Deadspin: How ESPN Ditched Journalism: A Tim Tebow Story

[Heisenberg]

In October, Doug Gottlieb, a radio host and basketball analyst who'd decamped for CBS the previous month after nine years with ESPN, went on The Dan Patrick Show and dropped something of a truth bomb about his time in Bristol:
I was told specifically, "You can't talk enough Tebow." I would jokingly throw it into a segment. "I gotta find 15 seconds here to talk about Tebow, all right let's move on and talk about Major League Baseball."

Later, he said:

Is it ridiculous how much you have to talk about Tebow? Yeah! But for whatever reason people can't get enough of that story, and they kind of stoke the fire—that's kind of what ESPN does.

Gottlieb was referring to the network's yearlong infatuation with Tebow, a player who hasn't made much actual news since he was traded to the Jets in March. Bristol executives have decided that what we want—or what we should want—is Tebow. "They want to own the Tebow story," said Jim Miller, the author of the ESPN oral history Those Guys Have All The Fun. "They want to put their watermark on it."

This helps explain why, over the summer, ESPN dispatched veteran reporter Sal Paolantonio and a crew to cover Jets camp as if it were the run-up to the Super Bowl. ("ESPN embarrassed themselves," Dan Patrick, who spent 18 years in Bristol, said of ESPN's flood-the-zone coverage in Florham Park.) This helps explain why ESPN2's First Take referred to Tim Tebow more than seven dozen times in late May even though there was absolutely no Tebow news to report on. This helps explain why SportsCenter covered Tim Tebow's 25th birthday like a moon landing. This helps explain why it seemed perfectly reasonable to a SportsCenter anchor to ask in-studio guest Liam Neeson whether Tim Tebow should be the Jets' starting quarterback even though Liam Neeson had no clue what he was talking about. This helps explain how ESPN wound up breaking Tim Tebow news to, yes, Tim Tebow.

The story of how ESPN fell in love with Tim Tebow is really the story of a breakup, between ESPN and the business of reporting the news.

http://deadspin.com/5929361/how-espn...im-tebow-story

[FanboyOf91]

ESPN ever doing journalism? Get out of here.

[Warhead36]

Me regarding the Tim Tebow overhype...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLY762hnIso

[MattFancy]

I read this yesterday and its pretty much spot on.

I was watching SportsCenter this morning and I was thinking to myself, wow I've been watching for almost 30 minutes and no mention of Tebow! Then they go to a story about all the QBs that had concussions this week. Starts off with, "Well the most popular back up QB this week won't be Tim Tebow." I mean really??

The only thing ESPN is good for anymore is live games. The rest is just a hype machine for whatever they are covering at the time.

[Jumbo]

ESPN is much like Fox News journalism-wise (and only in that matter). They won't hold it against you if you have the skills, but it has nothing to do with the mission statement and you can't let it get in the way.

[Larry]

I'm shocked. You mean, ESPN people are told to talk about things that the executives think people want to hear about?

This is obviously the collapse of civilization.

[Thiebear]

ESPN is much like CNN they play the same show every 3 hours to the minute. You miss nothing if you catch a glimpse each day.

[Heisenberg]

I'm shocked. You mean, ESPN people are told to talk about things that the executives think people want to hear about?

This is obviously the collapse of civilization.

No, but the abundance of false reporting and plagiarism was pretty shocking.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Yep, they are beating the Tebow horse to death. Every time Sanchez throws an incomplete pass facebook pops up a poll: "Is it time for Tebow? Like for Yes, Comment for No"

[skinsfan07]

Great piece. Always pissed me off that ESPN hardly shows hockey and ONLY focuses on the main sports teams (Heat, Yankees, Patriots, etc)

[MattFancy]

Another thing ESPN should be getting raked over the coals for is the Bernie Fine story.

[ixcuincle]

ESPN is much like CNN they play the same show every 3 hours to the minute. You miss nothing if you catch a glimpse each day.

The difference is that CNN is actually journalism and not biased, while ESPN shows heavy bias towards various teams. ESPN is more like MSNBC.

[MattFancy]

Another thing ESPN should be getting raked over the coals for is the Bernie Fine story.

[skinsgirl26]

Great piece. Always pissed me off that ESPN hardly shows hockey and ONLY focuses on the main sports teams (Heat, Yankees, Patriots, etc)

ESPN doesn't have a contract with the NHL...cause of Versus. That's why they only show highlights...though I haven't even seen any of those recently....

I agree with your other point. And I hate how they talk about the same stories, but try to pretend they're different by rephrasing what they previously said or adding different captions. It's insulting. And boring.

[skinsfan07]

ESPN doesn't have a contract with the NHL...cause of Versus. That's why they only show highlights...though I haven't even seen any of those recently....

I agree with your other point. And I hate how they talk about the same stories, but try to pretend they're different by rephrasing what they previously said or adding different captions. It's insulting. And boring.

Well Versus is the NBC Sports Network now. That's why we haven't seen Versus. They were bought out. And I try to keep ESPN off my TV as much as possible. I'd rather watch NFL Network.