The ESPN ombudsman is pitching a perfect game

[Left_Coast]

And yet the same crapola continues at the World Wide Misleader.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

And yet the same crapola continues at the World Wide Misleader.

'Cause it sells. Because it helps rake it in.

Ms. Omb is doing a near-perfect job in the Best-Of-All-Possible-Worlds Department.

But we're still stuck with the Screamer, Skippy, and being forced to watch solid reporters being converted into crapshooting guessers.

Yeah, it's too bad.

And she won't change it . . . inch one.

 

[Mighty_Wingman]

Think she's dead wrong re Easterbrook re Aiello.

Only thing she's been wrong about, yet.

I thought her denunciation of Easterbrook was unusually full-throated. Think a regular ESPN employee -- rather than a contracted dotcommer -- gets taken apart the way Easterbrook was?

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

I think she's great, too. On the one hand it seems a bit silly for someone who essentially writes an opinion column to criticize the amount of opinion ESPN offers, but the difference is she supports her viewpoints with reporting and she generally gives people a chance to defend themselves. I wonder, though, whether her studious, reasoned tone would translate to broadcasting. Could her way of expressing opinion hold an audience in anything but print? I don't know. I'm asking.

I think she's absolutely right that people get pissed when they tune in to watch a game and the commentators talk about everything except the game. And I think they get equally honked when they pick up the paper hoping to read about the game and find in its place a feature or analysis with the score and maybe one or two key plays popped in -- except newspaper editors tend to write off their complaints by rationalizing that the complainers will croak within five years because everyone outside of the nursing home has heard of the Internet and "already knows what the score is." They might or they might not. But no matter what medium it is, it is annoying as bird poop on your head when you tune in or log on or open the newspaper and the very thing you're looking for is being ignored because supposedly you've either already read it or seen it somewhere else, or somebody on the newspaper/TV/radio has determined that what he has to say is more interesting than the actions of the people on the field that drew us to read or tune in to begin with.

Man, have I missed such points of view. Bravo to her ... and to Frank.

I agree ... but wouldn't it be brava for her?

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Think she's dead wrong re Easterbrook re Aiello.

Only thing she's been wrong about, yet.

I thought her denunciation of Easterbrook was unusually full-throated. Think a regular ESPN employee -- rather than a contracted dotcommer -- gets taken apart the way Easterbrook was?

Fair question . . . but she's gone many a mile in terms of holding many of their procedural models under some very bright lights. She's not pulling many punches.

 

[93Devil]

I think we all miss the Sportscenter of the 80s, and to be honest, I cannot remember a year of my life that I watched fewer highlights.

I do watch PTI. I like the back and forth, and I would rather have those two editing the content and the delivery more than Sportscenter. God, do I hate the teasers that you see... "Next on Sportscenter: Why Tiger Woods might never be the same golfer again." The "story" will be some stiff making conjecture about Tiger's new wife or kid. Man, I hate that.

I know I can get the highlights on Baseball Tonight or some NHL show, but I want a show that will give me the results and highlights in one hour. That's all I got. I cannot watch three different sports shows to get highlights from the major sports going on at that time.

I mean how many of us actually know what Malkin, Carmona, Sizemore, Roy Williams, Billingsly and McFadden look like? Could we pick them out of a line up? I probably could not, and I think it's because 95 percent of Sportscenter is spent talking about the same 20 athletes or teams.

God I miss seeing highlights. All of the highlights.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to where I can see them? I'm serious. Does Fox? CnnSi? What does?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I wonder if the higher-ups have told all of their employees to ignore her just like they did with her predecessor.

Fantastic column. She's too good for ESPN. I'm sure by this time next year Scoop will be writing it.

 

[GuessWho]

I'm with those who wonder if her stuff will make an iota's worth of difference there, or is the proverbial tree falling in the forest?

 

[poindexter]

Fantastic column. She's too good for ESPN. I'm sure by this time next year Scoop will be writing it.

It's a known fact that its easier to play in the NBA than be an ESPN ombudsman. Look at the numbers:

# of ESPN ombudsmen: 1
# of NBA players: 450

It is 450 times as hard to be an ombudsman.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Next thing to eliminate: Phone interviews with other coaches, etc., or other non-highlight cutaways during the game. I hate that crap.

Or Barry Larkin and Orel Hershiser talking about their college and pro careers or Barry Bonds for minutes on end during the College World Series.

Hey, there's a real game going on, assholes, you know, the reason you're in Omaha in the first place.

 

[Sxysprtswrtr]

Fantastic column. She's too good for ESPN. I'm sure by this time next year Scoop will be writing it.

It's a known fact that its easier to play in the NBA than be an ESPN ombudsman. Look at the numbers:

# of ESPN ombudsmen: 1
# of NBA players: 450

It is 450 times as hard to be an ombudsman.

And equally as hard for her to be an ombudsMAN

Excellent read. I hope her work is making noise from within the Bristol bricks.

 

[shotglass]

I just get the feeling -- and so do many of you, by what's been written here -- that she is writing in a vacuum. The WWL institutes an ombudsman for the appearance of "fixing" its product. But identifying the problems are different from making sure they do not happen again. And that's where her hands may be tied, at least that's the idea I get from the final part of this column. The ESPN executive admits to a conscious shift toward opinion-based reporting ... and then says "we may have hit on something" with it. What can she do ... kick him in the shins?