I Don’t Hate ESPN or Sportscenter
… I just want Sportscenter and ESPN to do better; and ask them not to try and control the entire world.
I really do not hate Sportscenter, despite ESPN’s blatant attempts at controlling and monetizing the entire sports world. In this age 0f 24/7/365 everything, ESPN has managed to grow their niche product (all sports all the time) into a bloated media empire. “Little ol’ ESPN” you say?… well here is that quaint sports network we fondly remember, back when Berman had hair and Sportscenter showed sports. ESPN, as described by one of its many parents…
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“ESPN” from: http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/overview.html “ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities. Sports media assets include ESPN on ABC, six domestic cable television networks (ESPN, launched in 1979; ESPN2; ESPN Classic; ESPNEWS; ESPN Deportes; ESPNU), ESPN HD and ESPN2 HD (high-definition simulcast services of ESPN and ESPN2, respectively), ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International (31 international networks and syndication), ESPN Radio, ESPN.com, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Enterprises, ESPN Zones (sports-themed restaurants licensed by ESPN), and other growing new businesses including ESPN360.com (Broadband), ESPN Mobile Properties (wireless), ESPN On Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV. Based in Bristol, Ct., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.” |
I really don’t trust the “…leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities” to deliver my unfiltered unspun sports news, any more than I trust Rupert Murdoch and Fox to be “Fair and Balanced” on politics. Sportscenters newest fascination, shifting and shaping self generated sports drama, then re-packaging it into “he said, she said” sound bites… all feeds corporate greed, and the never satiated hunger for “linkbait” content for ABC/Disney/ESPN to turn us into sporting foie gras, forcefeeding us heaps of ad laden crap about Brett favres retirement plans.
ESPN … your sp_ _ _ _ s leader?
Watch the video below, shitty footage of a shitty Sportscenter from 1-29-11… listen to the glee as ESPN plays a high school game of “he called you a…”
Click for: espn-sportscenter-trash-talk-video
To ESPN’s credit, they usual run back and forth with the microphone getting “trash talk” sound bites, though I’ll guess Mathew Stafford simply wouldn’t play along when ESPN came a callin’.
S-P-O-R-T-S
Heres something I can guarantee hasn’t been pitched for ten years in the ESPN quality assurance meetings… the ones where the corporate heads discuss (as all corporations by charter and decree “must” do) how to squeeze even more profits out of the same consumers. Lost in these discussion is Sportscenters very roots, sports. Sports, that silly and forgettable “S” in your Entertainment Sports Programming Network acronoym.
A peculiarly nasty aspect of “corporate” bliss is the need to grow shareholder revenue always, even when its obvious it brings about diminishing returns to your loyal consumers. It’s quite apparent now that every Sportscenter “production” meeting must begin and ends with this directive… “what we need to do, is figure out just how much blatant and egregious paid shilling these sports junkies will take before it affects our profits.” Continuing… “Gentleman and Gentle women of ESPN we need something big, drama for your mama style, I want you to think along the lines of the Budwesier Hot Seat talking smack to the Coors Light cold hard facts.”
ESPN - Loves Trash (read the screen) Talk
Do I hate ESPN? NO, god damnit. I’m saddened by the death of a great idea replaced by a consumer “product.”
A product like Sportscenter that is nearly 3/4 contrived drama, has a narcisssistic focus on the “anchors” at the expense of the
sport, and features a nightly circle jerk over the next assinine move made by Manny ramirez, followed by a Twilight worthy mancrush segment on anything YankeeSox.
I’m actually trying to provide ESPN with an out… a magic wayback machine that recaptures Bermans hair blowing in the wind at Soldier field, long before you commissioned the ghost of Salvador Dali to design the Sportscenter set… telling him to “imagine timothy leary throwing paint in a room full of exploding Orange Crush.” Sounds like sports to me.
————— more ESPN Sportscenter articles ——————————–
ESPN East coast bias: ESPN Sportscenter East Coast bias
Breaking up With Sportscenter… Dear ESPN: Take Your Cat and Leave my Sweater
Credit where Due… ESPN World Cup soccer coverage awesome, ESPN Monday Night Football – Chucky & Jaws Rock
All ESPN Sportscenter posts on raidergirls.com (click “older entries” at end of each page for more ESPN related posts, including “ESPN Sportscenter: Horny Goat Weed back in Stock”)
