ESPN: An Example of How Not to Cover News

I know it's a fashionable to bash ESPN, but there is a reason why the Worldwide Leader gets so much crap.

They aren't good journalists.

Despite their forays into "hard-hitting" journalism such as Outside the Lines and E:60, they often botch it in ways that the mainstream media would never get away with.

Upon getting home from work yesterday, I flipped on the TV to SportsCenter, just in case anything had happened during the half-hour commute from my office computer to my house.

The two biggest news items Monday afternoon? Shaquille O'Neal's rap about Kobe and Don Imus' remarks about Pacman Jones.

While those items might be worth a cursory glance to sports fans, it was the way they were covered that made me stop and marvel at the bad journalism.

(A side note: the Shaq rap article did not come from the AP—which most of their stories do—so there is absolutely no excuse for this shoddiness.)

The article breaks down the rap by verse, immediately connecting it to the real life controversies that were beaten to death four years ago, as if any basketball fan didn't know about the Shaq-Kobe feud and the Kobe rape allegations.

Then they use Shaq's quote to Stephen A. Smith, which is where the whole article falls apart.

"I was freestyling. That's all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. That is what MC's do. They freestyle when called upon. I'm totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. And by the way, don't forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don't make something out of nothing."

Does that sound like Shaq knew exactly what kind of storm ESPN would make out of this? He told it to an ESPN personality.

One of the primary rules of journalism is that you let the quotes tell the story. The reporter provides fact and background, but you're supposed to let the quotes tell the story from the point of view of all involved.

So what follows the above quote about how Shaq says it was a harmless rap?

"O'Neal and Bryant do have a history of feuding, however, which started even before the Lakers split them up."

The assumption that ESPN is creating is, "Even though Shaq said its no big deal, we think he's lying because it helps us sell ads when we bring this issue up again."

As if there's not enough going in sports, ESPN has to fan the flames of controversy, and instead of coverage going to the Olympic trials, the College World Series, Wimbledon, MLB, or golf, we get to hear ESPN resurrect the Shaq-Kobe feud.

Now on to the Don Imus thing.

First of all, how stupid is Don Imus? After all the trouble he got in over the Rutgers fiasco, you would think that he wouldn't touch any racial humor with a 10-foot pole.

What's funny is that on the broadcast, his news guy hears the "What color is he?" comment, and you can tell he is seeing their career down the toilet all over again. He starts to stutter, "wh-wh---What?"

But the issue I have with ESPN coverage is this: not only did Imus and Shaq dominate the lower-screen ticker last night during the Red Sox-Diamondbacks game, but ESPN felt compelled to write Imus' comments, and then concluded with the sentence, "Don Imus has nothing to do with either ABC or ESPN."

How cowardly is that? Not only are they dousing the flames with gasoline, but they go out of their way to say that they have nothing to do with it.

That's like me going to the cops and saying, "I saw this guy robbing a bank, but I am in no way affiliated with him."

It seems too defensive on their part. Almost like Obama reacting to Bush's appeasement comments as if he had been personally called out.

It just seems that ESPN is increasingly engaging in cowardly and sensationalistic journalism, and for an outfit that's trying to prove their journalistic credibility, it's unacceptable.