Sports Journalism or an Evil Empire?
Barry F. Hess
March 21, 2006
It is currently a very exciting time to be a sports fan and a sports journalist.
Between the madness of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the playoff races in the NBA and NHL, the upcoming baseball season or the free agency period in the NFL fans and writers have a plethora of topics to discuss.
Unfortunately none of those topics will be touched upon in this column.
Today an issue that should have been raised years ago must be brought to the world?s attention and put to a stop: The absolute and utter destruction of the sports journalism industry by the evil empire that is the Eastern Sports Production Network or as most of us know it, ESPN.
The world of sport and the world of journalism are two very different worlds and they should be.
Professional athletes, and college athletes for that matter, are where they are because they are among the very best at what they do and the same goes for the journalists that cover them but the similarities end there.
The line separating covering a story and becoming part of the story was crossed a long time ago by the good folks over at the evil empire.
Now, most of you are probably wondering what it was the evil empire did recently to incense this angry sportswriter enough to shy away from other topics and write this particular column.
The answer, honestly, is nothing.
There was no moment during last nights thrilling, enter extreme sarcasm graphic, World Baseball Classic finale between Cuba and Japan that finally put me over the top.
No comment during the evening edition of Sports Center, or any of the 57 editions of the day, that set me off, at least not lately.
No, it?s just been an accumulation of distasteful and sorry excuses for journalism that I refuse to sit back and expect any longer.
That?s right, I?m mad as hell and I?m not going to take it any more.
Firstly, let?s take a look at Sports Center, the keystone program of the company.
Not only has the 15 second highlight reels they roll full of slam dunks and endzone celebrations hurt the very sports they are attempting to promote but the complete disregard and utter refusal by most of the anchors to speak what is properly known as the English language is a disgrace.
I ask you, what would you do if you got home from a hard day at the office, clicked on the evening news as you prepared dinner and heard the news anchor describe a crime scene or a bank robbery or the weather in the disgusting slang Stuart Scott uses every night on Sports Center?
Most of you would probably do what I would do, turn the joke of a broadcast off faster than you can say boo-ya.
So why then is that type of presentation acceptable, because it?s only sports?
I submit no.
Now let?s move on to the disgrace that is Dream Job.
A program that give a regular Joe the chance to win the job of a Sports Center anchor through a reality television format.
Do I even have to go there?
Let?s see, I?ll pretend for a moment to be an executive of ESPN?nope the idea of turning away qualified and experienced journalists in exchange for glorified karaoke singers still doesn?t seem like a good idea.
Something else that wouldn?t seem like a great idea if I were a front office executive?continuing to let Chris Bermen go on television and make a joke of players names, do you know why?
Because it isn?t funny and it never will be funny.
Bermen is the epitome of what is wrong with ESPN and until he is locked away in a tower somewhere and the key is thrown away forever the ship sinking sports journalism more and more each day will continue to sink.
People don?t tune in to see what crazy names and funny things guys like Bermen are going to say next, they tune in because they won?t to see whatever the big news stories of the day are.
ESPN doesn?t care about getting the story first or giving the best comprehensive analysis and news available they care about promoting their huge brand and making millions of dollars and if they have to exploit sports to do it, so be it.
Sport is supposed to be pure, it?s supposed to be a getaway but ESPN decided a long time ago that something pure couldn?t be marketed very well.
So now we have three months of the World Series of Poker because the longer they can drag it out the more money they can make.
We have 457 different channels of ESPN to choose from even though if you watch long enough you can see all the different programs on one station eventually.
We have retired athletes like Bill Walton and Shawn Salsbury making fools of themselves with their idiotic comments and corny catch phrases, not to mention their horrible columns and articles they post online simply because they can.
No one cared about back up quarterbacks like Salsbury when he was in the NFL so why should we care what he has to say now?
The evil empire needs to be overthrown and I for one will lead the charge if need be.
Don?t get me wrong, there are plenty of very good journalists that work for the evil empire and for every Bill Walton there is a Ron Jaworski and for every Stuart Scott there is a Sal Palentonio but until the Bermens and the Scotts and the nonsense that goes along with them are gone sports journalism as we know it will continue to suffer which, in turn, means sport as a whole will continue to suffer.
So for all you kids out there that watch Sports Center and read ESPN magazine and watch all 457 ESPN produced networks please, I beg you, stop watching.
Stop drinking the Cool Aid and read a newspaper because that is the only pure form of journalism still out there today.
Between the madness of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the playoff races in the NBA and NHL, the upcoming baseball season or the free agency period in the NFL fans and writers have a plethora of topics to discuss.
Unfortunately none of those topics will be touched upon in this column.
Today an issue that should have been raised years ago must be brought to the world?s attention and put to a stop: The absolute and utter destruction of the sports journalism industry by the evil empire that is the Eastern Sports Production Network or as most of us know it, ESPN.
The world of sport and the world of journalism are two very different worlds and they should be.
Professional athletes, and college athletes for that matter, are where they are because they are among the very best at what they do and the same goes for the journalists that cover them but the similarities end there.
The line separating covering a story and becoming part of the story was crossed a long time ago by the good folks over at the evil empire.
Now, most of you are probably wondering what it was the evil empire did recently to incense this angry sportswriter enough to shy away from other topics and write this particular column.
The answer, honestly, is nothing.
There was no moment during last nights thrilling, enter extreme sarcasm graphic, World Baseball Classic finale between Cuba and Japan that finally put me over the top.
No comment during the evening edition of Sports Center, or any of the 57 editions of the day, that set me off, at least not lately.
No, it?s just been an accumulation of distasteful and sorry excuses for journalism that I refuse to sit back and expect any longer.
That?s right, I?m mad as hell and I?m not going to take it any more.
Firstly, let?s take a look at Sports Center, the keystone program of the company.
Not only has the 15 second highlight reels they roll full of slam dunks and endzone celebrations hurt the very sports they are attempting to promote but the complete disregard and utter refusal by most of the anchors to speak what is properly known as the English language is a disgrace.
I ask you, what would you do if you got home from a hard day at the office, clicked on the evening news as you prepared dinner and heard the news anchor describe a crime scene or a bank robbery or the weather in the disgusting slang Stuart Scott uses every night on Sports Center?
Most of you would probably do what I would do, turn the joke of a broadcast off faster than you can say boo-ya.
So why then is that type of presentation acceptable, because it?s only sports?
I submit no.
Now let?s move on to the disgrace that is Dream Job.
A program that give a regular Joe the chance to win the job of a Sports Center anchor through a reality television format.
Do I even have to go there?
Let?s see, I?ll pretend for a moment to be an executive of ESPN?nope the idea of turning away qualified and experienced journalists in exchange for glorified karaoke singers still doesn?t seem like a good idea.
Something else that wouldn?t seem like a great idea if I were a front office executive?continuing to let Chris Bermen go on television and make a joke of players names, do you know why?
Because it isn?t funny and it never will be funny.
Bermen is the epitome of what is wrong with ESPN and until he is locked away in a tower somewhere and the key is thrown away forever the ship sinking sports journalism more and more each day will continue to sink.
People don?t tune in to see what crazy names and funny things guys like Bermen are going to say next, they tune in because they won?t to see whatever the big news stories of the day are.
ESPN doesn?t care about getting the story first or giving the best comprehensive analysis and news available they care about promoting their huge brand and making millions of dollars and if they have to exploit sports to do it, so be it.
Sport is supposed to be pure, it?s supposed to be a getaway but ESPN decided a long time ago that something pure couldn?t be marketed very well.
So now we have three months of the World Series of Poker because the longer they can drag it out the more money they can make.
We have 457 different channels of ESPN to choose from even though if you watch long enough you can see all the different programs on one station eventually.
We have retired athletes like Bill Walton and Shawn Salsbury making fools of themselves with their idiotic comments and corny catch phrases, not to mention their horrible columns and articles they post online simply because they can.
No one cared about back up quarterbacks like Salsbury when he was in the NFL so why should we care what he has to say now?
The evil empire needs to be overthrown and I for one will lead the charge if need be.
Don?t get me wrong, there are plenty of very good journalists that work for the evil empire and for every Bill Walton there is a Ron Jaworski and for every Stuart Scott there is a Sal Palentonio but until the Bermens and the Scotts and the nonsense that goes along with them are gone sports journalism as we know it will continue to suffer which, in turn, means sport as a whole will continue to suffer.
So for all you kids out there that watch Sports Center and read ESPN magazine and watch all 457 ESPN produced networks please, I beg you, stop watching.
Stop drinking the Cool Aid and read a newspaper because that is the only pure form of journalism still out there today.
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