I used to watch SportsCenter every morning.
Even with the sun still asleep and the owls still hooting, I would make sure to be in front of the television to absorb some sports news before school. It was a daily ritual that I have erased from my life. I still love sports and as anyone else in college knows, I have plenty of time to watch some TV, however SportsCenter is not the same.
SportsCenter and many other sports journalism platforms have essentially become TMZ. Instead of reporting what actually happened or previewing future contests, many sportswriters and announcers will wildly speculate and throw out ideas, in order to gain notoriety. It seems that in this day and age, the mantra, “All publicity is good publicity” has become the norm.
Of course, the poster boy for this disgusting phenomenon is Skip Bayless, one of the “experts” on ESPN’s First Take. Every day on national television, Bayless will throw around wild accusations or attack players based on preconceived notions, with no data or backup. I may only be a year into getting my journalism degree; however the first rule they teach us is to always back up our work with expert testimony and hard data.
One of Bayless’s rants that really infuriated me was when he attacked LeBron for cramping up in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. On his show, he called him “LeCramp” and stated that this showed weakness in that Lebron didn’t want to win that badly if he was just going to let a cramp take him out of the game. This would be fine and dandy if he had proof that the cramp was a figment of LeBron’s imagination, however Skip Bayless isn’t in LeBron’s mind, even if he thinks he is. Other pundits, who have actually played professional sports before, all agreed that cramps can be excruciatingly painful and they agreed with LeBron’s decision to sit-out.
Sadly, Bayless is not the only sportswriter who has become a tabloid sensationalist. Bill Plaschke, Michael Wilbon and many of ESPN’s pundits toss out ideas and let them fester. One such occasion is when Ron Jaworski called Joe Flacco a top 5 quarterback on SportsCenter with no real reasoning or data. Then, ESPN took this story and ran with it. They interviewed current and retired players on whether they thought Flacco was better than Peyton Manning and other top quarterbacks. Then, of course, other ESPNers like Mike and Mike in the Morning and Herm Edwards had to butt in with their own beliefs and BAM, ESPN had an opinion take wings and be discussed on every sports show across the country. The action on the field should be the story, not some asinine throwaway comment.
What’s truly sad about this downfall in sports journalism is that there are still great writers out there who don’t get the same publicity as the TMZ breed. Writers who tell stories with beautiful interviews and detail like Wright Thompson, JP Abrams and Brian Phillips are a rarity now. Also, those that use data such as Nate Silver and Zach Lowe are now being overshadowed by the Skip Baylesses.
There’s still so much good sports writing and storytelling in general…we just have to know where to look... and where to stay away from.
Even with the sun still asleep and the owls still hooting, I would make sure to be in front of the television to absorb some sports news before school. It was a daily ritual that I have erased from my life. I still love sports and as anyone else in college knows, I have plenty of time to watch some TV, however SportsCenter is not the same.
SportsCenter and many other sports journalism platforms have essentially become TMZ. Instead of reporting what actually happened or previewing future contests, many sportswriters and announcers will wildly speculate and throw out ideas, in order to gain notoriety. It seems that in this day and age, the mantra, “All publicity is good publicity” has become the norm.
Of course, the poster boy for this disgusting phenomenon is Skip Bayless, one of the “experts” on ESPN’s First Take. Every day on national television, Bayless will throw around wild accusations or attack players based on preconceived notions, with no data or backup. I may only be a year into getting my journalism degree; however the first rule they teach us is to always back up our work with expert testimony and hard data.
One of Bayless’s rants that really infuriated me was when he attacked LeBron for cramping up in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. On his show, he called him “LeCramp” and stated that this showed weakness in that Lebron didn’t want to win that badly if he was just going to let a cramp take him out of the game. This would be fine and dandy if he had proof that the cramp was a figment of LeBron’s imagination, however Skip Bayless isn’t in LeBron’s mind, even if he thinks he is. Other pundits, who have actually played professional sports before, all agreed that cramps can be excruciatingly painful and they agreed with LeBron’s decision to sit-out.
Sadly, Bayless is not the only sportswriter who has become a tabloid sensationalist. Bill Plaschke, Michael Wilbon and many of ESPN’s pundits toss out ideas and let them fester. One such occasion is when Ron Jaworski called Joe Flacco a top 5 quarterback on SportsCenter with no real reasoning or data. Then, ESPN took this story and ran with it. They interviewed current and retired players on whether they thought Flacco was better than Peyton Manning and other top quarterbacks. Then, of course, other ESPNers like Mike and Mike in the Morning and Herm Edwards had to butt in with their own beliefs and BAM, ESPN had an opinion take wings and be discussed on every sports show across the country. The action on the field should be the story, not some asinine throwaway comment.
What’s truly sad about this downfall in sports journalism is that there are still great writers out there who don’t get the same publicity as the TMZ breed. Writers who tell stories with beautiful interviews and detail like Wright Thompson, JP Abrams and Brian Phillips are a rarity now. Also, those that use data such as Nate Silver and Zach Lowe are now being overshadowed by the Skip Baylesses.
There’s still so much good sports writing and storytelling in general…we just have to know where to look... and where to stay away from.