ESPN

[SoDakDomer]

Over this past year I have become more and more frustrated with the irresponsible way ESPN reports on sports. In a climate where only a flimsy rumor can get you convicted in the court of public opinion, ESPN needs to be more careful in reporting the facts. Unlike in our law system where it’s innocent until proven guilty, in the court of public opinion it’s guilty until proven innocent. So when ESPN jumps on a story, it doesn’t matter whether it’s true or false, everyone believes it to be true. I think a major cause for this is that there isn’t any other prominent sport channels on television that can compete with the 24/7 news coverage the way espn does. There is no one to counter/check their positions or agendas. Could you imagine having only one political channel? What if the only way the nation got its news and political views was from MSNBC or just FOXNEWS. I feel like that’s what is happening with ESPN, they have no competition and whatever they say goes. Some of these examples are the frenzy they created surrounding the open coaching position at USC. According to ESPN every major D-1 coach and their dog was interested and about ready to ink a deal to be the next USC coach. Or when “sources” inside the Vikings locker room claimed Favre finally decided to retire this summer. Now today all ESPN needs is an “unnamed source” to put out a story. If it’s a slow day it seems like they can generate a story out of anything. I enjoy Sportcenter and watch ESPN daily and I appreciate the work they do, but in a climate where it only takes a rumor to be considered guilty, ESPN needs to try and be more responsible in the stories they run.

 

[Jerry]

ESPN reported Les Miles was all set to be the next coach at Michigan like the day before Miles had to coach LSU in the SEC championship game in '07. Talk about a huge distraction for Miles when you're trying to make a championship run. I don't like Miles necessarily but I understood his angry press conference denouncing the rumors. We live in a culture where breaking a story first is more important than reporting the truth. It's sad.

 

[irishff1014]

This is the media in general.

 

[Jerry]

This is the media in general.

Yep.

 

[irishff1014]

That is half the worlds problem now.

 

[phork]

ESPN reported Les Miles was all set to be the next coach at Michigan like the day before Miles had to coach LSU in the SEC championship game in '07. Talk about a huge distraction for Miles when you're trying to make a championship run. I don't like Miles necessarily but I understood his angry press conference denouncing the rumors. We live in a culture where breaking a story first is more important than reporting the truth. It's sad.

It was pretty much a done deal. Had Herbstreit not jumped the gun I fully believe that Miles would be at UM right now.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

Or when “sources” inside the Vikings locker room claimed Favre finally decided to retire this summer. .

I would be nearly certain that this was accurate reporting.

Do you doubt that Favre would change his mind?

 

[BurningRiver]

As a Cleveland fan, I haven't watched ESPN shows other than College Gameday and games that they televise. When ESPN hoisted LeBron up to the world so he could make his announcement, and then continued to pat him on the back and feed his ego after stabbing us in the back, that was when I'd had enough.

ESPN is just a bunch of head cases who talk about things that will get them good ratings, i.e. the endless Brett Favre saga that frankly isn't even remotely interesting to people outside of Minnesota.

And given the crap ESPN has been piling on to Notre Dame since the Declan Sullivan incident, I've had it with ESPN.

 

[IrishLax]

Over the past 5 years ESPN has gone from an entity that I love to just another nauseating media outlet. I blame the "blogger" revolution. Too many un-qualified people hustling to break stories and often fabricating to do so.

And don't even get me started on the dribble that are ESPN.com comments.

 

[irishtrain]

Really glad to see you guys coming around-espn (small caps)=irrelavant

 

[NDinL.A.]

Really glad to see you guys coming around-espn (small caps)=irrelavant

Sorry bro, gotta disagree here. ESPN is anything but irrelevant. As much as I hate some of the things ESPN stands for, I watch it more than any other channel. Games, Sportscenter, ESPNews, a ton of shows on ESPNU, Mike and Mike as I get ready in the morning, Gameday; the list goes on and on. Anytime breaking news comes on, I turn to ESPN to find out more. The are THE sports channel to turn to. And I'm not nearly alone on this, obviously.

Name one fanbase that doesn't think ESPN hates them. Hell, ESPN had a reporter basically live at USC for 3-4 years during the Pete Carroll era giving them daily lube jobs that really helped step up their national prominence, and now almost all USC fans think that ESPN hates them and are the devil. Every single fanbase rails against how much ESPN hates them. ND fans are no different...although in our case, they are several members of that station who legitimately hate ND (and several that are ND homers).

There are probably 25-30 anti-ESPN threads on this site already. I don't blame anybody for hating ESPN; I'm just saying that they most certainly are not irrelevant.

As for the OP, I disagree with the USC thing. There were rumors flying around, but there wasn't a ton of people set to ink the deal. In fact, it was quite the opposite; no one wanted the job...ESPN would would just report who USC wanted to talk to. And don't blame ESPN on that one...blame the agents who float those rumors around to get their guys extensions. Same crap happened when ND fired CW. Edsell's agent was floating his name out for every single damn job opening out there. Agents are as slimy as it gets.

But yes, ESPN needs to be way more responsible in the journalism. Then again, as was mentioned, so does everybody...

 

[NDOM]

I love ESPN actually. Really the only reason you guys DONT like them is because they (for the most part) speak the truth about ND. Just because a select few on the show talk bad about ND there are also a select few that talk GOOD about ND but a lot of you just wear the ND goggles and have the ND earplugs in and always are drinking the ND koolaide. Maybe its not ESPN thats the problem......MAYBE just MAYBE it you.

And as far as ESPN being irrelevant, thats just like.....well, DUMB!

 

[IrishJayhawk]

I love ESPN actually. Really the only reason you guys DONT like them is because they (for the most part) speak the truth about ND. Just because a select few on the show talk bad about ND there are also a select few that talk GOOD about ND but a lot of you just wear the ND goggles and have the ND earplugs in and always are drinking the ND koolaide. Maybe its not ESPN thats the problem......MAYBE just MAYBE it you.

And as far as ESPN being irrelevant, thats just like.....well, DUMB!

I think this is actually pretty accurate. They are very good at what they do.

 

[chyrspchuck]

I love ESPN actually. Really the only reason you guys DONT like them is because they (for the most part) speak the truth about ND. Just because a select few on the show talk bad about ND there are also a select few that talk GOOD about ND but a lot of you just wear the ND goggles and have the ND earplugs in and always are drinking the ND koolaide. Maybe its not ESPN thats the problem......MAYBE just MAYBE it you.

And as far as ESPN being irrelevant, thats just like.....well, DUMB!

ok Aaron, you gonna be beast

 

[Riddickulous]

Is ESPN irrelevant? Absolutely not.

Is ESPN pretty damn awful? Yes and no.

ESPN gives you tons and tons of games to watch. IMO, that's a damn good thing. You can find highlights there and all kinds of good stuff.

Then there's the bad...

- Obsessively covering one relatively minor topic for days on end. Examples: LeBron and the Heat, the Favre controversy, etc.
- The hype train for whatever team is #1 at the time.
- SEC lovefest.
- Awful announcers. Most, if not all ESPN announcers are pulp. Thank God we have Mike Mayock.

 

[IrishJayhawk]

- Obsessively covering one relatively minor topic for days on end. Examples: LeBron and the Heat, the Favre controversy, etc.
- The hype train for whatever team is #1 at the time.
- SEC lovefest.
- Awful announcers. Most, if not all ESPN announcers are pulp. Thank God we have Mike Mayock.

They only cover what people obsessively watch. If Lebron and Favre got bad ratings, they would cover something else. That's all there is to it.

 

[theclassickiller]

I honestly think that one of ESPN's biggest problems as far as lack of integrity (and just straight up lying) goes is Pat Forde. He will take a story and twist it any way he wants to to get people to read his terrible analysis. Does anyone remember after the Syracuse loss in 2008 when Forde wrote how the fans pelted the players with snowballs after the game out of disgust? Well, thats all well and good except for the fact that the snowball throwing was before the game and at halftime during senior day, but no throwing at the end. And the fact that the players were throwing snowballs back in good fun. And at that point no one could have possibly known we were going to lose to Syracuse. But other than that he was spot on.

Also whoever at ESPN first reported that Declan Sullivan was 50 feet in the air when his lift tipped. Has anyone seen the picture of the lift?

Check it:
Notre Dame University student, 20, dead after scissor lift tips during football practice | SILive.com

It is a standard electric scissor lift with the standard size platform. Those lifts reach about 25-30 feet tops. The larger electric lifts reach about 40 (which that one is not). The ONLY SCISSOR LIFTS that can reach 50 feet are the gas powered all-terrain lifts (which are totally bad-a by the way). Trust me on this, I spend a lot of time in the field on lifts for my job. One of those could never approach 50 feet. It was just irresponsible reporting by someone who probably heard 50 MPH gusts and decided 50 foot fall sounded better.

ESPN is pathetic and needs to be held accountable.

 

[Jerry]

I honestly think that one of ESPN's biggest problems as far as lack of integrity (and just straight up lying) goes is Pat Forde. He will take a story and twist it any way he wants to to get people to read his terrible analysis. Does anyone remember after the Syracuse loss in 2008 when Forde wrote how the fans pelted the players with snowballs after the game out of disgust? Well, thats all well and good except for the fact that the snowball throwing was before the game and at halftime during senior day, but no throwing at the end. And the fact that the players were throwing snowballs back in good fun. And at that point no one could have possibly known we were going to lose to Syracuse. But other than that he was spot on.

Also whoever at ESPN first reported that Declan Sullivan was 50 feet in the air when his lift tipped. Has anyone seen the picture of the lift?

Check it:
Notre Dame University student, 20, dead after scissor lift tips during football practice | SILive.com

It is a standard electric scissor lift with the standard size platform. Those lifts reach about 25-30 feet tops. The larger electric lifts reach about 40 (which that one is not). The ONLY SCISSOR LIFTS that can reach 50 feet are the gas powered all-terrain lifts (which are totally bad-a by the way). Trust me on this, I spend a lot of time in the field on lifts for my job. One of those could never approach 50 feet. It was just irresponsible reporting by someone who probably heard 50 MPH gusts and decided 50 foot fall sounded better.

ESPN is pathetic and needs to be held accountable.

Not to mention how they kept saying that Jim Tressel kept OSU in on Tuesday because of high winds. But not pointing out that ND was also inside Tuesday. I don't know how many message boards I've seen where people keep referencing Tressel keeping his team in on the day the accident happened. When it was the day before. It just sounded like ESPN was misleading with their report to build the story up.