LeBron James, Tim Tebow, Skip Bayless and the ESPN Sports Coverage Lifestyle

You most certainly have seen, read about, or heard about ESPN First Take's Skip Bayless. His highly critical and often exaggerated remarks about LeBron James have led to scrutiny of Bayless' journalistic skills. The same can be said about his constant praise of Tim Tebow throughout his tenure with the Denver Broncos and, now, the New York Jets.

Most people like to think of Bayless as someone who likes to make outrageous remarks just to spark up interest in the show.

This theory actually has some backing to it. First Take, which stars Bayless and, usually, Stephan A. Smith, is known for its head-to-head debates regarding sports' top news stories of the past day. While Smith attempts to use logic and facts, Bayless comes out with his usual "I'm standing by what I say even if I'm ever proven wrong," approach.

For ESPN, this is, in fact, the best possible way to strike up controversy regarding the topic while having Skip as their fall guy. Who really wants to watch a show where the debate turns into an "I agree with every point you just made," type of show? Those sorts of discussions can be made at your local bar with a group of friends.

Unfortunately for Bayless, with this style of "analysis"—if we can even call it that at this point—often frustrates and appalls fans of sports, even aspiring journalists, alike. Skip presents everything that is wrong with journalism with his viewpoints on the show: bullheaded, never being able to compromise or acknowledge when he's been proven wrong and constantly changing opinions depending on if his prediction was wrong.

While Skip has willingly shrugged off those who choose to challenge his views, it has not stopped fans of the show from voicing their outrage with the television personality. On numerous occasions—most notably after every NBA Finals game—his name has become a national trend on Twitter. No, he is not trending worldwide because fans love him; he trends because fans take to Twitter to bag on him harder than Bayless bags on LeBron's "lack of the clutch gene."

While Skip Bayless may be the most irritating face on sports television, he is exactly what ESPN needs to keep pushing the topics they want to push.

Here's where the conversation gets a little more interesting.

ESPN is, as their name likes to say, "The Worldwide Leader in Sports" and have been since their launch in 1979. They are the biggest sports news network in the world and often come under heavy scrutiny from viewers for bias reporting.

There are a number of players, and teams, many feel ESPN pushes harder than others on the airwaves. Some of the teams include: Duke Men's Basketball, New York Yankees, Mets, Giants and Jets, Los Angeles Lakers, New England Patriots and Boston Celtics. Several players that the network loves to push are: Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.

Of course, in the midst of all of these—trust me, there are plenty more—two names come up more often than any other on the network. Obviously, I'm talking about Tim Tebow and LeBron James.

Since the day LeBron first suited up in the NBA, even when he was still in high school, ESPN made James out to be the biggest thing in basketball history. Not that he doesn't deserve some spotlight, but it has been dramatically overdone in the past nine years.

One of the biggest parts in this criticism came with "The Decision." Unless you've never paid attention to James, you know what that was about, so no need to explain it again. While some people like to blame LeBron for that horrific showing, we must not forget that it was ESPN that aired the one-hour special. No other network would touch such a public relations nightmare, but ESPN did.

Their coverage didn't stop there, unfortunately. Miami became the premium NBA team the network loved to promote. Whether it be on their televised game or a simple discussion with analysts, the Heat always were the headline.

After LeBron and the Heat won the NBA Championship last Thursday, the LeBron coverage only skyrocketed in terms of exposure. Normally, ESPN would move onto the MLB, golf or even Euro coverage. Except, because it was James and the Heat that were champions instead of another team, they have yet to stop talking about him. Just Monday night, they ran a half-hour special with Bayless and the First Take crew and their only topic of discussion was, you guessed it, LeBron James and the Miami Heat.

For ESPN. having Bayless constantly rip James gives them an opportunity to continue discussing him. Bayless gives the network an opportunity to push his name regardless of what has happened.

The same case can be made for Tim Tebow, a darling of all media with Bayless, of course, being his biggest fanboy.

Tebow is one of the most popular sports figures in recent history. Whether it's because you love or hate him, Tebow's name cannot be mentioned without a debate being brought about. This is where ESPN loves to utilize their exposure to push his name around, even when football is nowhere near playing regular games.

Because of their love of Tebow, ESPN will spark "debates" on him no matter what the circumstances. Nearly a month ago, Tebow threw two interceptions during seven-on-seven, non-contact drills with the New York Jets. That day on Sportscenter, they brought the debate on if this meant Tebow really should be the starting quarterback.

Yes, they somehow found a way to make non-important drills suddenly interesting by saying, because of Tebow's  interceptions in offseason workouts, they thought it was, somehow, newsworthy.

Are you kidding me? Really?

It's these kind of non-stories turned into stories that make people loath ESPN. Tebow was never in the discussion for starting quarterback anyway. Then, he throws some bad balls and now they question if he should be the starter? The thought of this discussion is utterly ridiculous.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. The next day on First Take, Bayless would defend Tebow on how he will be the starter for the Jets. A few weeks later, after all the NBA Finals coverage had died down and LeBron was no longer the main story, the question was raised, "Does Tim Tebow make the Jets a Super Bowl contender?"

Last time I checked the calendar, it was still June, not August. Why is this even a legitimate topic for discussion? Better yet, why does Tebow, the essential back-up quarterback, make the Jets a sudden favorite to win the Super Bowl?

The simple answer, is because ESPN wants us to focus on the players, and teams, they want to push. Tebow and LeBron are just the two biggest pawns in the overall scheme that is ESPN's favorites, and Skip Bayless is in the middle of it all.

Unfortunately, there is really no way to stop the highest sports power on television from doing this. They have the power to do, show, and push whoever and whatever they want.

Unless we can somehow get "analyst" and essential ESPN troll Bayless off of television, this will never stop. All we can do is sit back and turn the channel whenever these non-topics suddenly become discussions.

ESPN runs the world of sports. Skip Bayless is just their puppet whom they choose to use to their advantage. We may never be able to recover from this black eye of sports journalism again.