I found myself referring to this column about 70 times last week after I read it, as ESPN's Ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, aptly discusses The Worldwide Leader's lack of journalistic integrity.
First of all, let me express my intrigue with the ombudsman position to begin with, which serves as a liaison between the public and any given entity, usually used in reference to a government or a media outlet. In her lengthy column, the main point Schreiber hits on is ESPN's recent tendency to create its own opinions and pass them off as news in lieu of actually reporting.
After I read the column, I began to notice this phenomenon more and more as I watched ESPN throughout the week. For example, last week on Monday Night Football, the Bills led by 8 with six minutes left, and the announcers had given the game away to them, saying it was "the biggest victory for the Bills since 1994." This was the fifth game of the regular season and out-of-conference match-up; in other words, it was completely meaningless to either team.
An interception by each team (both of which saved touchdowns), and then a miraculous comeback by the Cowboys in the last minute followed. The point is that the announcers and anchors are so eager to be first to make some overarching, important comment that they neglect to do their job, which is to report on sports. I admire their enthusiasm, because surely ESPN does cover athletics more extensively than any other media outlet, but as Schreiber notes:
"If you look at the proportion of airtime and cyberspace devoted to reporting fact versus delivering opinion on ESPN, ESPN.com and ESPN Radio, it is clear that the main function of sports news is to serve as the molehill on which mountains of opinion are built. We don't have news cycles anymore. We have opinion cycles."
This brings us to the all-important question that she asks as well: Why do we need 24/7 sports "reporting?" The airtime is there if a breaking news story comes along. But why, on a Wednesday in the middle of October when football bookends the weeks and baseball is only on every other day, do we need an hour-and-a-half Sportscenter? Show some college soccer, or hell, water polo (at least on "The Ocho"). You have the assets and the energy, so why not take advantage of the position as "worldwide leader in sports?"
Monday, October 15, 2007
ESPN's Ombudsman right on, as per usual
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2 comments:
Schreiber's article is great, as far as it goes. But if you REALLY want to see opinion masquerading as fact watch CNN, or the CBS Evening News, or read the front page of the New York Times (her old employer!!! but to be fair, she was the sports editor, and the NYT does do a better than average job on sports). Worst of all, watch "Dr." Heidi Cullen on the Weather Channel...
Yes, I completely agree. It's too bad that I left that part out, noting how ESPN is trying to become CNN or Fox, which is what makes the situation the most ridiculous.
They're supposed to be entertaining us, not trying to make us believe that sports have some larger purpose (effectively saying that they themselves are the greatest thing EVER).
Of course, the news networks have the opposite problem: they're only trying to entertain us instead of actually reporting well.
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