Great blog today by USAToday blogger Beau Dure, in which he wonders aloud if ESPN is giving more sporting events coverage if the ESPN/ABC family has a contract with the particular league. Despite denials by ESPN ombudsman George Solomon, the answer to that question is a resounding yes.

But here’s a message to the Worldwide Leader from The Bottom Line… YOU CAN’T MAKE ME CARE ABOUT ARENA FOOTBALL!  I DON’T CARE IF MIKE AND MIKE ARE CALLING THE GAMES!

If ESPN wants to posture and act like it’s the Worldwide Leader in Sports, it needs to conduct itself with the integrity of a first-class sports NEWS channel. You know what news means? It means covering everything in a fair and balanced manner, regardless of the corporate interest you might have in covering the Chicago Rush and the Philadelphia Soul.

ESPN needs to conduct itself with the integrity of a first-class news-gathering agency, not unlike the AP, Reuters and the BBC. Unfortunately, ESPN is far too concerned with building its brand and self-promotion that it has little time to care about professional integrity.

The USAToday blog. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 4:17 pm and is filed under ESPN. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.