NYT: ESPN pulled out of concussion doc project due to NFL pressure

[Second Thoughts]

What could we expect from the "Entertainment" Sports Programming Network. No ethics or conscience. Money speaks. Particularly billions of it.

 

[DanOregon]

Worse by far for ESPN than for the NFL. The whole thing seems kind of odd. Everyone now knows ESPN was involved in it, the doc will air regardless. Maybe the NFL just didn't want ESPN promoting the thing? All this does is make ESPN look bad.
Anybody know what Bornstein was doing at the meeting?

 

[MileHigh]

Statement!

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2013/08/statement/

Late Friday afternoon news dump.

Translation: heck yes the NFL told us to back off of it, and at the not-coming-right-out-and-telling-us affect of getting many Jaguars-Raiders games for MNF over the next near-decade of our $2 billion a year we pay to Park Avenue, we made a business decision.

But we respect Frontline and Outside The Lines, even as we move to margainalize our main investigative show OTL.

 

[DanOregon]

This is one debate I don't think they want to embrace.

I'd love to see Olbermann tackle it on Monday. That would be a way to start the show right.

 

[TigerVols]

So, if you're Fox Sports 1, do you pick up the cause? Ignore the story?

 

[YankeeFan]

You know it's bad when the usual ESPN apologists don't even show up to defend them.

 

[DanOregon]

So, if you're Fox Sports 1, do you pick up the cause? Ignore the story?

If you're talking about the NFL throwing their weight around, I don't see Fox wanting to pish off the NFL either, or CBS Sports Net, or NBC Sports Net, or the NFL Network.

 

[heyabbott]

You know it's bad when the usual ESPN apologists don't even show up to defend them.

as much of a forgone conclusion as it was that ESPN is in the tank for The Shield, don't expect any other partner to question Mr Commissioner, whether its about concussions, HGH or gambling. You won't see Al Michaels be noticeably harder on The NFL than Chris Berman.

 

[I'll never tell]

The sad problem is that people think we do the same kind of journalism as ESPN.

And I say that noting that the journalism at certain parts of ESPN has dramatically improved over the years.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Six corporations own 90 percent of the media.

They can decide whatever gets shown, and not shown, to the public. If it's something major, the public has to hope they find it on the Internets and it goes viral.

Thank you, deregulation.*






* And not to make this political, I'm aware that most of the Dems went in the tank for the Telecommunications Act of '96 just as much as the GOP.

 

[DanOregon]

Always blew my mind how much of the major national media decisions were made within a square mile (or less) in mid-town Manhattan. TV, print, movies, radio. It helps explain the lack of varying perspectives.

 

[clintrichardson]

The thing I don't get it is that there's so much out there already about concussions and football, and the discussion will continue whether ESPN participates in this or not. The only result is making ESPN and the NFL look bad.

My guess is that it reveals the real fear that the NFL has on the concussion issue. For years the league has been so dominant in American sports and it has been impossible to imagine how that ever would end. If people begin to see football as being like boxing—and stop participating—that could be, in the long term, how the sport tumbles from the top of the mountain on the spectator side.