New ESPN ombudsman

Former NYT SE LeAnne Schreiber (sorry if this is a D_B):

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070315/media_nm/espn_dc_1

 

out of sports journalism for 22 years?

penning memoirs?

can you say "creampuff"?

 

She put out a good section at the NYT, lively within the paper's overall constraints. She brought in Kenn Finkel as an assistant -- whatever you think of Kenn, you couldn't call that a "creampuff" hire.

 

What the hell does it matter?
Soloman(sp?), while a decent read, was pretty ineffective. He was a toothless dog for a pony show.
ESPN could hire Bill O'Reilly or Martha Stewart to be Ombudsman and it would have the same impact.
It won't change a DAMN thing ESPN does.

I thought Soloman did a good job, but I don't think ESPN changed any of its thinking, programming or advertising as a result of his work.
The same will be true with this hire and the next, and the next, and the next ...

 

Nothing will change, but it makes some people feel better. Enough said, eh?

 

Complete window dressing, to preserve the public illusion that ESPN has some kind of journalistic credibility. It doesn't.

Solomon's pieces started out being amusing, then became pathetic and finally pitiful, as he would fret and kvetch and wring his hands over ethical faux pas after ethical faux pas, and time after time after time, absolutely nothing was done.

 

Suits run the show. the quicker she learns that, the quicker she'll start healing her ulcer.

 

i'd say this is the definition of newspaper (or web site/mag/tv empire) ombudsman. name one that has ever had an impact on the institution it covers.

 

Let's be careful here. An ombudsman isn't an influential person by title. It's a liaison. The title comes with no teeth.
Calling George a creampuff is way out of line. George Solomon is anything but a creampuff, and one of the great Sports Editors of the last quarter century.
His name has to be mentioned with Dave Smith and Bill Dwyre.