Stephen Rodrick wrote an interesting article on slate.com entitled "How Television Killed The Sports Column," giving particular attention to the mouth of ESPN himself, Stephen A. Smith.

http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2112657&

There's a good and a bad side to this trend. The good: Television popularizes the columnist and the paper he works for, and as a result gives credibility to both. The bad: The columnist and paper usually become popular for the wrong reasons, i.e. style, not substance.