The Sports Media Thread

[Logan]

Inspired by Ksyrup, use this thread to discuss any and all aspects of sports reporting. Could be reporter/personality specific (hello, Bayless bashers), or it could be Deadspin-lite.

[Logan]

Pete Thamel is Leaving the New York Times for Sports Illustrated | The Big Lead

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, just posted in the Random thread about good riddance to Doug Gottleib to CBS, as well as Thamel to SI and Brett McMurphy to ESPN. Also, Darren Rovell left NBC for ESPN recently.

ESPN has lost Erin Andrews to Fox and Michelle Beadle to NBC as well.

Lots of repositioning going on out there.

[Logan]

As I said in the other thread, I get a kick out of stuff like this:

ESPN Finally Covered The NHL, Thanks To The Olympics



I mean...that has to be intentional mischief. I can't imagine how else the Columbus Blue Jackets and their potential opponents could be forced into a standard soccer graphic.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Lady H_B and I have been watching a fair bit of the Olympics. We usually start watching around 9 pm, allowing us to skip over the commercials.

My wife has grown to loathe Andrea Kramer and her post-swimming interviews. In fact, I have taken to muting Andrea Kramer's questions and then unmuting for the answers to appease her.

[spleen1015]

Kramer was awesome interviewing Lochte after he finished 4th last night....

[panerd]

Originally Posted by Logan

Inspired by Ksyrup, use this thread to discuss any and all aspects of sports reporting. Could be reporter/personality specific (hello, Bayless bashers), or it could be Deadspin-lite.

Didn't even realize there was another side on Skip Bayless.

And I definitely never choose to watch him but was just at the gym today and the guy next to me on the treadmills had on the Stephen A Smith/Bayless debate show. Good lord I have to admit I kept looking over like I was watching a car wreck on his tv. There can't be anyone who actually watches this show for information or entertainment can there?

[sterlingice]

How long before this just becomes the "ESPN sucks" thread?

SI

[Grover]

I wish Rovell would just disappear completely.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by panerd

Didn't even realize there was another side on Skip Bayless.

And I definitely never choose to watch him but was just at the gym today and the guy next to me on the treadmills had on the Stephen A Smith/Bayless debate show. Good lord I have to admit I kept looking over like I was watching a car wreck on his tv. There can't be anyone who actually watches this show for information or entertainment can there?

Maybe you just didn't realize his family has been kidnapped by a psychopath (maybe even Bayless or Smith) and for every hour he doesn't watch either that or sumo wrestler porn, one of his family members dies. But he's a navy seal and to prove his mental toughness, took the more difficult of the two as some sort of test.

SI

[Logan]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

How long before this just becomes the "ESPN sucks" thread?

SI

Close, I originally had this titled "ESPN Fail" as I said in the Random thread.

[panerd]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Maybe you just didn't realize his family has been kidnapped by a psychopath (maybe even Bayless or Smith) and for every hour he doesn't watch either that or sumo wrestler porn, one of his family members dies. But he's a navy seal and to prove his mental toughness, took the more difficult of the two as some sort of test.

SI

And I realize that you have to debate differing viewpoints or the show would be pretty bland but these guys were the exact opposite extreme on every topic. I wonder if they keep notebooks just to keep their nonsense straight for future shows.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Kramer was awesome interviewing Lochte after he finished 4th last night....

Kramer as a "sideline reporter" is light years better than anybody else. Not even close for my money. She just doesn't have "the look."

[Ksyrup]

All sideline reporters are meaningless. They either ask questions that are so obvious they don't need an answer, or elicit non-answers from the athletes/coaches. I didn't see it, but I heard she asked Lochte whether that race went as well as he had hoped. Really?

[Grover]

Originally Posted by rowech

She just doesn't have "the look."

Birds everywhere disagree.

On a serious note, we have to realize that sports is not what Andrea Kramer does.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Grover

Birds everywhere disagree.

On a serious note, we have to realize that sports is not what Andrea Kramer does.

It's not?

[Grover]

Hahaha, I was thinking of Andrea Mitchell.

Christ.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Grover

Hahaha, I was thinking of Andrea Mitchell.

Christ.

Honestly I don't know who either of them is.

[Ksyrup]

Hilarious.

Sports Journalist Realignment Out Of Control, Driven By*Greed - Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Grover

Hahaha, I was thinking of Andrea Mitchell.

Christ.

I followed your original comment, then Wiki'd Kremer and figured it out. Easy to confuse them.

[Logan]

Dan Wolken ‏@DanWolken

To answer questions, yes, The Daily laid off sports staff today, including me. I'll be fine. Enjoyed the opportunity tremendously.

Not sure who else is affected.

[Ksyrup]

Close enough. Any reason to embarrass Craig James.

Craig James needs your help paying off debt from his failed Senate campaign

[Logan]

I posted about this in the MLB thread, speculating that MLB must control all teams' Facebook accounts if they could all be hacked at the same time.

Yesterday's Flood Of Berserk Baseball Team Facebook Posts Were Made By A Rogue MLB Employee

The incident sheds light on one of MLB's lasting issues: the control MLB Advanced Media attempts to wield upon anything affiliated with Major League Baseball. MLBAM runs all the teams' web pages, Facebook pages, and, presumably, Twitter feeds. That's a lot of responsibility—and power—put in the hands of people who apparently aren't being paid very much. It also appears the roles of MLB employees (both inside and outside of the MLBAM arm) can be, at times, ambiguous or confusing.

[Logan]

[Ksyrup]

Chris Berman got a long-term extension on ESPN's 33rd anniversary. I know we're all thrilled that this will also likely extend his run in Applebee's commercials, too.

Speaking of sports guys who used to be liked, I can't believe Rick Reilly exists for this kind of shit. I'd expect to read something this witty in a middle school newspaper.

Rick Reilly: Beware the Hilltoppers - ESPN

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Grover

I wish Rovell would just disappear completely.

darren rovell‏@darrenrovell
Never thought I'd say this: I'm in a video game. I report your endorsement deals in #NBA2K13

[Grover]

Ugh.

[Easy Mac]

I don't play video games, I don't watch ESPN during non-live sports hours, I don't often use twitter, and I don't watch CNBC, so I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been introduced to what I've been told are the horrors of Darren Rovell.

[Grover]

Social Media & Technology: 100 Twitter Rules To Live By — CNBC Tech Check with Darren Rovell - CNBC

This is why most people despise him.

[Ksyrup]

He's no longer with NBC. He's back at ESPN. Or, as he tweeted earlier today, he's been with ESPN for 18.4% of its existence.

He does post about some interesting things, but damn the guy is so full of himself. He's more famous on twitter for being a twitter etiquette nazi than anything.

[Ksyrup]

Ha! Yeah, that article is awesome. I'm sure it's been done already, but someone should fake-tweet Rovell asking for a RT on his birthday.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Chris Berman got a long-term extension on ESPN's 33rd anniversary. I know we're all thrilled that this will also likely extend his run in Applebee's commercials, too.

Speaking of sports guys who used to be liked, I can't believe Rick Reilly exists for this kind of shit. I'd expect to read something this witty in a middle school newspaper.

Rick Reilly: Beware the Hilltoppers - ESPN

It is crappy writing, to be sure, but if Saban doesn't want to hear it, maybe he should actually schedule another decent non-conference game. Michigan, certainly a quality game. Can't say much about Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, or Western Carolina. There's not even a halfway decent team there

SI

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

He's no longer with NBC. He's back at ESPN. Or, as he tweeted earlier today, he's been with ESPN for 18.4% of its existence.

He does post about some interesting things, but damn the guy is so full of himself. He's more famous on twitter for being a twitter etiquette nazi than anything.

Twitiquette.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

It is crappy writing, to be sure, but if Saban doesn't want to hear it, maybe he should actually schedule another decent non-conference game. Michigan, certainly a quality game. Can't say much about Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, or Western Carolina. There's not even a halfway decent team there

How many teams take on decent teams for their OOC schedules? Michigan last year beat more teams that went to bowl games than anybody else ever had. And yet, their OOC schedule was Western Michigan, ND, Eastern Michigan, and SDSU. The closest game outside of ND was 21 points.

[Ksyrup]

Eh, it was a stupid article both for the writing and because he took the bait. Saban wasn't yelling at the media, he was using the media to make a point to his players. That was directed at his team. I'm not sure what is worse - Reilly not realizing that, or Reilly knowing it but still writing that horrible article.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Grover

This is why most people despise him.

{scratches head}

At least 80% of that is solid advice, very very few items in it are purely ill conceived.

Damned if I see the problem here.

[Ksyrup]

It's because he thought he was important enough that people would take his unsolicited advice. Usually, someone unlikeable doesn't get a very favorable reaction when they try to tell others how to conduct their own business.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It's because he thought he was important enough that people would take his unsolicited advice. Usually, someone unlikeable doesn't get a very favorable reaction when they try to tell others how to conduct their own business.

{shrug} Seemed like a pretty rational column topic to me. Off hand I'd say he's the most recognizable name in sports business journalism, and he's just shy of a quarter million followers.

I wonder if the number of critics put off by that sort of advice (which is extremely common to see from social media gurus) have that many followers combined?

[Ksyrup]

I don't think it matters to the issue of what advice a putz should be offering to the public. I follow the guy, but that doesn't mean I respect him or want his advice on anything.

[Logan]

Didn't Rovell also have some kind of creepy stalking obsession of some girl on Twitter?

[Ksyrup]

Yep. I think it was during the pre-Super Bowl party week?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I don't think it matters to the issue of what advice a putz should be offering to the public. I follow the guy, but that doesn't mean I respect him or want his advice on anything.

Then why are you following him? He's a putz, you don't want his advice, don't respect him yadda yadda yadda.

Then, umm, unfollow him maybe?

There's a lot of pretty good stuff in there for both novices & regular Twits alike, (although most of it is pretty basic info that professionals already know).

Ultimately {shrug} though. Just goes to show that the internet is a place where people will bitch no matter what anybody does.

[Ksyrup]

I follow him for information. Pure and simple. You take the good with the bad. And actually, he's so clueless about how universally disliked he is that following him, on the occasions that he trips himself up, is extremely entertaining. I've never read his columns and wouldn't have known abou the twittiquette thing if it hadn't become a big thing on twitter.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Then why are you following him? He's a putz, you don't want his advice, don't respect him yadda yadda yadda.

Then, umm, unfollow him maybe?

There's a lot of pretty good stuff in there for both novices & regular Twits alike, (although most of it is pretty basic info that professionals already know).

Ultimately {shrug} though. Just goes to show that the internet is a place where people will bitch no matter what anybody does.

You need to respect a guy in order to get use out of actual sports business tweets? It's when Rovell goes off on his tangents unrelated to his job that people get annoyed. Or when he uses only a sliver of "sports business" to say something like "LeBron James made $126,237 in the first half of tonight's game, which is more than the annual income of 79% of Americans".

SHOCKING how this one sided.

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, the class warfare stuff he posts gets people a bit edgy. But even then, that usually spawns stuff completely entertaining, like when someone dies and you get someone posting as Rovell with a "Joe Smith's coffin cost $69,067 and would take someone working at minimum wage 9,525 hours to afford" type tweet. Good times.

[korme]

Heard rumblings that Russillo is getting his name on the SVP Show soon, but now I can't find anything about it. Hrrm.

[digamma]

Rovell's a tool. I follow him for the train wreck.

A few examples:

Rules, Schmules. I tweet my dinner.

Playboy girls are ugly.

Duped. Sorry.

Bomani Jonesed

There was also an amazing thread that I can't get to load on EDSBS with fake Darren Rovell tweets throughout history.

But, yes, he has klout.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Logan

You need to respect a guy in order to get use out of actual sports business tweets? It's when Rovell goes off on his tangents unrelated to his job that people get annoyed.

Except that, in today's landscape, basic good practices in social media ARE very much sports business.

I'm fine with him being labeled as an annoying git or whatever, he could very well be the second coming of Rick Reilly for all I know (I read probably two dozen Rovell pieces a year & those are usually cut & dried kind of things)

I just don't get that particular column being the source of major grief with the possible exception of people who either recognize how shitty their own feed is because of the advice they haven't followed (and don't like being reminded of it) or are too stupid to know when they're getting good advice.

[Ksyrup]

The advice - whether it's 100% correct or whatever - is irrelevant. It all stems from who it's coming from and his self-importance for thinking he is the arbiter on how to use twitter and has license to tell people who don't respect him what they are doing wrong.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It all stems from who it's coming from and his self-importance for thinking he is the arbiter on how to use twitter

You realize that nearly everything in the column is pretty standard advice for any professional social media, right? About all he's done is tweak the verbiage for sports stuff in a few places & break bigger points down into smaller ones in order to get to one hundred.

There's a few points in there that are kinda contentious but there's not much in there that's exactly rocket science.

Problem is, the vast majority of the Twittersphere isn't as savvy as they could/should be, even basic stuff is probably helpful for those smart enough to follow good advice.