|
I usually try to start off an article with a hook, something to engage my reader and get him (or preferably her) to stick around and check out what I have to say. For the most part, I think my hooks are pretty clever and relevant to my topics. But I have found that the media industry is becoming more and more enamored with hooks while focusing less and less on the substance that makes those hooks relevant. Substantive journalism, in particular, is going out with the window, replaced by bite sized media nuggets (no not they’re not from Denver), sensationalism, and spectacle.
Nowhere is this more true than with ESPN, or should I call it MTVESPN. The Worldwide Leader has evolved into an entertainment network with a side order of sports. While an excellent rapper, Mos Def is not an athlete. Henceforth, he should not have a show on ESPN. There shouldn’t ever have been a show called “Beg Borrow and Deal” on a sports network. Not only was ESPN ripping off MTV’s “Road Rules,” but who really cares if some loser can be taught how to kick a 35 yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri. Furthermore, what was the deal with the week that ESPN corporate brass decided to put a concert series on SportsCenter. After Kid Rock got airtime over teams, I simply refused to watch anymore. I am not going to even try to analyze that one. It was simply a disgrace.
ESPN is like the lifelong nerdy kid who suddenly gets popular in high school and forgets all his old friends. For years, we sports fans tuned into SportsCenter to get our fix, and we were always fulfilled. We got a full plate of highlights from every game (or at least every relevant game), followed by an on-screen box score. It was a boon to every generation X and Yer, the evolving TV generation, that we didn’t have to read the paper like our fathers and grandfathers did.
Well, I’ll tell you, times have changed, my son. Now that ESPN has become the most dominant sports entity on Earth, it has strayed from the people who helped it get there. They've simply forgotten that we, the fans, exist, treating us like consumers instead of people. Last week, in a critical Dodgers win, ESPN held true to form, focusing more on marketable stars like Eric Gagne and less on the game itself.
Obviously ESPN has become what every empire fears becoming: a mockery of itself. It has forgotten that its mission is sports reporting and not money. Why not use their monopoly on sports coverage to do quality work? The money will be there. Sponsors riddle SportsCenter segments. We have the “Budweiser Hot Seat,” or the “Coors Light Silver Spotlight.” Who comes up with the questions on these ridiculous segments? Is it Steve Berthiume or one of the other robots. If he does, does he dare call himself a journalist? (or a sports enthusiast?) Kindergartners could come up with better questions.
The worst thing about SportsCenter, however, is how personality-driven it has become. One could see this coming over the years, as Dan Patrick, Craig Kilborn and Keith Olberman became celebrities in their own right, with their lingo finding the tongues of new age sports fans. But this has gone too far. Style has replaced substance. How the sports segments are performed has become more important than the sports themselves. And if ESPN's "Dream Job" reality series, a show that features aspiring young anchors vying for the chance to become ESPN's next corporate mouthpiece, is any indication, the next set of ESPN anchors will be more focused on witty jokes than sports reporting.
It's like SportsCenter has become a variety show. Why is Kenny Mayne following Tiger at the Masters, trying to take pictures with a little disposable camera? Why is he the focus of a segment instead of Woods? Why is Mike Hall (who by the way is good on camera, but not exactly knowledgeable) on trips all over the world following extreme sports? You know why: ESPN will put whatever it thinks is in vogue at the front and center of their programming at the expense of real sports.
I could go on and on about SportsCenter for hours. But ESPN's tendency to grab ahold of a popular trend and overmarket it extends beyond it's flagship show. Take the new poker craze as a prime example. I love watching and playing poker. I like the game’s personalities, that it’s a thinking man’s game, and that people from all walks of life can be competitive. But I don’t care about Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey out on the golf course, or how Phil Helmuth (G-d help us) is shown without a shirt on meditating. He is just a 6’6” raving lunatic. I want to see them play poker, I want to try to understand their thought processes, see what makes them so good. ESPN's poker coverage is just a thinly veiled set of commercials.
It’s a shame that ESPN has butchered poker like it has everything else, especially with the production of their new original series, TILT. If it is anything like Playmakers, we are in for a show with no sports substance (there wasn’t a single live game play in Playmakers, because it was too expensive to film) or game theory, but rather one about the allures of gambling and how that leads to sex, drugs and other things that happen on the Vegas strip. Sounds like TILT should be on FX after Nip/Tuck.
Our goal as an entity is to bring sports back to the fans with articles written by the fans, bringing to light the wrong-doers in today’s sports society and by holding them responsible for their actions. We believe that in doing so, we can reverse the momentum sports is following down the commercial-consumer trail, creating a more enjoyable and responsible contemporary sports world. My goal, personally, is to bring down ESPN, level it to the ground, like Jack Straw from Wichita, who cut his buddy down. ESPN personifies everything that is wrong with sports today, epitomizing the fact that sports is now about dollars and cents rather than taking your family to a ball game.
ESPN has the hook, it's got the glitz. The commercials, the advertising, the marketing...they spend money like you wouldn’t believe to pull the viewer in. The problem, with their shoddy writing, authenticity, and overall sports knowledge, is keeping you there.
Phineas Lambert is a Founding Editor of Thebackpagesports.com
|
|
|
6 comments - join this discussion...
|
|
|
|
|
|
