http://www.nypost.com/seven/08192007/sports/espn__little_league__big_
mess_sports_phil_mushnick.htm

August 19, 2007 -- AT ESPN, the rite of spring is always followed by
the wrongs of summer. Of all the self-promotional and cross-
promotional shamelessness now regularly practiced by ESPN, one
continuing stunt stands out as most shameful, as the one that tells
us how low and lost ESPN has become.

For the past few years, during its Little League coverage, ESPN has
exploited 11- and 12-year-olds for cross-promotion, turned kids into
dupes in mindless service to Father Disney.

A kid, before playing in an ESPN/ABC-televised Little League game,
is asked to name his favorite TV show. If he comes up with
the "right" answer, that answer shows up in a graphic. The "wrong"
answer (a TV show that doesn't appear on a Disney network) gets
tossed out.

Monday night on ESPN2, as a kid batted during the Maryland-
Pennsylvania regional final, a graphic appeared giving his name and
favorite TV show: ESPN's "Baseball Tonight."

Friday's Ohio-Massachusetts World Series game on ESPN included the
charming scene of a kid at bat, a graphic identifying ESPN's "The
Bronx is Burning" as his favorite TV series, which is just ducky
given that it has a TV-PG rating, meaning its content may be
unsuitable for kids.

A cease and desist memo from above should have been circulated on
this nearly 10 years ago. Instead, and once again, ESPN is using
children for cheap, easy, transparent and worthless self-promotion.

At ESPN, they just can't help themselves.