Deadspin: ESPN laying off hundreds today

You don't think ESPN focus-groups this stuff to death?

If not, they're idiots.

 

But that's not how they promote themselves. They promote SportsCenter as the go-to source for sports news. It certainly isn't an Entertainment Tonight. Granted, they have no reason to change now, but hopefully another network's show will gain a foothold with viewers and provide a challenge.

 

And that's essentially what they are. ESPN, and SportsCenter, are the biggest go-to for sports news. It doesn't mean they're going to cover everything, and it doesn't mean they're not going to give more time to sports they own the TV rights to.

It's not a newspaper. It's a highlight show on a network that televises sports. It sometimes gets more journalistically ambitious than that, but it's still a highlight show.

 

So 60 Minutes should restrict their personality profiles to people on shows broadcast by CBS or the cable networks it owns? As a journalist, you should want the show that is the de facto national reporter of sports news to actually report the sports news, not "What's Hot," "What's Next," "What Evs"

 

Cricket is played and watched by a ton of people. It's "sports news".

A segment (albeit small) of ESPN viewers would be thrilled by 7-8 minutes of cricket news on SportsCenter at the expense of 2 minutes of NBA playoffs, 2 minutes of baseball, 2 minutes of NHL and 2 minutes of golf/tennis/etc.

Should they do it?

 

No. "60 Minutes" is not "SportsCenter," and I'm not saying what "SportsCenter" should or shouldn't do. It will do whatever ESPN wants it to do. It has no ethical considerations in its coverage choices. Again, it's a vehicle to show you tall men dunking basketballs and Mark Sanchez running face-first into a lineman's ass. Sometimes it aims higher and produces good journalism, but 90 percent of its purpose is variations of "that leaves the yard, and the Yankees lead 2-0..."

As a journalist, I don't care what a highlight show does.

 

I would love to see cricket highlights.

And the answer to your question is "no."

 

The 49ers also don't have Super Bowl chances.

 

Fixed ... because West Coast teams not in LA always seem to get shafted, too. But it's "SportsCenter in LA!"

 

I don't think I've watched more than 10 minutes of anything on ESPN other than live sports in 20 years.

 

Layoffs haven't affected hirings. Gary Parrish just tweeted congrats to Jeff Goodman on landing a gig with ESPN.

 

James Miller's ESPN book helped me understand how SportsCenter works, and how it's basically separate from what a lot of ESPN does. It's pretty interesting for discussions like this one. I believe he and Richard Sandomir are still working on a big ESPN story, or series, for the Times.