I have a ton of other things that I should be writing. Yet I have to get this out of my system.
I last wrote about the role of the Poynter Institute in acting as the ESPN ombudsman, back in September. Specifically, about how badly they were doing in that role. I have tried to stop worrying about them, because it is a fruitless thing to let annoy me.
That Poynter wants to take it’s elitist, high-minded, ethical standards and toss them away for ESPN is their business.
Then I saw Awful Announcing’s great takedown on Poynter’s latest defense of ESPN — regarding Tebowmania.
That led me back to the piece written defending ESPN’s coverage as just dandy.
Specifically the closing paragraph.
When a story gets bigger than the sport itself, and ESPN leans into that narrative rather than turning away, some fans throw up their hands and cry, “excess.” But an all-sports network is the very definition of excess. We’re not inclined to fault folks for doing the very thing that’s made them successful.
So much revealed in just a few words. And that reveal is about Ms. McBride and Poynter Institute.
“But an all-sports network is the very definition of excess.”
In the Poynter world, it seems ESPN cannot be excessive in its coverage of something because ESPN’s very existence is excessive.
Does she share that view towards, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated and the Sports Business Journal — to name a couple print examples? Considering that there are channels devoted to a single sport — NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL. To say nothing of golf, soccer and tennis channels, it might be time to revise that viewpoint.
That is a big reveal of a bias. That Poynter views ESPN as some giant obsessive fanboy. That the subject to which they are devoted — sports — is not really a big deal. In the big picture, that may be true. But they were hired to be ombudsman for this organization. They can’t cop-out by saying the subject matter is not weighty enough, and because it is only devoted to one subject it is excessive by its existence.
The second part, “We’re not inclined to fault folks for doing the very thing that’s made them successful.” The caveat I imagine be as it applies to what they consider a business decision. I doubt they had the same perspective towards News of the World’s decisions on how to cover a kidnapped child by tapping cell phones.
Remember the topic of this piece was the over-the-top coverage/hyping of all things Tebow. Not the editorial process or reporting. This has been the pattern with Poynter in their ombudsman role. They will defer on “business decisions” by ESPN. Going with a, “they know their business, and the ratings back them up” approach.
They didn’t touch the Craig James aspect of the Bruce Feldman story because it didn’t have anything to do with ethics involving journalism and reporting. That seems to be the only area they feel comfortable critiquing.
That James was a color analyst employed by ESPN who hired a PR firm along with his own position at ESPN to help get a college coach fired. Bad stuff, and lots of messy issues, but nothing to do with journalism. So they had nothing to say since it was a business decision by ESPN to keep him employed.
I don’t know if they don’t feel comfortable judging decisions made by the business side, or they don’t want to sully their hands with that side of the media. It really doesn’t matter. It means that they can’t even do the job they agreed to with ESPN if they are limiting their views to only journalism and reporting at an all-sports network.
I do remember Dan ‘ The Duke Davis’ sports update of a few years back when Bret Favre finally signed with the Jets … “our long national nightmare is finally over”
What really galls me is that they build up the giant, and then often try to destory it. I can remember about 10 years ago when they would show the mandatory Anna Kournikova highlights every Spoorts Center .. then they had the balls to talk how overpublicized she was when she was retired …. pure hypocrisy!
This lends credence to the expected hiring of Giants’ def assistant Al Holcomb as DL coach
the 2 players who were to vist from wisconsin
did not come there names are gone from list of vists for 1/ 27/ 2012 to 1 /30/ 2012
16 Brandyn Cook
(St. Xavier HS)
Cincinnati, OH 6-2/265 Verbal Yes 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
DT 28 Tyrique Jarrett
(Allderdice HS)
Pittsburgh, PA 6-4/315 Verbal Yes 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
DT 38 Willie Henry
(Glenville HS)
Cleveland, OH 6-3/273 Med Yes 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
DT 66 Terrell Jackson
(Marion-Franklin HS)
Columbus, OH 6-3/260 Med Yes 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
CB 103 Sean Draper
(Glenville HS)
Cleveland, OH 6-1/180 Med Yes 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
DE 115 Myles Hilliard
(Bedford HS)
Bedford, OH 6-6.5/246 Verbal Yes 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
CB 145 Ryan Lewis
(Eastlake HS)
Redmond, WA 6-0/185 Med No 1/20/2012 Pittsburgh
First and foremost they’ve presented sports with an eye on entertainment…the reason we have Dickie V. I am fine with that. Leave SI and the other news outlets to report the news but I personally like my sports separate from the drama. Tebow was/is excessive but their coverage was/is no different than CNN covering that baby killer this summer and I treated it as such.
Thrilled to have him on our staff. Maybe we (Pitt) finally has gotten this coaching thing right.
that was on jan 26 .
and i know i will catch hell for this but i have a bad vibe i think we only get 2 more players
bye LOI day . hope i am wrong
as he said in the movie i got a bad feeling bob.
Think coverage is tight in college, to survive in the NFL you gotta have fundamentals; witness Limas Sweed. To stay as long as Engram did you gotta have more.
The reality is that this guy is a rising star in coaching…how far I don’t know, but I hope he is better than Pitt so to speak…I hope he becomes the greatest coach ever and stays at Pitt. I hope that for all our coaches. I want them to prosper…in turn Pitt will prosper.
“I think the University of Pittsburgh sells itself. This is a phenomenal university, and really it’s about conveying to the young men what this staff is about and what we’re trying to accomplish as a coaching staff and how we see them fitting into the program and fitting into the offense.
“I’m not a salesman; I’m a representative of this university and what we stand for, and I will tell the kids and tell the parents the truth and not what they want to hear. I think that’s the best way to approach it: just be up-front and put all of your cards on the table.”
Is it just me or has this entire coaching transition/recruiting finalization period been flying just under the radar?
I can’t remember another time, especially in this digital age where you can’t fart in public without it showing up on YouTube or Twitter, that has been so low keyed with little or no information coming out of the major news and social network sources regarding Pitt Football during this critical period of transition.
I wonder if this is occurring because of the persona that Paul Chryst brings to the table, understated, no hype, under promise over deliver type style?
Polar opposite to Fraud Graham’s tenure so far, that’s for sure.
may be there is no informatiom to come out
may be we get one more commit and that is all.
i know i rain on parades but i worry cant help it
is behind a pay wall .
would you see if dockish knows who it is
Holcomb apparently not the DL coach .. instead from the blog ..
There is also a report here that Chryst has finalized his staff by hiring UCLA defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield to coach the Panthers defensive line but nobody has confirmed that for me yet. If true, however, it means the staff is done and with signing day coming up Wednesday, it won’t be long til we start talking about football again.
.
may be Holcomb changed his mind
hell the coach from ucla could have been here weeks ago helping with recruting.
ucla coach Breckterfield i was wrong.
and Bruce Arians is now the OC of the colts.
oregon state played in candaian football
was the ucla DL coach last year.
but if this was the chose he could have had this man weeks ago i wonder if the outher changed his mind but who knows i was wrong.
would take any big OT we can get.
that was a great win pk glad you could go.
we have to start some were and i guess jj denman has told us to get lost.
so we take what we can get at least he is a big one if they offer he will take it.
outhers plays both remmber hester plays OG and
DT this kid is most likley the same.
Pitt: Multiple sources telling us that former UCLA defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield will be named to the same role at Pitt. Update> Sources close to the situation say Paul Chryst just offered the job to Inoke and he has accepted.
The last thing we need is an academic disaster with a bad attitude.
Good for Paul Chryst pulling the ship from Geter. I think this sends a message early on that he’s not going to put up with any B.S., especially from a recruit.
