What is wrong with ESPN??

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Interesting take on this from Leonard Shapiro, he says ESPN botched the initial coverage

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

Interesting but inaccurate. ESPN sent Rachel Nichols down right away. Jeannine Edwards has been covering from DC. And they've had a WaPo reporter on via phone (can't remember her name).

[djnemo65]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Interesting take on this from Leonard Shapiro, he says ESPN botched the initial coverage

washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines

I think the ESPN coverage has been and continues to be a joke. Shapiro is right about this. ESPN is the self-proclaimed leader of sports news right? That means they have to be held to a higher standard. They screwed this up horribly and have still not found the appropriate tone for dealing with a story of this gravity, imo.

[Blue Star]

ESPN suxs

[Dlyne8r]

This isn’t necessarily an indictment of ESPN, but this thread was the most logical place to post comments about what I’m listening to on ESPN Radio. Colin Cowturd is again spewing more trash about ST and basically warned listeners that if you couldn’t handle the ugly truth, turn the dial. I almost did, but wanted to listen anyway. He talked about Michael Wilbon coming on Tirico’s show later today to discuss ST and how he (Cowturd) essentially has a man-crush on Wilbon and his latest take on this tragedy. Cowturd further stated that ST was guilty of really bad judgment and even if ST had begun to turn things around in his life and distanced himself from his old followers, “just because you clean the rug it doesn’t mean you’ve cleaned the stains.”

But the thing that really got me was when Cowturd recanted a conversation he had w/ Stephen A. Smith in the elevator regarding ST’s death. Smith said that because ST was shot “down stairs,” that this was most certainly a “message.” What?! Are you kidding me? How does Smith know that as fact? Did that “message” mean that ST was having relations with another man’s women or something?? That’s what Smith seems to be implying. I would assume the altercation occurred in darkness, the perp was confronted by ST and took a shot, missed, and took another one possibly running from a man brandishing a machete! Did Smith ever consider that the perp was trying to get the hell out of there and didn’t take time to plant his feet and take more careful aim? Give me a break.

I fear we are just going to hear more uninformed speculation on this and it makes things even tougher when it comes from blowhards like Cowturd, Smith, and now maybe even Wilbon, who I once respected. The media just doesn’t get it. At least practice a little patience before opening your mouth, typing on your computer, or writing on paper. We will ultimately discover more details about this incident, but until then, these clowns need to shut the hell up.

[dgack]

Originally Posted by Dlyne8r

Cowturd further stated that ST was guilty of really bad judgment and even if ST had begun to turn things around in his life and distanced himself from his old followers, “just because you clean the rug it doesn’t mean you’ve cleaned the stains.”.

As I've said before in another thread, the big problem with this line of reasoning is that it suggests that it's okay to condemn an individual for youthful mistakes, as if growing up and being an adult human being is somehow a game of razor-thin margins where perfection is the only way to survive and win.

This is just utter crap, and I guarantee that nearly everyone on this board, as well as every one of those blowhards on the radio and TV, can probably think of some foolish incident in their youth that could have cost them their life in the form of accidental death or a jail sentence. If not, you led a pretty sheltered life as a teenager.

I'm not a huge fan of judging others, but there are obvious lines where it's appropriate and those where it's inappropriate. A guy like Pacman Jones, who doesn't seem to be learning his lessons in any way, or really making any effort to change? That's pretty obvious.

But to spew crap like, "cleaning the rug doesn't remove all the stains" is really hurtful, because it implies that a man who HAD realized the mistakes of his youth and WAS trying to be a better person, and by all accounts SUCCEEDING, somehow had it coming. And that's just completely counter to what most Americans believe.

[GhettoDogAllStars]

It's all about judgment. To highlight the poor decisions of a murdered man -- one day after he died -- is to suggest judgment on him. There's no excuse for that whatsoever.

"Judge not, before you judge yourself."

[artmonkforhallofamein07]

This is ridiculous. There are some guys out there that are doing the right thing. the guys on Sirius NFL radio have said many positive things about Sean, and have made sure that people know that Sean was a changed man. that is what one of the very tragic things about this situation. The guy was doing the right thing.

[Dlyne8r]

Originally Posted by artmonkforhallofamein07

This is ridiculous. There are some guys out there that are doing the right thing. the guys on Sirius NFL radio have said many positive things about Sean, and have made sure that people know that Sean was a changed man. that is what one of the very tragic things about this situation. The guy was doing the right thing.

Yep, after just now hearing Cowturd suggest we Redskin fans turn the dial if we didn't like what we were hearing, I believe I'll do just that. Goodbye Cowturd, I'll never return to this portion of ESPN Radio. I'll look into purchasing a subscription to Sirius NFL Radio instead. He even had the gall to tell us to return to our "message boards" where we think we have the greatest team on earth. :smashfrea

[warriorzpath]

My biggest gripe about the media is - the nature of sports journalism encourages them to be egotistical, cynical, judgmental, disrespectful, and most of all self-righteous loud-mouths. And then on top of that - these opinions are taken as fact by viewers or listeners that also don't know shit.

Get the fuck off your high horse assholes. Don't you guys have respect for anything? Everything is free-game for them to attack.

What I have found out about them with all of this is - they base their opinions on assumptions and rumors.

It's hard to listen to this load of crap right now. I will stop listening to Colin Cowherd and stop watching Jamie Dukes and Deion Sanders.

[MTK]

Cowturd is such a douche bag.

What the hell is his problem anyway?

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Cowturd is such a douche bag.

What the hell is his problem anyway?

He's so pompous and arrogantly opinionated, I don't know how people can listen to him. When I first got XM radio I listened to a handful of his shows and never tuned back in. I felt like jumping into the radio, grabbing his shoulders and shaking the sh!t out of him.

[squrrelco3]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Cowturd is such a douche bag.

What the hell is his problem anyway?

I don't even listen to him...haven't for a couple of years...the only reason why I know what he said was because of what I heard on here...and unfortunately these radio guys are so used to, "I'm never listening to your show again" from people that inevitably come back anyway, that they get numb to it, the only way to fix the problem is through arbitron ratings...if his show becomes the lowest rated sports show in the District, it might shake a few trees, unfortunately the other big markets like LA and New York could care less, so he'll probably stay on.

My suggestion would be to flood Redskins radio with calls asking them to switch over thier programming from ESPN to FoxSports...they already have a Redskins guy in Steve Czaban on in the mornings anyway, of course he's been awfully critical of Dan Synder so that might hurt the cause.

Then again, the Red Zebra affiliate here in Hampton Roads runs Fox Sports since ESPN is already taken by another network in the area. So despite Czaban's harsh words they might make the switch.

[djnemo65]

Yeah, I always thought Colin was untalented, but his handling of this situation has just been so hurtful. It's like he's trying to be Howard Stern - being outrageous and firing everyone up - without the comedic wit and talent. I just really feel a lot of anger towards him right now.

[70Chip]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

Yeah, I always thought Colin was untalented, but his handling of this situation has just been so hurtful. It's like he's trying to be Howard Stern - being outrageous and firing everyone up - without the comedic wit and talent. I just really feel a lot of anger towards him right now.

The difference between Stern and Cowherd is that Howard actually understands radio as an art form and knows what works well in that medium. It's actually very hard to be good on radio as the recent proliferation of mediocre personalities demonstrates. Cowherd is a hack. He has an unpleasant voice. He seems to have no aptitude for creating the "theatre of the mind" which is so crucial in his business. To make things worse, in the few times that I was able to listen to him for more than a few seconds without changing the dial to a music station, I heard a man who has an extremely superficial knowledge of sports, specifically football. Another time I saw him on one of ESPN's television networks talking in between plays of a college football game. It seemed to be some sort of bizarre experiment in which they were attempting to determine if Cowherd could be as totally ineffective in a visual medium as he continues to be in an auditory one. He succeeded.

[EternalEnigma21]

Bottom Line...

alot of media outlets are taking the stance, "he got what he deserved." This guy is not fucking OJ Simpson. Someone mentioned Brett Favre here, and if he were gunned down by a drug dealer, they wouldn't be constantly talking about nothing but, "well, if he hadn't had a problem with Vicodin in the past..." If you want to run a story about his past, do it, but definately dont call it a Tribute to his Life, as ESPN's SportsCenter did, which started this thread in the first place...

I saw it and it turned my stomach. SS, I like you man, but your company was wrong to air that garbage and call it a tribute.

Not saying they're the only ones taking the general underlying position, but I watch espn because its the only national sports media coverage I have access to, and SportsCenter is a daily show all sports fans enjoy. I expected something about his career, or a great highlight reel celebrating his career accomplishments. They even called him out for laying out Moorman in the pro-bowl by saying it was supposed to be an exibition game and he leveled a poor little old punter... like he was rediculous.