CommonCents
Member
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 27
Dear ESPN,
I understand the complex and various dynamics that the many hard working people at ESPN studios endure in order to bring its viewers detailed, timely, and entertaining sports news as it happens. You have my respect for the coordinated effort & committment with which you have met the challenge of that task throughout the years. I am a dedicated viewer, & a passionate sports fan. Your work is most greatly appreciated by sports fans the world over, including myself. However, this network has failed sports fans miserabely over the course of the last several years.
I find myself very disturbed, and often deeply troubled by the tactics, antics, and perceived abuse of what should be fair & balanced journalism by some of the producers at your studio. I can not speak for the american public, put I am choosing to take this time to speak for myself.
In recent years, the televised course chosen by your network has significantly deviated from sports jounalism & reporting, to tabloid entertainment t.v.. Your company shapes and molds the minds of young people across the country, your company influences the inner workings & business decisions of the leagues in which it covers. You have made more capital than almost every other business sector in this nation as a result...
And as silly as it makes me feel to try, I can't help but try to make you reconsider your current philosophy & the overwhelmingly negitive impact it is having on all of our youths (as a Black man, I am even more bothered by BET. In fact, I stopped watching several years ago.) I am asking, I am begging, and I am pleading. Please, tone it down. As a individual, the only thing I can do is not watch, but that does nothing to resolve the problem or the social impact that results.
24 hours of Ron Artest coverage is far too much. Is he a story? Yes, he is. But, in the world of sports news the Ron Artest trade did not merit the intense & indepth coverage that it recieved. Meanwhile, some of the most interesting stories go unreported at all, or end up becoming a mere crawl on the bottom ticker.
The Kobe Bryant court proceedings, Shaq & Phil leaving, Kobe & Shaq, the brawl at the Palace, Ron Artest, the steriod hearings, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson's T.D. dances, T.O. & McNabb, the sex boat, Tice scalping tickets, steriods, lockerroom fights, Sex & Tennis, who's dating who, Tigers hair, who's the sexiest polls, who got shot at the nightclub, who had a fight with their wife, who got arrested for public drunkeness, who got caught with dope, who paid for a prostitute, got got caught with a gun, etc, etc, etc...and it all gets put on camera with a microphone & then replayed over and over and over at loud volume.
Meaningless stats, and the endless glorification of individual feats dehumanize the players, and belittle the team concept while undermining the common goal.
Can you focus your journalism & reporting efforts to what takes place on the field, between the lines, and on the court? Or maybe my wife is right...and I'm just oldfashion. I'm 29, and oldfashion.
I understand the complex and various dynamics that the many hard working people at ESPN studios endure in order to bring its viewers detailed, timely, and entertaining sports news as it happens. You have my respect for the coordinated effort & committment with which you have met the challenge of that task throughout the years. I am a dedicated viewer, & a passionate sports fan. Your work is most greatly appreciated by sports fans the world over, including myself. However, this network has failed sports fans miserabely over the course of the last several years.
I find myself very disturbed, and often deeply troubled by the tactics, antics, and perceived abuse of what should be fair & balanced journalism by some of the producers at your studio. I can not speak for the american public, put I am choosing to take this time to speak for myself.
In recent years, the televised course chosen by your network has significantly deviated from sports jounalism & reporting, to tabloid entertainment t.v.. Your company shapes and molds the minds of young people across the country, your company influences the inner workings & business decisions of the leagues in which it covers. You have made more capital than almost every other business sector in this nation as a result...
And as silly as it makes me feel to try, I can't help but try to make you reconsider your current philosophy & the overwhelmingly negitive impact it is having on all of our youths (as a Black man, I am even more bothered by BET. In fact, I stopped watching several years ago.) I am asking, I am begging, and I am pleading. Please, tone it down. As a individual, the only thing I can do is not watch, but that does nothing to resolve the problem or the social impact that results.
24 hours of Ron Artest coverage is far too much. Is he a story? Yes, he is. But, in the world of sports news the Ron Artest trade did not merit the intense & indepth coverage that it recieved. Meanwhile, some of the most interesting stories go unreported at all, or end up becoming a mere crawl on the bottom ticker.
The Kobe Bryant court proceedings, Shaq & Phil leaving, Kobe & Shaq, the brawl at the Palace, Ron Artest, the steriod hearings, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson's T.D. dances, T.O. & McNabb, the sex boat, Tice scalping tickets, steriods, lockerroom fights, Sex & Tennis, who's dating who, Tigers hair, who's the sexiest polls, who got shot at the nightclub, who had a fight with their wife, who got arrested for public drunkeness, who got caught with dope, who paid for a prostitute, got got caught with a gun, etc, etc, etc...and it all gets put on camera with a microphone & then replayed over and over and over at loud volume.
Meaningless stats, and the endless glorification of individual feats dehumanize the players, and belittle the team concept while undermining the common goal.
Can you focus your journalism & reporting efforts to what takes place on the field, between the lines, and on the court? Or maybe my wife is right...and I'm just oldfashion. I'm 29, and oldfashion.
I would watch that sometimes but The local folk see both educational TV and Public Radio as tools of the devil and so we can't get either one. I guess that's a small price to pay for the magnificent solitude of living way out in the country away from all the nuts in the big cities.
