ESPN sucks

[Spartan23MSU]

Its expected, a majority of the media outlets love to B10 bash. At the cost of sounding like a victim I rarely hear the same bashing going on for any other conference, especially when its a down year. I suppose were held to an unfair standard of sorts.

The Big Ten bashing is not a uniquely ESPN thing. For whatever reason anytime a few Big Ten teams take some losses in close succession it makes news. I never see any "bad weekend for the ACC" headlines whenever their teams all lose out in their annual rivalry games with the SEC, which is pretty much every year.

All the media outlets' obsession with all things football is what is tiresome to me. How ironic that ultimately what it took to get the Ray Rice story out of the headlines was the Adrian Peterson story. Between those things and the usual tired arguments with college football (this team's overrated, that team hasn't played anyone, this conference sucks, etc), I've barely watched any football so far this fall, other than if I had a half hour to kill on a weekend here and there and have avoided the highlight shows, talking heads, etc. As it turns out I don't miss it all that much so far.

And I would agree it's more an indictment of society at large. News channels and shows talk about the things they think the masses are interested in and will get them talking. It's always been that way in sports and/or otherwise.

 

[MSUMatt28]

I guess it can work both ways. I remember some saying last year after we won the Rose Bowl how it was such a big win for the Big Ten. Teams can't really exist on their own anymore. They're always judged based on the company they keep. That kind of shallow analysis is what gets a 1-loss SEC team into the final every year, even when there are other deserving candidates.

 

[TheVictors]

Who said anything about the ESPN "personalities" anywhere? ESPN "personalities" are interchangeable dorks who went to Syracuse to become the "next Brent Musberger" and former athletes, some of whom appear on the network based purely on looks.

It's about the production and content, not the knobs who deliver it, and the content is driven by folks who were hired out of cable news to re-invent the "mothership." So instead of having varied programming that included different formats and ...no shit, LIVE SPORTS once in a while, ESPN has become just like FoxNews and MSNBC in its formula ...

Take a handful of topics and bludgeon the shit out of them all day long. No more programming dedicated to "golf" for 30-60 minutes and no more "baseball" shows that cover MLB for an hour ...no, now it's NFLAnything, LeBron James, Sawks/Yanks, LeBron James and even Tim Tebow still once in a while, all fucking day long.

The journalists who left the network all began in print or at least had a background before ESPN and are being replaced with "personalities" who look good on TV and who can be told to weave LeBron James into a College Football Live broadcast as was the case last week during College Football Live. What the fuck does LeBron James have to do with Alabama football? Absolutely nothing. But ESPN thinks you should care about LeBron James so that when they talk about him ad nauseum, you feel it's important news to hear.

... And hear all day long. All day long. I mean, who can't wait until the late afternoon to hear what Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon have to say about the five chosen topics of the day? Shit, if you made a drinking game based solely on mentions of LeBron James, you'd be hammered by lunch time and passed out by four o'clock.

The pro-SEC crap is borne of resentment because of the BTN and the narrative once again follows the model set forth by cable news. Create the Echo Chamber on the network to sell the "SEC dominance" and reinforce those predisposed to believe the SEC is so dominant by telling them that and you get loyalty. Buy a guy like Paul Finebaum away from the competition - if there ever was a guy made for radio and not TV - and then launch the SEC Network ...

It's all pandering and bullshit and I think it's great to see so many alternatives to ESPN popping up. Anyone can sit and watch SportsCenter for the "big plays" or to see scores of games if you haven't already just checked your phone, and the game broadcasts from a technological standpoint are great.

If you're on Twitter, I would suggest you follow @ESPNHatersUnite to see just how many mistakes and utterly asinine things appear on the network. And before boogerboy gets his panties in a wad as he did last time this topic came up on the Michigan board, it's fun to mock ESPN for what it has become. This is not a serious issue and nobody that is critical of ESPNsucks needs to "seek anger management."

LOL

 

[Michchamp]

My coworker's wife was a production assistant at ESPN for a couple years. Most of the dorks and former jocks that make up the network's "talent" are terrible people as well... off the camera for sure, and sometimes even on it.

the former jocks all still had that athlete's sense of entitlement going strong, and the dorks adopted that persona once they got to Bristol to try to keep up with them.

 

[Spartanmack]

Who said anything about the ESPN "personalities" anywhere? ESPN "personalities" are interchangeable dorks who went to Syracuse to become the "next Brent Musberger" and former athletes, some of whom appear on the network based purely on looks.

It's about the production and content, not the knobs who deliver it, and the content is driven by folks who were hired out of cable news to re-invent the "mothership." So instead of having varied programming that included different formats and ...no shit, LIVE SPORTS once in a while, ESPN has become just like FoxNews and MSNBC in its formula ...

Take a handful of topics and bludgeon the shit out of them all day long. No more programming dedicated to "golf" for 30-60 minutes and no more "baseball" shows that cover MLB for an hour ...no, now it's NFLAnything, LeBron James, Sawks/Yanks, LeBron James and even Tim Tebow still once in a while, all fucking day long.

The journalists who left the network all began in print or at least had a background before ESPN and are being replaced with "personalities" who look good on TV and who can be told to weave LeBron James into a College Football Live broadcast as was the case last week during College Football Live. What the fuck does LeBron James have to do with Alabama football? Absolutely nothing. But ESPN thinks you should care about LeBron James so that when they talk about him ad nauseum, you feel it's important news to hear.

... And hear all day long. All day long. I mean, who can't wait until the late afternoon to hear what Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon have to say about the five chosen topics of the day? Shit, if you made a drinking game based solely on mentions of LeBron James, you'd be hammered by lunch time and passed out by four o'clock.

The pro-SEC crap is borne of resentment because of the BTN and the narrative once again follows the model set forth by cable news. Create the Echo Chamber on the network to sell the "SEC dominance" and reinforce those predisposed to believe the SEC is so dominant by telling them that and you get loyalty. Buy a guy like Paul Finebaum away from the competition - if there ever was a guy made for radio and not TV - and then launch the SEC Network ...

It's all pandering and bullshit and I think it's great to see so many alternatives to ESPN popping up. Anyone can sit and watch SportsCenter for the "big plays" or to see scores of games if you haven't already just checked your phone, and the game broadcasts from a technological standpoint are great.

If you're on Twitter, I would suggest you follow @ESPNHatersUnite to see just how many mistakes and utterly asinine things appear on the network. And before boogerboy gets his panties in a wad as he did last time this topic came up on the Michigan board, it's fun to mock ESPN for what it has become. This is not a serious issue and nobody that is critical of ESPNsucks needs to "seek anger management."

LOL

This is perfect - a more detailed and clearly extremely angry (just kidding) version of what I was saying earlier about how they pick what you're supposed to care about and how your're supposed to care about it and then never shut the fuck up about it.

I miss the days when ESPN ran NASCAR reruns on weekdays and Aussie rules football at night! Now there's like 5 of them and they all beat the same story to death all day long.

As far as personalities go - just think, if they could have kept half the talent they lost maybe they could have fired Stuart Scott years ago. That dude must have naked pictures of Eisner and Iger w/ farm animals or something...

 

[Spartan23MSU]

#ESPNsucks

Clearly motivated by scorn towards the BTN but notice how the talent at the network has fled like rats from a ship. ESPN is stupid. MTV, stupid.

Im with you here, the original business model that made both stations great (ESPN and MTV) is out the window. ESPN should now be "MESPN", M standing for "Mostly".

Ive enjoyed the 30/30 series but there are some nights during Saturday or Sunday they show some or none of the baseball highlights?? Ill watch a repeat thinking I missed them if I left the room for a few minutes.

Not only focusing on Lebron and the SEC but SCANDALS!! ESPN is peppered with scandals, poor reporting and lack of Sports Coverage. :bat: