This media vs. Lance Armstrong tift at the Giro d’Italia is becoming soooo high school, in a “That ’70s Show” kind of way. 

Cyclingnews.com reports today that some media covering the Giro are now boycotting Armstrong’s 140characters of Twitter wisdom because Armstrong has been Silent Sam with the Giro media for a few days now.

Geeeeesh.

I guess if I was in Italy, I might be sour, too, but tapping at a keyboard here in the states, it all seems kind of silly, regardless of the genesis of the dispute (which the media reports is because Armstrong took exception to criticism directed at him for his role in the stage in Milan being neutralized the other day for unsafe conditions, tho Astana flacks dispute this). Now some media is fighting back by ignoring L.A.’s Twitters.

Whatever. Celebs/public figures don’t need the media middleman anymore to reach the masses. They can Twitter away without the media filter. That’s life in the 21st century.

(And L.A. is a Twittering machine. As of 7:12 p.m., he has 15 posts from today. Dude cranks it out in a way that a newspaper schlub can appreciate. As Blues icon Brian Sutter once said, ’Hard work is a skill.’)

I also don’t understand why the media should care if Armstrong doesn’t want to speak on a given day or days. He’s an ancillary story in this year’s Giro anyway, not a contender just another guy. Sure, it’s his grand tour comeback, etc., but there’s other stuff to follow, such as the always exciting American team of Columbia-High Road and its engaging superstar sprinter Mark Cavendish (another stage win Friday, giving him three and the team six), and of course the battle for the G.C.

Armstrong is part of that story as a super-domestique for Astana, but the main deal is the battle at the top between Denis Menchov of Rabobank, Danilo DiLuca of LPR brakes and American Levi Leipheimer of Astana. Leipheimer’s quest to become the first American to finish on the podium at all three grand tour’s ranks with Columbia-High Road’s performance as the top two American stories at this Giro. I’d rate Armstrong as the No. 3 story right now, maybe No. 4 if Garmin-Slipstream manages to pull off a stage win in the last week.

If Leipheimer wins the Giro or finishes on the podium (he’s third at the moment, 40 seconds behind Menchov), then Armstrong would be a sidebar. And if I have to read about how he feels about that on Twitter, along with about 1 million L.A. followers, so be it.

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