ESPN Ombudsman slams ESPN coverage of James/Texas Tech Situation
And in particular, the coverage during the Alamo Bowl:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=ohlmeyer_don&id=…
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/52824/esp…
Those who were in the open thread during the game that night remember that Patrick and Davie's reaction were debated a lot, whether there was any bias coming through or not.
In any regard, or feelings on it, it's another illustration of Brian's continuing screed on media bias and the lack of media transparency. That we can well relate to.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:21 AM ^
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/espn-biased
Didn't see the sporting news article though.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^
Much better way of handling these posts, especially when compared to "countdown to [something stupid that insinuates everyone makes fun of the poster] at 3... 2... 1...".
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:26 AM ^
(I don't mean about your post).
The article said 8 million people saw the Alamo bowl and obviously countless more saw the Sports Centers that were biased towards the James family.
Now, an overly wordy article on the back pages of ESPN that doesn't really conclude anything is somehow supposed to show that ESPN is fair and balanced? Really? What's the point?
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:58 AM ^
Ohlmeyer did not display the courage of his convictions. He laid out a very strong argument for bias and the concluded with gems such as:
1. It's tough to do it live.
2. Conflicts are troublesome
3. One mans opinion is another mans bias.
Eeech. Well they're in the "live" business! Sorry it's tough. So is playing and coaching football.
As for conflicts, well, gee, isn't most of what passes for news somehow conflict based? And finally, as regards opinion and bias, the word missing here is fact. Ohlmeyer started his screed with the statement that there are three sides to every story, your side, my side and the truth. If ESPN wants to preen about their journalistic integrity, then maybe they ought to be more concerned with finding facts and truths and not just decide its a he said/she said dispute on which they can take a side.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^
It was my understanding that Mike Leach was not fired because of what he did to the James kid. He was fired for not obeying a direct order from his boss. He was told by the AD (or was it the university president?) to apologize to the player and he flatly refused to do it.
Secondly, regarding fathers and sons, I always enjoyed the coverage that Bob Griese and Keith Jackson provided with Brian Griese was at QB for Michigan. Jackson often commented on how he'd known Griese since he was a little kid running around in his dad's shadow. I never thought the commentary was unnaturally stilted.
That was NOT something I got from ESPN's coverage of this situation. It always felt like only one side of the story was being presented. You can usually tell when a reporter is being fed inside information from an unnamed source. Their conclusions (even if they are correct) take unnatural leaps and there are usually holes that they CANT fill. Two examples -- the coverage of the Lewinski affair and the whole Memo-gate issue during the '04 elections. In both cases, reporters were leaping ahead with information that they couldn't have gotten from any other source than someone on the inside who knew the entire story. When you read the coverage, there was not the normal progression of logic and facts. You'd read it and think, "How do they know this?" Answer -- someone was giving out information that they shouldn't.
Third, I didn't realize Don Ohlmeyer was working at ESPN. He was a heavyweight at ABC and NBC in the 80s and 90s. NBC would do very well to hire him back at just about any salary.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 AM ^
He's only been the ombudsman for a few months now. I want to say it was as recent as Thanksgiving. He'll only serve there for a year or two. I don't think he'll just up and leave for NBC in the middle of his tenure.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:58 AM ^
I also liked how Bob always called his son Brian. Every other announcer uses last names, but obviously it's his son so he didn't try and fake it and call him something completely unnatural to him.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:53 AM ^
I'm sure this has been covered, but can someone enlighten me as to why Leach put the James kid in the closet/shed in the first place? I understand it was done after James vocalized he had sufferred a concussion, but what exactly was Leach's motivation? Was Leach thinking the darkness might help James deal with the symptoms, or was it an extreme case of "Go sit in the corner and get out of my sight, you fucking baby."?
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
My understanding: The kid was told not to come to practice by team doctors because he had the concussion- he was supposed to stay home, in a dark place. He came to practice, wearing sunglasses, was supposedly screwing around, and was not obeying the orders of the team doctor/coaches to stay home. Thus, Leach told them to put him in a dark, cool place.
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:42 AM ^
For the most part. He showed up in just athletic shorts, t-shirt, and from what I heard second hand through a student trainer, over-sized, heart-shaped sun glasses. He was being a distraction from practice and Leach sent him out of sight to a place befitting of someone who has had a concussion, a cool, dark shed.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:19 PM ^
..or at least the vision that comes to mind. It was big enough that one of the lines used to have "break out" meetings in it. And the interview room looked about as big as the trainer's room at the St Pete Times Forum.
I could go on and on here, but the bottom line is that Craig James should be fired, just like Leach was. And I would seriously think about suspending one or two people who worked the story for a couple of weeks.
This is a case of a dad using his position to give Tech an excuse to get out of their contract.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^
Nothing worse at ESPN than getting taken out behind the electrical shed by the Ombudsman.