ESPN and Journalistic Integrity

[BuckeyeRed27]

http://www.elevenwarriors.com/2011/1...-the-room#more

This topic came up a lot in the last OSU Football thread, but I thought it deserved its own thread. This is a very well written column that brings up a lot of good points about ESPN and its business model.

[MWM]

Great read, and very well written. I've very little use for ESPN for years now for many of the reasons listed in that article.

[Slyder]

Journalism died a long time ago, ESPN was barely journalism at any point.

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by Slyder

Journalism died a long time ago, ESPN was barely journalism at any point.

I would say Journalism died when blogs became must reads on the internet. From sports to news to politics anyone and everyone can post anything without having proper journalism integrity. Its unfortunate that too many people pay attention to these "shock" blogs.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I would say Journalism died when blogs became must reads on the internet. From sports to news to politics anyone and everyone can post anything without having proper journalism integrity. Its unfortunate that too many people pay attention to these "shock" blogs.

That is very true, but no one blog holds the media power that ESPN does. ESPN has a resonsibility to do better and they don't. Infact more often than not, they push their own adgenda and fan the flames even further. They are basically a monopoly and that is too bad.

[UKFlounder]

Go read some newspapers from the 1850s or a similar old time period when newspapers intentionally were known as a "Republican press" or "Democratic paper" and tell me they were any better than now. Or how about the 1890s and Hearst (IIRC) trying to force the US into war with Spain.

I think the entire concept "journalistic integrity" or "objectivity" is a bit overblown. Maybe it is an ideal, but saying it's so much worse today than
ever before strikes me as a mistake.

These issues existed long before blogs were ever dreamt of

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I would say Journalism died when blogs became must reads on the internet. From sports to news to politics anyone and everyone can post anything without having proper journalism integrity. Its unfortunate that too many people pay attention to these "shock" blogs.

[*BaseClogger*]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

I would say Journalism died when blogs became must reads on the internet. From sports to news to politics anyone and everyone can post anything without having proper journalism integrity. Its unfortunate that too many people pay attention to these "shock" blogs.

I think more often than not bloggers take a much more independent view of the topic of conversation than the giant media conglomerates. Take the post from this thread for example...

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by *BaseClogger*

I think more often than not bloggers take a much more independent view of the topic of conversation than the giant media conglomerates. Take the post from this thread for example...

The problem I have with bloggers is they very rarely take accountability for their articles. They can write whatever they want and hide behind it. Its almost as if there is a rush to break the news regardless if the source is accurate or not, then there is very little accountability taken.

[*BaseClogger*]

Originally Posted by bucksfan2

The problem I have with bloggers is they very rarely take accountability for their articles. They can write whatever they want and hide behind it. Its almost as if there is a rush to break the news regardless if the source is accurate or not, then there is very little accountability taken.

How often do bloggers actually break a story beyond "check out these pictures of Josh Hamilton at a bar"? More often than not, a blog reports a story that has already been printed by the traditional media and provides additional analysis/coverage. Do you have any specific examples in mind?

[Brutus]

The unfortunate reality is that government, business and media are intertwined. It's impossible to avoid bias in reporting now.

[BuckeyeRed27]

Originally Posted by Brutus the Pimp

The unfortunate reality is that government, business and media are intertwined. It's impossible to avoid bias in reporting now.

I guess my problem with it is that in almost any other field (news, politics, religion, etc.) if you don't like what you are seeing there is somewhere else to do. If you don't like CNN go watch Fox News. ESPN really has no competitor and I'd say the majority of casual sports fans get their sports "news" from ESPN. Of course there are sites like SI.com and Yahoo and other outlets on TV, but they all have a much smaller scale. ESPN did a great job in getting to where they are now, but they are abusing that now.

[Brutus]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27

I guess my problem with it is that in almost any other field (news, politics, religion, etc.) if you don't like what you are seeing there is somewhere else to do. If you don't like CNN go watch Fox News. ESPN really has no competitor and I'd say the majority of casual sports fans get their sports "news" from ESPN. Of course there are sites like SI.com and Yahoo and other outlets on TV, but they all have a much smaller scale. ESPN did a great job in getting to where they are now, but they are abusing that now.

I have no respect for their editorializing things, but it's not their fault they have no competition. FOX could have been competition, but they're poorly run and more concerned with having assets to report to their stakeholders than actually trying to run legitimate programming. Versus was a diamond-in-the-rough, but spent too much of its resources going after mountain biking and other things people care little about. Fortunately, Comcast has seen an opening and is pushing that channel -- now NBC Sports -- to compete with ESPN.

I guess your points are ESPN are valid, but I don't think whether they have competition is relevant inasmuch as they shouldn't editorialize regardless.

[MWM]

Simple bias isn't the issue here, it's the conflict of interest that's the big problem.

[Yachtzee]

Originally Posted by MWM

Simple bias isn't the issue here, it's the conflict of interest that's the big problem.

No kidding. I rarely watch ESPN unless it's showing an actual sporting event I'm interested in. Otherwise, it seems like an infomercial for ESPN and the sports teams/leagues/conferences with which it has some kind of relationship. Look no further than the coverage of LeBron James' free agency. Or refusing to report on allegations of rape against Ben Roethlisberger, who I believed was appearing on some ESPN program at the time. Imagine if the whole OJ Simpson affair occurred in this day and age, with OJ having a popular show on ESPN. I can only guess how ESPN of today would cover it.

If ESPN wants to claim journalistic integrity, it has to run it's news department separate from it's other programming departments and give the management of the news department complete independence with regard to story and editorial content.

[RFS62]

ESPN and journalistic integrity?

Bwahahahahahahahaha

I'm sure they're right up there with MTV