Stop watching ESPN right now

by Brad Wells on May 10, 2007 12:36 PM EDT in Bad Journalism

Photo: AllCanes.com

Ok, that's it. That's the final straw. I've long held suspicions about ESPN and its corporate sleaze; about how the network essentially tries to get their pundits and personaities to make outlandish statements just to stir the pot and get fans (like us) upset and angry. Instead of doing their job, which is to report sports news, they focus more on entertainment and shock in order to rope in more viewers.

Today, we fans got confirmation of this standard practice at ESPN from one of their own employees. Chuckie Hacks (linked from Deadspin) details:

You may or may not have caught John Kruk's act on Baseball Tonight last week. In a Q/A session with the other hosts, Kruk answered "the Pirates" when asked "who will be leading the NL Central at the end of the month?" Whatever, just another ESPN guy trying to look smart if it actually comes true. Big deal, right? Wrong. A couple days later, Kruky was on "The D-List" radio show here in Madison (it might also be on in Milwaukee, not sure) to discuss his pick. Kruk admitted that he really wanted to pick Milwaukee as his answer. Apparently, the ESPN brass tried to stiff arm him into saying he thought the Yankees would be leading the AL East by June. Kruk refused, so they made him make one bold selection, thus the Pirates pick. And this was all admitted on the radio by Kruk!

You can't tell me this doesn't happen all the time. Sure, stirring up the pot for ratings sake is good for business. But why have ex players and coaches on if they can't say what they really believe? Why not just have a bunch of 3 Wingos and John Andersons on there and say a bunch of nonsense? I grew up watching ESPN about 23 hours of the day, now I would rather slam my johnson with a sledgehammer than watch one hour of BooYahCenter.

Again, I have long suspected the ESPN is nothing but a hack network interested only in ratings and ad revenue than actually reporting sports news and commentary with any shred of professional decency. Now I know. Now I have confirmation. Now I will no longer watch ESPN or any of its shows.

PTI, gone. NFL Live, seeya. ESPNews, take a hike.

I won't link to their articles, read their site, or even comment on anything ESPN writes, says, or does. ESPN is officially DEAD to me.

Kruk's comments confirm for me that anything ever said by any ESPN broadcaster or "expert" might not have been the opinion of the person, but rather the opinion of a bunch of network sleazo executives, who are making the broadcaster or "expert" say the crap they are saying because it is hip, cool, or will garner more ratings.

Unexceptable.

ESPN is dead to me now. This kind of crap really pisses me off. Thank god for sports blogs. When garbage like this happens, at least there are things like the Internet where opinions are not filtered or "suggested" by some dumbass network executive.

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There's bias everywhere and even more so there's bs everywhere...and it's pretty obvious espn falls in to that as well. having confirmation of that won't stop me from watching it...its entertaining and who some "expert" picks has no bearing on whether or not its enjoyable to me.

i see no reason to get upset by stuff like this because frankly its everywhere...IMHO its best to just ignore it and take from it (in this case espn) what you want

by jochexum on May 10, 2007 2:40 PM EDT reply actions

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