1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

ESPN ombudsman takes WWL to task on Vick coverge...

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by hondo, Sep 12, 2007.

  1. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    ... specifically on the WWL's stubborn insistence for nearly 10 hours on sticking by its "scoop" that Vick would plead guilty, but not admit to killing dogs, which proved not only wrong, but wrong for a long time, since Vick had signed a summary of facts admission three days before.

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=3009796

    Then, you gotta love her following take:

    "Why had it been so hard for so many anchors and so many producers to understand Vick's guilty plea? I am personally convinced that if ESPN had never been spun by its own scoop, the news of Vick's written plea and summary of facts would have been presented all day long in a far more lucid and straightforward manner. Intentionally or not, both producers and anchors got fixated on a few euphemistic circumlocutions in the documents that salvaged a slight shred of credibility for the previous night's scoop."

    "The scoop was seriously misleading, if not dead wrong, which is always the risk one takes with a single anonymous source, especially when the source has a vested interest in how the news is presented. And when such a risk is taken, it is important to be as forthcoming about it as you can. I wish the original news story had described the source as "close to Vick's defense team," as I was later told he was, and not just "close to the case," so viewers and readers could surmise spin motives for themselves. I wish the story had carried a byline, not just a "told ESPN" tag, which makes everyone and no one at ESPN accountable for it."
     
  2. Hope she enjoys banging her head against a wall.
     
  3. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    Sounds like just what Mort did with the Eli Manning out for a month "scoop."
     
  4. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Must be liberating to know you only have to be right about half the time -- and the times you are right are when the crawler says "ESPN's Chris Mortenson has learned..." by reading the wire, along with everyone else.
     
  5. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    By essentially forcing Mort to keep jumping through smaller and smaller eyes of needles, they're not being fair to Mort, but this is the business they've chosen . . .
     
  6. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    It reached the point long ago that if "ESPN is reporting" that I'm skeptical of putting it in the paper.
     
  7. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    Nothing will change. Wait, scratch that -- it will only get worse, in spite of ombudslady.
     
  8. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    I don't doubt that. I just got a vicarious thrill to see it written down, on their web site...not that any of those humps would even read it.
     
  9. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    It's a perfect situation . . . she REALLY gets it, and they couldn't care less.

    Make her over/under 1/1/08.
     
  10. ondeadline

    ondeadline Well-Known Member

    [blue]Why does ESPN care about what radio station WWL does?
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page