ESPN Is Pathetic

[deanx0]

How do we know Schwab hasn't been mailing it in?  Or regressed in some way?  There's only one side of the story: his.
 
I live close to Bristol, and know multiple people that work there.  Just this week I was talking with someone about the layoffs (and on the tech side he was heavily involved, if not leading parts of the 3D stuff - which was canned), and he wasn't concerned.  For example, they are still swimming with cash.  Also, ESPN hasn't exactly had tons of layoffs in their history.  So, a lot of the people, as it usually is with layoffs when it's not a crisis situation, are the poor performers, the people that were going to retire soon, basically, the people that should have been gone a long time ago.  If they start letting go of the good people, that's when you know there are issues.

How do we know Schwab hasn't been mailing it in?  Or regressed in some way?  There's only one side of the story: his.
 
I live close to Bristol, and know multiple people that work there.  Just this week I was talking with someone about the layoffs (and on the tech side he was heavily involved, if not leading parts of the 3D stuff - which was canned), and he wasn't concerned.  For example, they are still swimming with cash.  Also, ESPN hasn't exactly had tons of layoffs in their history.  So, a lot of the people, as it usually is with layoffs when it's not a crisis situation, are the poor performers, the people that were going to retire soon, basically, the people that should have been gone a long time ago.  If they start letting go of the good people, that's when you know there are issues.

I hope for your friend (if he is your friend) that it works out for him, but with Disney now in charge, I can almost assure you that these will not be the last of the layoffs. I can also assure you that the line that it's poor performers and people that should have retired soon is the party line that HR and senior management want the rank and file to believe so that instead of looking to get out, they keep doing their job until they get the unexpected bullet. However, when they do get canned it will be told to the survivors that the terminated employee was old or underperforming and the circle of life will continue.

As many have said, if you really want to get rid of fat, terminate 2 of your six talking heads on the NFL gameday show, or cut the NFL, MLB, NBA, etc studio shows from 4 to 3 or 2. Try sports center with a single anchor. If things are so austere, roll back the salaries of VPs and above by 5 to 10 percent--that would save you more than cutting 50 jobs and their quality of life would not be so severly effected. None of these are done however, because replacing a senior researcher or your video-game writer with kids right out of college saves you cash without messing with the high-profile talent.

 

[bbc23]

Similar vein to the Joe Torre daughter story, why in the hell is this front page material
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9422667/report-former-chicago-cub-kerry-wood-finds-body-floating-harbor

 

[HillysLastWalk]

Similar vein to the Joe Torre daughter story, why in the hell is this front page material
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9422667/report-former-chicago-cub-kerry-wood-finds-body-floating-harbor

 
I love to rail on ESPN just like the next guy, but isn't it just a Headline that ends up in their handy 'Headline' tracker in the upper right-hand corner?
 
Their real 'top stories', just happen to be on the larger left-hand side, with the big graphics.
 
Like this here ...
 

 
But, this is just my take.  I could be wrong.

 

[richgedman'sghost]

Similar vein to the Joe Torre daughter story, why in the hell is this front page material
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/9422667/report-former-chicago-cub-kerry-wood-finds-body-floating-harbor

It was on the ESPN Chicago page. I don't understand what your problem is. It is a story that might be of interest to Chicago readers so it is placed there. Do you have any problems with the writing of the story? Sometimes, the lengths people go to "prove" ESPN is pathetic ...I just find in this case it is a nitpick..

 

[bbc23]

It was originally on the front page as one of the top 5 headlines on the right side.  I have no problem with the writing of the story or anything, just that it has absolutely not relevancy to sports and the person of interest isn't even an active athlete.  

 

[Leather]

On ESPN Radio yesterday, some guy (Tom Curran?) suggested that Kraft may demote/fire Belichick sometime in the next 18 months due to the Hernandez incident.

 

[HillysLastWalk]

It was originally on the front page as one of the top 5 headlines on the right side.  I have no problem with the writing of the story or anything, just that it has absolutely not relevancy to sports and the person of interest isn't even an active athlete.  

 
There are no "top 5" stories on the right side.  They are placed in the order they are created.  Hence, it wasn't "top 5", it was "last 5".  And until another story comes out, it will stay as the "last 5".
 
And it's interesting because it involves Kerry Wood, a famous former MLB player.  It's just a headline.
 
EDIT: I just quickly went to cbssports.com and sportsillustrated.com, just to see a comparison of what other websites do ... it's the same exact thing: A small running list of headlines on the right side (first in, first out), and huge images for their main/hot stories on the left side.  Seems like they are all doing the same thing.

 

[dirtynine]

Those sidebar stories are not completely chronological and automated; they are definitely hand-tuned and adjusted. 

 

[DJnVa]

On ESPN Radio yesterday, some guy (Tom Curran?) suggested that Kraft may demote/fire Belichick sometime in the next 18 months due to the Hernandez incident.

 
18 months?  So sometime between now and week 16 of next season? 

 

[Marciano490]

18 months?  So sometime between now and week 16 of next season? 

 
He's obviously still a top regular season coach, but he's been shown up in the playoffs the last few years.  Maybe it's not the worst idea to replace him at the end of the regular season and let McDaniels take over the HC duties for the playoffs.  More than that, McDaniels brings in guys like Tebow who are chaste and inspirational, while Belichick has brought us Stallworth, Moss, Haynesworth and now Hernandez.

 

[Blacken]

 

[SunkToANewLowell]

The NFL section was full of Patriot hate today this was the crown jewel. They would have won the Super Bowl in 07 had they lost more.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9355518/nfl-2007-pats-wonder-been

 

[Stevie1der]

The NFL section was full of Patriot hate today this was the crown jewel. They would have won the Super Bowl in 07 had they lost more.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9355518/nfl-2007-pats-wonder-been

 
That looks like a really interesting and comprehensive piece that I will in no way, shape or form read to completion because I don't feel like punching a wall or kicking a dog today.

 

[SunkToANewLowell]

That looks like a really interesting and comprehensive piece that I will in no way, shape or form read to completion because I don't feel like punching a wall or kicking a dog today.

i didnt make it past the intro after he listed them as the "luckiest team" despite the fact a guy caught a football on his damn helmet in the Super Bowl

 

[mascho]

I made it through the entire piece and while painful, I do not think it was a "hit job" or anything that is annoying to read, other than the memories.
 
The opening paragraphs refers to them as the luckiest "and unluckiest" team that season.
 
It also mentions that "some players" wish they had lost, and in support of that conclusion includes two quotes from Stallworth.  Stallworth says at one point that "in hindsight I wish we lost that game" referring to the regular season finale against the Giants, and the last part of the piece again quotes Stallworth saying " Guys forgot what it was like to lose a game."
 
In all, it was an interesting read I thought.

 

[Myt1]

Ashley Fox, who works for the company that recently hired a man who actually plead guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with a murder investigation, believes that the Patriots should have known better than to draft and extend Aaron Hernandez, apparently because he was rumored to have failed multiple drug tests.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9441388/nfl-new-england-patriots-stained-aaron-hernandez-saga

 

[soxhop411]

Ashley Fox, who works for the company that recently hired a man who actually plead guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with a murder investigation, believes that the Patriots should have known better than to draft and extend Aaron Hernandez, apparently because he was rumored to have failed multiple drug tests.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9441388/nfl-new-england-patriots-stained-aaron-hernandez-saga

What the heck did I just read?
 
Deadspin just took her to task...

 

[Myt1]

Patriots' brand forever tarnished by failure to internalize the lessons of Reefer Madness.

 

[soxhop411]

Patriots' brand forever tarnished by failure to internalize the lessons of Reefer Madness.

http://deadspin.com/dear-columnists-...ium=socialflow
 
worth a read.

 

[gtg807y]

Can I never hear about a team's - or anyone's for that matter - brand ever again? 

 

[ifmanis5]

Fox, whose archive reads like a First Take producer's brainstorming session

 
That was indeed a fun read.

 

[Freddy Linn]

Ashley Fox, who works for the company that recently hired a man who actually plead guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with a murder investigation, believes that the Patriots should have known better than to draft and extend Aaron Hernandez, apparently because he was rumored to have failed multiple drug tests.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/9441388/nfl-new-england-patriots-stained-aaron-hernandez-saga

 
Ombudsman (Lipsyte):  Columnist critique of Patriot Way falls short
 
I couldn’t find much criticism of a Patriot Way that included dumping a productive star before the justice system declared him guilty. Should any comparison be made to the case of Ray Lewis, implicated in a 2000 murder? That case is still a mystery. But the Ravens stood by their man and they all went on to win Super Bowl rings. Lewis is now an ESPN analyst.
 
When Fox weighed in on the Hernandez case, I wished she had been a little weightier. Casting blame is a columnist’s game, but other than taking a chance on a terrific player with “character issues” who had fallen to the fourth round of the 2010 draft, and then re-signing him for millions a few years later, what exactly had Kraft and Belichick done wrong?

 

[Hendu for Kutch]

I thought that ombudsman response was almost as bad as the original article. 
 

But give her some credit for thinking about this awful story in a fresh and serious way.

 
Fresh?  There have been a hundred articles with the same crap in it.  Serious?  Having someone who's been arrested before on your team tarnishes your brand?  Really?  Because unless she's claiming they knew he was going to murder someone, that's what's being said.  What mythical NFL team hasn't had someone with Hernandez's background playing for them recently?  Any of them?
 
An impartial ombudsman should have ripped that article to shreds.

 

[Myt1]

Exactly.  The ombudsman basically credited her with not being terrible in exactly the same way as those who were concerned about the effect on the team and then gave her partial credit for the fresh column she didn't write.
 
When your ombudsman is giving you credit for having a strong opinion that you back up with absolutely no facts or developed argument, he's basically grading your 8th grade current events presentation. 
 
I mean this:
 
 

A case could be made that Kraft and Belichick -- that any NFL owner and coach -- are somehow complicit in a player’s destructive act if a series of behavioral signs were ignored. There were certainly signs in the Hernandez file.

 
is just the height of horrible.  "A case could be made" (I'll not make it, of course) that owners and coaches are somehow complicit (I'll not describe how or to what degree, of course) if behavior signs were ignored and there were signs here (I'll not identify them or explain what should have been done in response, of course)."

 

[dynomite]

Exactly.  The ombudsman basically credited her with not being terrible in exactly the same way as those who were concerned about the effect on the team and then gave her partial credit for the fresh column she didn't write.
 
When your ombudsman is giving you credit for having a strong opinion that you back up with absolutely no facts or developed argument, he's basically grading your 8th grade current events presentation.

 
Completely agreed.
 
The Hernandez story was the latest in a string of seismic upheavals in journalism. The executive staff at CNN, for example, has clearly decided to prioritize getting things first instead of getting them right.   Fox's column was a travesty, an unresearched and uneducated opinion full of conjecture instead of insight or information -- it was a naked attempt to get page clicks.  
 
I've mentioned this before, but I was at a depressing lecture in 2006 by Ted Koppel. I was the managing editor of my college newspaper at the time, and his cautionary words both dissuaded me from pursuing a career in journalism and have always stuck with me.  

"The worst thing that ever happened to journalism," according to Koppel, "was when executives in the 1970s at CBS realized that 60 Minutes could make money.  Because once television news could make money, it had to make money. Before that time, it had simply never occurred to most executives that the news could be anything but a public service. Journalism was exempt from the pressures of entertainment.  After that, it was entertainment."
 
And I think I've discovered part of the problem here:
 

Lipsyte, a long-time columnist of the New York Times, is the author of a recent memoir, An Accidental Sportswriter, and was a correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and NBC Nightly News.

He's a regular line reporter and columnist for whom opinions have long been his stock in trade. There's no way someone who spent a career making actual editorial decisions -- someone like Dan Okrent, former public editor of the Times, or George Solomon, ESPN's first ombudsman and a longtime editor at the Post -- would come to the same conclusion.

 

[Myt1]

 
And I think I've discovered part of the problem here:
 He's a regular line reporter and columnist for whom opinions have long been his stock in trade. There's no way someone who spent a career making actual editorial decisions -- someone like Dan Okrent, former public editor of the Times, or George Solomon, ESPN's first ombudsman and a longtime editor at the Post -- would come to the same conclusion.

 
Do you work in this field?  Isn't it the sort of thing where the editorial decision process should have at least leaked into him by osmosis?

 

[dynomite]

Do you work in this field?  Isn't it the sort of thing where the editorial decision process should have at least leaked into him by osmosis?

 
I don't, but I dabbled in college and still know a lot of journalists.  Actual journalists around here (TomGordon, etc.) can feel free to correct me, but that's been my general experience.
 
In general, columnists think about their own opinion (Shaughnessy, Lupica, Reilly, etc.).  It's not until you're an editor or running a desk that you think critically (or at least practice making frequent decisions) about the editorial process in a larger sense.

 

[JimBoSox9]

Jesus H Christ guys, it's Robert Lipsyte. You managed to unearth his résumé, how investigative of you. I don't think there's any doubt he knows the biz backwards and forwards. Talk about his quality all you want, but his credentials? To be ESPN's ombudsman? Yikes.

 

[DLew On Roids]

He's not talking about credentials. He's talking about perspective. And given that Lipsyte gave Fox credit for simply expressing an opinion, he may have a point. I'd need to see more examples Lipsyte making similar excuses for poor writing to say Lipsyte couldn't approach the job the right way, but based on current evidence the idea can't be dismissed.

 

[mt8thsw9th]

Minor thing, but I have the ESPN app, and they still won't list Red Sox games in the 6 they list on The Lead page. I wonder what they'll need to do to be one of the top 12-15 teams in baseball.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

Only a semi-rip on the website, since I actually like the headline "A-Rod: I Won't Quit on the Yankees." Has a creepy stalker quality. The Onion version would be like "A-Rod: I Think the Yankees' Voicemail Must Be Broken or Something."
 
Of course, the accompanying Wallace Matthews commentary about all the reasons why A-Rod is a pud fails to mention the very first instance of him disgracing the Mystique & Aura by trying to slap the ball out of Arroyo's glove in 2004, his first year in pinstripes. Instead it mentions his participation in "illegal poker games." Whatever. Any A-Rod bashing is good A-Rod bashing, I s'pose.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

I get in my car at 9 am and turn on Mike & Mike. First three words I hear: "... with the Lakers ..." and they're talking Dwight Howard. I drive, park, do some shit, get back in 45 minutes later and the first four words "... plan of Jerry Buss ..." Still talking Lakers 45 minutes later. Get home, go to ESPN.com and the big story is ... Da Lakers.
 
Sorry, broken record. But it really is insane what a publicity machine for stars and big markets they have become for their partners, the NBA and NFL.

 

[DJnVa]

You know what's awesome?  ESPN.com having ads about their Body Issue on their main page so I have nearly naked people on my computer at work if I head to ESPN.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Technically not ESPN.com, but ESPN News, last night reporting on Danny Salazar's Indian debut, the anchor said it was the first time a first time starter for the Indians had pitched that well since Luis Tiant.  But pronounced it Tie Ant.

 

[Corsi]

 

[kenneycb]

As if I need an actual reason to post this.

 

[TheGazelle]

 
Put aside the fact that Kevin James is promoting Grown Ups 2 by talking about Fireman Ed at 11:30 eastern time on a Friday (when, frankly, the target demo of that movie is absolutely watching TV).  The stuff on the left side is absurd.  For those who don't know, ESPN is having Ron Jaworski count down the top QBs in the NFL over an entire fucking month.  This leads to idiotic things like having Jaworski waste fiveminutes extolling the virtues of each QB.  Then, because that's not enough, we have to bring out (at least today) Tim Hasselbeck to - almost certainly - take issue with Jaworski's ratings, and argue that, if only Ron wasn't brain damaged, he would know that Colin is the 11th best NFL QB, and not the 13th. 
 
No wonder ESPN's ratings continue to plummet, as Deadspin gleefully reports:  http://deadspin.com/espn-gets-defensive-about-ratings-drop-743950832
 
BTW, is it just me, or does Fireman Ed look a little like Freddy Kuegger in that small picture?

 

[kenneycb]

If it makes you feel any better, I just learned that Butt Fumble has been Worst of the Worst for the last 32 weeks.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

BTW, is it just me, or does Fireman Ed look a little like Freddy Kuegger in that small picture?

 
I was thinking Angry Sean Penn, like in Mystic River.

 

[Corsi]

 

[kenneycb]

They're talking about Butler.

 

[gmogmo]

1. 
   
   
   ESPN ‏@espn2h
   Hey @SanJoseSharks, thoughts on changing your name to the San Jose #Sharknados?
   
   •  
   
   
   
   
2. 
   
   
   San Jose Sharks ‏@SanJoseSharks4m
   Hey @espn, thoughts on showing more hockey highlights?
    
   Funny comeback by Sharks twitter account
   
   
   

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

They're talking about Butler.

 
I think the gaffe in that one is the picture to the left of "Replacing Brad Stevens".

 

[mascho]

I think the gaffe in that one is the picture to the left of "Replacing Brad Stevens".

 
Speaking of which, is here where I would make the joke about Butler having to run a "slow down" offense when moving from right to left in front of their new "coach?"

 

[ifmanis5]

1. 
   
   
   ESPN ‏@espn2h
   Hey @SanJoseSharks, thoughts on changing your name to the San Jose #Sharknados?
   
   •  
   
   
   
   
2. 
   
   
   San Jose Sharks ‏@SanJoseSharks4m
   Hey @espn, thoughts on showing more hockey highlights?
    
   Funny comeback by Sharks twitter account
   
   
   

Love this.
But you could add highlights of any kind, really. ESPN is basically sports talk radio now. Low on highlights and facts, heavy on opinions and trolling.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

I think the gaffe in that one is the picture to the left of "Replacing Brad Stevens".

 
Maybe that's just a flukey-quick screen grab, and the real truth is that ESPN is secretly flashing subliminal mugshot images of Kobe, Jetes, Tebow, Bron and Dwight.

 

[gtg807y]

Was there a reason Kevin James was dressed as a UPS employee during that segment?

 

[kenneycb]

Edit: I'm retarded and can't got blinded by CI there.

 

[joe dokes]

Maybe that's just a flukey-quick screen grab, and the real truth is that ESPN is secretly flashing subliminal mugshot images of Kobe, Jetes, Tebow, Bron and Dwight.

 
Ha! Its ESPN's Clam Plate Orgy.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Clam-Plate-Orgy-Signet/dp/0451153766
 
 
 
 

 

[LeoCarrillo]

Was there a reason Kevin James was dressed as a UPS employee during that segment?

 
That's kinda funny you'd make that joke, in that he played a UPS man (basically) in King of Queens.