN, ESPN.com, ESPN radio, ESPN Deportes, or ESPN the whatever and maybe I'll follow them there.

ESPN is right not to allow social media to be a substitute for the network, but they still have to use it, not ignore it.