Aikman used the wrong word about Bayless or any of the others that do what he does...credible. Credibility is only important is he's a journalist, which he is not. When he first came to Dallas, he was far more interested in selling his opinion than being a journalist. That got him fired.
Are any of those guys that set up their opinion and set up their defense credible? If it's an opinion we agree with, he's credible. Otherwise, it's all designed to be emotional entertainment. Get the viewer either fist pumping of shaking his fist at the TV. The sports broadcasting landscape is changing, too many channels and ESPN has paid too much for rights fees in the attempt to hold them at bay.
One thing about free enterprise, one might own it but not for long as there are always others that want some of it. CBS, Fox and NBC see the money and they need it. Live programming is where it's at for the money. If you paid close attention this past weekend, you saw a ton of Coca Cola spots, they stopped everything but live events 3 years ago because of the ever growing number of time shifters. Sports is where the money is unless they have to pony up too much for rights fees. ESPN's MNF deal is just plain stupid, they cannot sell enough to cover just the rights fee.
I watch those channels for one thing, live sports and don't care about any of their talking heads or their opinions. I use the pregames for DFS last minute info but if I want others opinions, I choose to get that here with posters I am learning about. New here and still learning the ones that are cynical and sarcastic, whom I love and adore, passionate ones and those that just love a good fight and will take either side just to get something going. There are posters here and on other sports forums more qualified than a lot of the talking heads, so why waste my time with them? Because they occasionally say something I agree with?
However, Otis likes those programs. He told me that after watching them he still has hope the dominant species will change soon as we are too stupid to be in charge much longer. And no, I do not let him read this forum, especially anything I write.