http://sportsbybrooks.com/espn-finally-embracing-detractors-but-
bristol-still-burns-13360.php

ESPN EMBRACES DETRACTOR BUT BRISTOL STILL BURNING: How much have
things changed at ESPN? Will Leitch of DEADSPIN guested on ESPN
Radio last Friday, with Scott Van Pelt hosting the interview (audio
link). This is the same network which circulated a memo last year
banning Leitch from appearing on any ESPN outlet.





DEADSPIN of course is renowned for giving ESPN a well-deserved
wedgie on occasion, and like SbB, isn't short on reportage and well-
placed opinions about the sports media monolith.





Citing criticism from D-Spin, Van Pelt asked Leitch how ESPN could
be "fixed" and "stop offending those who are blogging". In other
words, SVP grooved a BP fastball right down the cock to the sports
blogger. Leitch's response:

1) "Fire Dan Patrick"
2) "Have Bob Ley wear more clothes"
3) "Have the ESPYs four times a year"
4) "Be a little meaner to the women that work there, I think they're
getting a little too comfortable"
5) "Bring back 'Quite Frankly'"





In the wake of Leitch's 700-foot gopher ball off Van Pelt, we really
want to help ESPN "stop offending those who are blogging" (rather
patronizing phrasing, Scott?). So here's some obvious observos:

1) ESPN was hopelessly skunked on the Pacman Jones-Vegas strip club
fiasco by sports blogs and print media outlets - so it just ignored
the story until it HAD to cover it. Because the network has no
competition from other sports networks (where are you, Rupert and
Mr. Malone?), it now thinks it decides what is newsworthy and what
isn't.





2) ESPN allows the play-by-play contracts it holds with sports
leagues to color editorial decisions (see canceling "Playmakers",
decreasing NHL coverage, more Arena League coverage).

3) ESPN fires on-air personalities and gives the listeners/viewers
absolutely no reason for the departure. Bristol execs want us to
care about the personalities they push in front of us, so why do
they think they can blow out Harold Reynolds and Dan Patrick and
give us nothing (Patrick's explanation was far from the truth - he
wanted too much $ and was shown the door). We're not talking about
intimate details, but give us SOMETHING.





One of the reasons for the rise of a sports blog like Deadspin is
Leitch's transparent approach with his visitors (he recently roundly
criticized D-Spin's site redesign). ESPN could certainly learn
something from his methods.

4) Since sports media competition has receded, ESPN has repeatedly
made disastrous programming decisions. The entire EOE division is a
major boondoggle (somewhere Mark Shapiro is giggling). And shows
like "ESPN Hollywood", "Quite Frankly" and features like "Who's Now"
and the fake Steve Phillips press conferences are prime examples of
what happens in a monopoly. When you have no competition, you have
no accountability, and creative quality inevitability suffers.





5) ESPN.com is losing users in droves because of a laughably busy
design and clunky navigation, not to mention eminently annoying
audio and video that automatically begins blaring when you hit the
home page.

Oh yeah, and how about charging users a fee for "Insider" content
featuring these journalistic heavyweights:






Getting back to the Leitch interview, Van Pelt lastly asked him if
reporting on the personal lives of ESPN personalities was
appropriate, specifically citing A.J. Daulerio's legendary
dispatches from Miami nightclubs during Super Bowl week that
detailed the sordid activities of assorted ESPN personalties (Van
Pelt's implication was that D-Spin should leave well enough alone).

Leitch response: "One of the things that's exciting about it is
humanizes people (ESPNers) to average fans. That they're being
themselves."

True enough, but we don't think we would've been so kind (we know,
you're shocked).





ESPN has spent the past 20 years overpromoting its personalities as
celebrities - marketing them in many ways the same as the athletes
they cover. SportsCenter and network specialty show anchors earn
gigantic salaries and enjoy the accompanying trappings of fame and
fortune (something Van Pelt himself references in the interview).

Endorsements, books and thousands of ESPN commercials later (which
are mostly clever, btw), Van Pelt now tells us that we shouldn't
cover ESPN personalities like other media celebrities? Keith
Olbermann, Bill O'Reilly, Larry King and Rush Limbaugh are savaged
by the political press and tabloids. King can be hounded on occasion
in L.A. by the daily and weekly tabs. Likewise O'Reilly and
Olbermann in New York.





Memo to SVP: When you're famous, people care what drink you ordered
at a South Beach nightclub. When you're famous, people care about
your personal hygiene in public places. When you're famous, people
care about your propensity for drunk-dialing.

If SVP, Stuart Scott, Chris Berman, Sean Salisbury and Shrutebag
don't want people to care about them (and the coverage that goes
along with it), they should take a job covering high school sports
in Terre Haute.





In the end, Van Pelt failed to absorb what Leitch was intimating
throughout the interview - that ESPN has become an opaque corporate
entity that treats its customers as mindless dolts. And we all know
that as long as ESPN is part of Disney's giant Conglomo empire, that
will never change. Never.

CLARIFICATION: Because of a screw-up on my part, the author of this
post was originally listed as Jason. I wrote the post. - Brooks