Blogs Are Destroying ESPN
Le Anne Schreiber is the latest integrity filled journalist to take a crack at being ESPN’s ombudsman. She has done an admirable job so far, even earning some accolades for her tight grip on the balls of Colin Cowherd.
But last week in an interview with Gordon White of The Pilot she expressed some interesting thoughts about sports blogs. It seems as if Schreiber is blaming blogs for ESPN’s inaccurate reporting.
“Since undertaking this job I have become familiar with the world of the sports blog. Ninety percent of them have no compunction about putting out any kind of rumor. Doesn’t matter the source or how reliable it is. They just toss it out there because they are not journalists. They are not responsible and don’t claim to be. They are just tossing out what might be of interest to the water cooler group.”
“People will return to ESPN dot com to see what they have to say about those rumors,” she said. “That is what pressures ESPN to make sometimes premature claims. The idea that you do not trade in rumors has virtually gone by the wayside in this form of journalism.”
So basically Schreiber is saying that the reason ESPN makes reporting mistakes is because it’s forced to address some of the millions of fallacious rumors that emerge from the blogosphere every single day.
I’m trying not to sound like an angry sports blogger here (and it really doesn’t matter to me what she thinks), but Schreiber is completely wrong. The most distressing thing about her comments is that they demonstrate a complete lack of understanding regarding the new sports media landscape. Nowadays, 99% of all blog posts that claim to report a true story or rumor have a link to a more “credible” news source. There’s absolutely no basis for her view that blogs are tossing out hordes of unsubstantiated rumors every single day. If Schreiber can’t differentiate between a Cubs blog post proposing some deadline deals and a blog post that actually purports to have a real trade rumor, then both she and ESPN have a problem.
Even if blogs were mass producing false rumors it’s absolutely insane for Schreiber to blame them for ESPN’s reporting problems. The way she describes it, ESPN has bunch of employees who sit around reading blogs and deciding which rumors ESPN.com must discuss in order to appease its knowledge-hungry readers. That’s ridiculous. There is no way ESPN is pressured to address dubious rumors because people will want to see what ESPN.com has to say about them. ESPN calls itself the “world wide leader in sports.” That means it should have the resources to verify a rumor before being “forced” to report it.
Here’s my advice to you Ms. Schreiber. If ESPN is doing a bad job reporting, you might want to take a look at whether it’s ESPN’s fault. After all, I don’t think blogs were responsible for Chris Mortensen reporting that Eli Manning would miss a month.
14 Comments »
Bassett on 02 Oct 2007 at 10:41 am #
Amen brother. I know my role, and feel like *I* am the one debunking rumors of the sports reporters … just this morning for instance, I wrote on a rumor started by Dan Pompei of the Chicago Trin & Sporting News about the Bears trading for Justin McCareins of the Jets. Puh-leeze.
PS - ESPN link is broke.
Suss on 02 Oct 2007 at 10:59 am #
Never mind the full text of the interview. Let me post on your blog!
Jay on 02 Oct 2007 at 11:02 am #
Well played, sir. Well played.
MBM on 02 Oct 2007 at 11:46 am #
You undermine your excellent point by misspelling her name.
shakedownsports on 02 Oct 2007 at 12:38 pm #
Sorry about the messed up link. It should be fixed now. same with her name. I don’t know how that extra “e” got in there.
omnivore on 02 Oct 2007 at 12:57 pm #
I agree that ESPN’s bad reporting can’t be blamed on blogs, but take a second to reevaluate her point before giving a knee-jerk defense of all blogs. She isn’t saying that blogs report rumors as fact all the time, she’s saying that blogs report rumors as rumors. In the battle for breaking stories (not breaking news), blogs win, because even if you’ve just heard something as a rumor, you can put it on your blog as a rumor. ESPN can’t do that. ESPN reporters hear hundreds and thousands of rumors that never make it onto ESPN.com, even in the rumors section (which is really a section of uncorroborated local stories). It is not sports blogs’ fault that Mort has gotten 4 stories wrong in that last 2 months, but she accurately depicts blogs as being infinitely more comfortable with rumor than the WWL is.
P-Mutt on 02 Oct 2007 at 2:27 pm #
I gotta disagree a bit. I think what the Ombud is saying is that people read sports blogs and then check what the other, “credible” newssites have to say; to see if it’s true or not. ESPN is slowly losing a lot of their credibility and gaining more “entertainment” (if you can call it that) value. What she says makes a good amount of sense. It’s all about getting the scoop first and finding the integrity in the story is second. Many blogs out there follow the same journalistic standards, but I think she was talking about those that just hear a rumor and run with it.
kw on 02 Oct 2007 at 2:44 pm #
In a way, it’s sort of a backhanded complement. Blogs are increasingly competing with espn because of their originality, creativity, and humor. ESPN lost a lot of its street cred when it started doing all that cross-promotional shit and sports dramas, etc. instead of just sticking to sports and sports news. Everything on the channel is so corporate now, there’s no freshness to it. Blogs provide so many other/better outlets for sports news and reporting. ESPN is realizing their grip on the totality of sports media is slipping.
danger on 02 Oct 2007 at 4:20 pm #
Could you cite your source that claims 99% of bloggers link to a more “credible” news source?
Fesser on 02 Oct 2007 at 5:17 pm #
@ Danger: Look at Deadspin, KSK, or EDSBS, and see the links. You can do the math yourself.
shakedownsports on 02 Oct 2007 at 7:12 pm #
The 99% was a figure of speech, but almost every blog, and especially the ones that could influence ESPN, cite sources.
jtp2106 on 02 Oct 2007 at 10:57 pm #
She has a good point. Blogs have become powerful enough that their posts help set the agenda for ESPN, whether their info is legit or not. It’s the same way with the Drudge Report and mainstream news. When some story becomes a red underlined headline on Drudge Report, Drudge forces the hand of the networks to address the point, no matter if its right or wrong. Its the same thing with blogs and ESPN.
The Nugg Doctor on 03 Oct 2007 at 12:19 am #
You bring up an interesting question when you ask, “who is to blame for this”, and you answer with “Sports blogs”. I’ve worked with ESPN before through my blog, (albeit on a microscopic level), and for her to blame the so-called, “Miscues” of the so-called, “Professionals” on the sports blogosphere is down hilarious.
Earth to Le Anne Schreiber: You have all the access to all the sports figures, owners, and GM’s! Go out and get a story instead of waiting for news to happen. Maybe then a blogger will not connect the obvious dots, (which is how all rumors really get started), before the WWL does.
Giz on 04 Oct 2007 at 9:21 pm #
Sports Bloggers are sort of like CNN Headline News, offering news tidbits and putting a story in the public’s eye. If you want to learn more about a story, you’ll then go read the New York Times or some other credible news source where you’ll get more depth and context. Good bloggers point you to these sources. There’s no reason to believe bloggers are hurting news media like ESPN. In fact, I’d guess blogs cause more people to care about some issues, driving more people to their print and online publications. For the record, I think ESPN does a pretty good job, especially online, where it has some excellent reporters, columnists (and bloggers), so I am not sure why their ombudsman is upset.