ESPN: Too Close? - jkra0512's Blog

jkra0512's Blog

ESPN: Too Close?

Posted on January 20, 2010 at 11:27 AM.

(4)

I have ESPN for as long as I can remember. I always found it refreshing to have a network fully devoted to sports, with anchors with sass and humor. The World Wide Leader have shows ranging from PTI, Baseball Tonight, Outside the Lines, and of course SportsCenter, but it seems ESPN has gotten too close to athletes to stay objective.

This might just be my opinion, but the WWL seem to converse with athletes outside of the reporting realm which makes covering them objectively null and void. I learned in college that athletes and coaches are not your friends, at least if you want to write good stories. It's hard to be objective with your friends, when things go wrong you comfort them and when things are good you ride it.

ESPN seems to be a fairweather friend to many athletes. Let's take Tiger Woods and his fall from grace for example. ESPN is not the only network to completely shun Tiger but the problem lies in what ESPN writes on its ticker. Allegedly, Tiger is in a sex addict clinic in Mississippi but as we keep reading they can't substantiate the "report". Well, ESPN it's a rumor then and until you find more than a few reputable sources you can't put that up as if it were fact.

As per Dictionary.com
Rumor -noun-
"A story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty"

Sure, it might be true but you don't know for sure. This isn't just an ESPN thing, many networks do this and I can't wait until they totally miss on a story and they're sued for libel and defamation of character.

I don't feel bad for Tiger, he made his own bed. However, it sure doesn't help when ESPN posts a rumor (for now) on the bottom line and "reports" it on SportsCenter as if it were fact.

ESPN needs to distance itself from the people they report about. Sadly, they've become the Fox News of the sports news realm, where they mix rumors and facts together so you can't distinguish one from the other.

Comments

# 1 rudyjuly2 @ Jan 20

ESPN is truly an entertainment network now. The credibility has dropped.

# 2 jkra0512 @ Jan 20

I couldn't agree with you more Rudy. It's disgusting what that network has become

# 3 stlstudios189 @ Jan 20

Next year they are the only source for BCS bowl game news and notes, very sad.

# 4 superstarshad @ Jan 20

Three words- Disney owns them. Just wait and see what happens when they purchase Electronic Arts. (Now that was nice, see how I brought it back to sports gaming)