The Sports Media Thread

[RyanMcD29]

This isn't so much on the studio end, but my least favorite thing of the NBA on ESPN has to be the dreaded end of quarter-full length commercial-30 second sponsored highlight clip where the sponsor read takes up 20 seconds of it-full length commercial stretch. TNT doesn't do it but ESPN sure loves that 5 minutes of ads strategy. I don't know why it's not uniform for a quarter break leaguewide and why there's a discrepancy between the two national broadcasters, but it's there

[The_Admiral]

Quote

“I will not call myself a victim, but I certainly have felt victimized and I do not feel as though my complaints have been taken seriously,” she wrote in an email to ESPN executives, including Pitaro, two weeks after the incident, which was obtained by The Times.

 

Hitting you coming and going with passive-voice constructions here, huh

[Digby]

The main way ESPN tries to emulate Inside the NBA is with Jalen Rose (and Paul Pierce before he got fired) talking over everyone and Jay Williams firing off cringeworthy tweets. Woj is at least a much better TV guy than I ever would have imagined but the format doesn’t suit his strengths.

 

my unpopular opinion is that Inside the NBA’s popularity completely mystifies me, but that may be the awfulness of Shaq ruining everything for me.

[Kramerica Industries]

Don't need to think too hard about it. Chuck's unfiltered, everyman persona has much to do with that.

[CS85]

Barkley's candor, wit, and sass are legendary.  Once he's gone the show will need to find a natural replacement that won't clearly be an "act like Chuck did" guy, which is infinitely easier said than done. 

Shaq needs to call it a day and go play golf or whatever.  Ever since he's transitioned from manchild-twinkle-in-the-eye Shaq to tired-groaning-grumpy Shaq he drags the broadcast down immensely.

[Red Comet]

Charles Barkley is the closest thing we have right now to Howard Cossell. Replacing him is impossible, not merely difficult.

[TheBigFiz21]

On 7/5/2021 at 10:31 AM, RyanMcD29 said:

This isn't so much on the studio end, but my least favorite thing of the NBA on ESPN has to be the dreaded end of quarter-full length commercial-30 second sponsored highlight clip where the sponsor read takes up 20 seconds of it-full length commercial stretch. TNT doesn't do it but ESPN sure loves that 5 minutes of ads strategy. I don't know why it's not uniform for a quarter break leaguewide and why there's a discrepancy between the two national broadcasters, but it's there

I loathe those segments with a passion. Literally, what's the point of a quick 30-second segment after a few commercials to analyze the Nets' 3-pt shooting or Chris Paul playing stifling D, only to immediately go right back to the same recycled ads that would have sent you straight to the next quarter or halftime? At least I know I'm not the only one with this sentiment

 

ESPN hasn't had any consistency outside of their announcing crew and the constant emphasis on the "storylines" of the league over the actual performances on the court. And at this point, both are a blessing and curse. The social media audience, which they try to cater to as equally as their traditional TV and radio consumers, live off of and enjoy those things. But despite that, everyone who solely cares for the game being played on the court is being alienated to some degree. The worst part of all this? No other media giant is willing to or can compete with the exposure that ESPN gives the NBA. On top of that, obviously, is that money talks. Only way to punish the mothership is to beat them at their own game, which isn't impossible with less popular sporting events, but very much improbable unless ESPN gives up their rights.

[monkeypower]

First the TikTokers came for the dancers, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a dancer.

Then they came for the singers, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a singer.

Then they came for the actors, and I did not speak out - Because I was not a actor.

Then they came for me the broadcast journalist - and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

The, mostly "aspiring", news and sports media people are mad online in the replies and quote tweets.

 

A Celeb gets to do some on-air presenting?! Well I never!

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I went to undergrad for journalism. Every famous journalist guest speaker that visited my school said they didn't go to school for journalism but instead something else.

 

You think that would have been a clue to change majors, but I didn't want to take math -- and why would journalism require a math pre-req anyway? Lol college is a joke.

[The_Admiral]

There was a time when journalism was not a prestigious profession. Lots of journalists were oppositional-defiant screwups who fell ass over applecart into the gig for lack of anywhere else to find gainful employment. Of course, now journalism is the exclusive domain of people who have spent their entire lives being Good At School, and mass temper tantrums like this show it. And this isn't even journalism journalism, this is smiling at a camera and sticking a microphone in front of some brain-damaged Dagestanis before throwing it back to Joe Rogan, who also has brain damage. Life isn't school, or at least it probably shouldn't be.

 

 

Corollary: as we all know, the writing room at The Simpsons was overwhelmingly composed of Harvard graduates. The notable exception, of course, was John Swartzwelder, who worked in advertising, applied to work on Letterman but didn't get the job when his interview consisted of wandering into Dave's office uninvited and complaining about TV shows he didn't like, and then wound up at The Simpsons anyway. And who do we all agree was the best writer they ever had?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

45 minutes ago, the admiral said:

There was a time when journalism was not a prestigious profession. Lots of journalists were oppositional-defiant screwups who fell ass over applecart into the gig for lack of anywhere else to find gainful employment. Of course, now journalism is the exclusive domain of people who have spent their entire lives being Good At School, and mass temper tantrums like this show it. And this isn't even journalism journalism, this is smiling at a camera and sticking a microphone in front of some brain-damaged Dagestanis before throwing it back to Joe Rogan, who also has brain damage. Life isn't school, or at least it probably shouldn't be.

 

 

The other thing is there aren't journalism jobs anymore. There was a time when every market had its own paper and its own newsroom that hired several people. Now each local market is lucky if it has two staff writers and an editor -- and that's generally one news person and one sports/obit/everything else.

 

So if you want to write for a living and can afford to live on zero dollars -- much like idealists who want to go into progressive politics -- you're probably wealthy enough to not really need the job anyway. And it shows in your writing and who you interview and who's determined to be an authority.

[monkeypower]

2 hours ago, the admiral said:

And this isn't even journalism journalism, this is smiling at a camera and sticking a microphone in front of some brain-damaged Dagestanis before throwing it back to Joe Rogan, who also has brain damage..

 

And that's the thing here, it's not even a real "job". I fully assume this is just her doing ringside interviews for a single fight night and then both her and the UFC will go on their merry ways after. I do not think she's joining the UFC media corps.

 

It's no different than any other actor or athlete or celeb doing an appearance, but these people were so incensed by her joke about her single semester in the journalism program, at LSU I believe, before her internet fame took off that it crossed their wires. If she hadn't commented at all about her former schooling, or she isn't famous for the way she is, it's a non-thing beside maybe a couple people making the usual "internet famous/talent" comments.

 

1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The other thing is there aren't journalism jobs anymore. There was a time when every market had its own paper and its own newsroom that hired several people. Now each local market is lucky if it has two staff writers and an editor -- and that's generally one news person and one sports/obit/everything else.

 

Just from my two years-ish in the biz, I don't think it's that bad yet in all places, at least from my knowledge about the Canadian markets near me. Some of the smaller towns sure, those probably weren't too big to begin with, but there are still journalism jobs out there.

 

But it's definitely a saturated market with people like the admiral was getting at who were Good At School and social media/Twitter has broken a lot of those people's brains where they think local news is beneath them because they want to opine.

[ManillaToad]

3 hours ago, the admiral said:

There was a time when journalism was not a prestigious profession.

 

Yeah it's called "right now"

[The_Admiral]

The hell are you on about? You can't even post "I crapped my pants and Bears fans suck" at Deadspin unless you went to boarding school at St. Grigsby-in-the-Meadow's Academy for Molested Boys. They're our priestly class.

[monkeypower]

So it turns out this whole thing might have been a stunt because Addison posted she got fired and then some dude from something called Front Office Sports said they reached out to a source who said she was never employed by UFC.

 

This is the dumbest thing ever and an insane overreaction. Big-J journalists got to protect the industry or whatever.

 

 

 

[Red Comet]

8 minutes ago, the admiral said:

The hell are you on about? You can't even post "I crapped my pants and Bears fans suck" at Deadspin unless you went to boarding school at St. Grigsby-in-the-Meadow's Academy for Molested Boys. They're our priestly class.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a culture of telling common people to shut up (you know, instead of ignoring or mocking them) if they don’t have a PhD in some particular issue emerged around the same time journalism became a prestige career. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

9 minutes ago, the admiral said:

The hell are you on about? You can't even post "I crapped my pants and Bears fans suck" at Deadspin unless you went to boarding school at St. Grigsby-in-the-Meadow's Academy for Molested Boys. They're our priestly class.

 

I think it's a reactionary "fake news" take than anything else.

 

And the problem is that there are tons of very talented and wonderful journalists...but they're concentrated in DC, NYC and, I don't know, LA. That's it. We need good journalists in Omaha and Cleveland and Fayetteville and Springfield (pick one) and all places in between. But because all of our newspapers and radio stations are owned by like three dudes, there's no incentive to fully fund an informed populace. And given who owns that media, the reverse is true.

[The_Admiral]

2 minutes ago, monkeypower said:

So it turns out this whole thing might have been a stunt because Addison posted she got fired and then some dude from something called Front Office Sports said they reached out to a source who said she was never employed by UFC.

 

This is the dumbest thing ever and an insane overreaction. Big-J journalists got to protect the industry or whatever.

 

Looks like heckin credentialrinos are safe...for now

 

[The_Admiral]

If this girl really just posed in front of a UFC backdrop, made a joke about being a reporter, and in doing so gave the entire media sphere a collective meltdown because she isn't Good At School, then you know what, good for her, I always respect great trolling.

[who do you think]

I googled Addison Rae hoping she was a porn star or something... nope, just some Chanel West Coast knock off with a brother named Enzo.

 

Also I caught ESPN with sound the other day for the first time in a while, more specifically Get Up, and I don't know how anyone tolerates it. Five solid minutes of commercials before Keyshawn Johnson started yelling at some Situation look-a-like about something to do with Odell Beckham. It was like PTI with substitute hosts on its worst day, x10.