An Inside Look At The Ridiculous Hype Machine That ESPN Turned Itself Into

[listopencil]

I gave up on watching ESPN quite a while ago. I eventually abandoned cable and satellite TV all together, so it's not like I can wander by the channel and get hooked by a particular program. I do occasionally see a few minutes of ESPN at work in the break room. It typically confirms my opinion that ESPN is giant flaming pile of garbage.

Here's an interview with a guy that did radio work for them, Doug Gottlieb. It is referred to as an "exit interview" as he talks about his time with ESPN:

http://www.danpatrick.com/2012/10/03...ebow-coverage/

A few highlights:

I was told specifically, 'You can't talk enough Tebow.' I would jokingly throw it into a segment. 'I gotta find 15 seconds here to talk about Tebow, all right let's move on and talk about Major League Baseball.'

Is it ridiculous how much you have to talk about Tebow? Yeah! But for whatever reason people can't get enough of that story, and they kind of stoke the fire—that's kind of what ESPN does.

They've lost that credibility, a large portion of the credibility of covering news. I think that it's now: ‘What's trending?' Focus groups. You're trying to create things there. Bernie Fine story at Syracuse. Where's that? The New Orleans story with the Saints with Mickey Loomis? Where's that? Where are those stories? Those are big stories that you guys created. You were late on the Joe Paterno story. I think there's just a different mindset from what they're doing and how they're covering it. And they always fall back on ‘Well, Bob Ley covers the serious news stories.' SportsCenter should be covering sports, they should be covering the news. I think they created it with Tebow. And ESPN embarrassed themselves in spending a week out there at Jets camp.

[htismaqe]

It was pretty well-known that Gottlieb was unhappy at ESPN and as you can see, it was for good reason.

He's a regular on Soren Petro's show on 810, FWIW.

[Munson]

I stopped watching years ago. I couldn't stand the obsessions......Favre, Manning, Tebow, etc. They spend way too much time covering east coast teams, and hardly give any time to the Chiefs or Royals. And I hated all the stupid catch phrases from guys like Chris Berman, Stuart Scott, and everybody else.

[Brainiac]

ESPN is starting to give way too much time to the constant debates between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. Those things are starting to look staged.

[|Zach|]

The Dan Patrick show is really great. It is the only TV\Radio sports talk type stuff I tune into.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Munson

I stopped watching years ago. I couldn't stand the obsessions......Favre, Manning, Tebow, etc. They spend way too much time covering east coast teams, and hardly give any time to the Chiefs or Royals. And I hated all the stupid catch phrases from guys like Chris Berman, Stuart Scott, and everybody else.

Not that I disagree with you.

But you said, in the span of about 8 words, that they spent too much time on Favre (Green Bay), Manning (Indianapolis), and Tebow (Denver) while simultaneously saying they spent too much time talking about east coast teams.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

The Dan Patrick show is really great. It is the only TV\Radio sports talk type stuff I tune into.

There's a reason he left ESPN too.

[Sofa King]

I used to have espn on while i got ready for work... at least until it became a horrible sports TMZ knockoff.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Sofa King

I used to have espn on while i got ready for work... at least until it became a horrible sports TMZ knockoff.

I think that's a perfect description...

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Munson

I stopped watching years ago. I couldn't stand the obsessions......Favre, Manning, Tebow, etc. They spend way too much time covering east coast teams, and hardly give any time to the Chiefs or Royals. And I hated all the stupid catch phrases from guys like Chris Berman, Stuart Scott, and everybody else.

X2

I would rather they go back to their roots and cover sports like "Austrailian Rules Football."

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

ESPN is starting to give way too much time to the constant debates between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. Those things are starting to look staged.

I've always thought they were staged.

[Mi_chief_fan]

Originally Posted by Brainiac

ESPN is starting to give way too much time to the constant debates between Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. Those things are starting to look staged.

Very perceptive, because it is staged.

[qabbaan]

ESPN has turned itself into TMZ covering sports teams.

[PGM]

You know it's bad when a donkey is sick of Tebow and Manning's cock's shoved down the nation's throat

[qabbaan]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

The Dan Patrick show is really great. It is the only TV\Radio sports talk type stuff I tune into.

Yeah, I like him a lot too. He is like Bob Costas, no matter what the subject he always has an intelligent take that you want to listen to.