Disney created a beast in ESPN. It grew to incredible heights very quickly and in the process nearly monopolized sports news and entertainment. Look at its accomplishments: it defined the highlights show with “SportsCenter,” created the ESPYs and found a niche for extreme sports with the “X-Games.” Its reach and business decisions helped it determine the fates of many sports and college conferences.
But ESPN isn't what it once was. It's become a bloated bastion of hyperbole. Instead of giving us the highlights and sound bites, the network is shoveling hours of mindless dreck into our TVs. Needless to say the journalistic standards have suffered.
The decline in news quality can be directly attributed to conspicuous conflicts of interest. ESPN covers sports leagues journalistically but also pays them billions of dollars in rights fees to broadcast their games. As ESPN has won the rights to more sports, it has started covering athletes as if they were promotional ideas. By playing things both ways it has become a shell of its former self.
Let’s look at the crimes ESPN has perpetrated against the American sport-loving public:
2005 – Hockey Coverage
After the strike of 2004-05 ESPN decided not to renew its agreement with the NHL. Sports rights change hands all the time, but since its decision ESPN, seems to have made a conscious effort to put hockey coverage on the back burner. The attitude seems to be, "If we don’t have the rights, the sport is not important." And ESPN executives have said as much. Vince Doria, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, was quoted this year saying that hockey “doesn't translate to television, and it really doesn't transfer as much as a national discussion, which is something that typifies what we do.”
2009 – Ben Roethlisberger Rape Allegations
Like many athletes, the Pittsbugh Steelers quarterback appeared in ESPN's "This is SportsCenter" promos. ESPN soft-shoed coverage of the rape allegations against him, and there was a sense among critics that the network didn't want to offend him.
2010 – “The Decision”
Lebron James' made-for-TV fiasco damaged ESPN’s credibility as a news organization. Although it took James only 12 seconds to announce his decision that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat, ESPN endlessly hyped and overpackaged the announcement. As David Zurawik of The Baltimore Sun wrote, “ESPN led the way in some of the most debased sports coverage I can remember seeing. The hype was shameless, the lack of perspective colossal.”
2010 – The Longhorn Network
ESPN created the Longhorn Network with the University of Texas, giving it $300 million over twenty years to exclusively show Texas sports, including football games.
