The latest from ESPN's ombudsman

On the air, Cowherd didn't apologize but did admit he was wrong.

 

I would agree about the change in Cowherd. He's gone from witty straight-shooter to a-hole, which really has coincided apparently with the breaking down of his personal life.

I like how she publishes infrequently, but takes hits at several parts of ESPN in one swoop. It's equivalent to a boxer hitting at the stomach for eight rounds, then moving in with hard jabs.

 

I never even knew about these columns.
I've always had a trouble with the way ESPN conducts business. This is just great to read.

 

But give Herbie some credit. He admitted his mistake and said he's not going to try to break stories anymore. At least he acknowledges that he's not a journalist.

 

But if Miles ultimately winds up in Ann Arbor, then was Herbstreit wrong?

 

Well, if your aunt had balls, then your assumption about her being your uncle would be right.

Anyhoo, no, you don't go on only one source if you don't have the chops to know the reliability.

 

Thought this was the most interesting passage in her excellent column:

All we know for sure is that ESPN's reputation as a reliable source of "scoops" has taken another blow. When viewers respond to the phrase "a source has told ESPN" with a "we'll see" attitude, as many who write me say they now do, it undermines the efforts of ESPN's entire staff of producers, editors and reporters.

It sounds as if the problem is much bigger than I thought.

 

I think my turn-off point began when he used his audience to crash that guy's Web site.

No offense, but fuck him for doing that. Shit's uncalled for.

 

I hate the use of a single anonymous source to break a story and ESPN seems to make a science of doing that.

 

If you did a tight, well-produced, factually correct half hour show when the news breaks, what's so wrong with re-racking the show and airing it again? Sure, you let everybody know early and often this was the special that aired when the news broke at X:XX time. Cover up your live bugs, and you're good to go.

You know better than anybody, PC, that staying on the air that long strains not only the talent, reporters, etc., but it strains the hell out of the line producers. They could be working on their next tight, half hour, factually correct show... But instead they're sitting in the pit scrambling to stay on the air in hour 3.

Re-rack, baby.

 

That's a very good point. If I'm line producing that beast I'm ready to kill someone by hour two.

 

I think you may see a whole column on Cowherd eventually.

It's a troubling, depressing show. Very few guests, a host mired in a mid-life identity crisis, an insistence on comparing sports to attracting "hot girls"…its main demographic seems to be a cross of Frank "TJ" Mackey and Gordon Gekko.