LOL
Apart from Ross, those are some very lazy, simplistic choices Julian. The main gig for half of them is writing for a Sports site.
But I guess if you're influenced by Chuck Klosterman, then that's your choice.
Chuck Klosterman.
Hyden is the only person there whose "main gig" is writing for a "Sports" site. (And Grantland.com is basically a portal to two sites: a sports one [The Triangle] and a culture one [Hollywood Prospectus].)
Klosterman writes about 3 articles a year at this point for Grantland, which is probably about 10% of his output at this point, at most. Not to mention he averages one book a year too. I'm completely unaware of Michael Azerrad at any time writing for a sports website, but perhaps you can enlighten me.
I'm not even disagreeing with your assessment of these individuals but they are undoubtedly current music critics who have "any kind of platform." I'm sure if I was the kind of person who subscribed to Rolling Stone, Spin, or Paste, I could list you a handful more. The lazy, simplistic thing was your hyperbolic statement.