Mainstream Media Continues to Give ESPN the Business Over Big Ben Decision
1-liner, ESPN, NFL July 24th. 2009, 11:15amESPN and Big Ben: Occasional ESPN agitator Bob Raissman is not happy with how the WWL covered the lawsuit against Ben Roethlisberger. “ESPN is, was, and always will be an entertainment company, more show biz than news biz. It is a company that values its partnerships with the National Football League – and other professional sports organizations – more than it values the truth. It is a company more concerned with protecting the reputations of sports’ biggest stars, such as Roethlisberger, than the reputations of its employees. After all, who ultimately is more important to ESPN’s bottom line?” USA Today wondered the same thing. (NY Daily News)
17 Responses to “Mainstream Media Continues to Give ESPN the Business Over Big Ben Decision”
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July 24th, 2009 at 11:24 am
i’m glad other news organizations are calling out ESPN, maybe a wake up call will get them straight, but i doubt it. I think the Boston Globe also had a column about the whole ordeal with Roethlisberge and EA.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:25 am
/truth’d
July 24th, 2009 at 11:29 am
less talking heads. more highlights
It shouldn’t be that hard
July 24th, 2009 at 11:30 am
but then who would tell us what to think about teams and players?
we’d have to think for ourselves?
July 24th, 2009 at 11:37 am
That ESPN let its various conflicts of interest affect their product isn’t a new development (see the discussion last fall over college football — which Whitlock covered). It’s just sad that there isn’t much choice for the consumer in the television medium.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:37 am
the talking heads rock.
/burnin’ down the house
July 24th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Though we should all be happy the Roethlisberger story is blowing it up.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:48 am
This is why ESPN can do whatever they want. They simply have zero competition in terms of sports on TV…and they know this. So what they do is protect their contracts with big leagues because they don’t want to give the impression to a rival network that the contracts are up for new bids.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:49 am
Isn’t the end times of capitalism wonderful? Monolithic monopolies negating choice are super!
What I don’t get in the thought process that led ESPN to believe it was doing Ben/NFL a service by ignoring the story rather than just hiding it in plain sight with an AP story on the site and a crawl every half hour or so.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:56 am
100% agree with this statement.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I think ESPN planned this the whole time to protect Ben. They have such a deep love for him that they purposely didn’t report it initially so that the “big story” that dominates is how ESPN is to blame for lack of coverage, and not the story about what the fat kid did (or didn’t do) to that ugly succubus. They did this to protect him all along, it played out exactly as they wanted.
/Conspiracy’d
July 24th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
i think that just goes to show you how important they think they are to the sporting world.
just wait and see what happens if ticketmaster and live nation merge…
July 24th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
But I was told that would be better for the consumer?????
July 24th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
better for the consumer that’s buying the live nation company, not for the consumer buying the tickets, haha.
at least the whole bruce springsteen debacle seems to have put that one to bed and it won’t happen anymore.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Fuck Ticketmaster, bunch of crooks.
July 24th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
didnt someone mention yesterday that big ben looked chubby in that video? he’s definitely gained some weight. looks top heavy.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
who said there isn’t a choice? there are tons of choices out there.