Whitlock undresses ESPN

I read the first seven grafs and have yet to see a mention of ESPN or anything other than look at me and my Ball State Cardinals.
Typical JW self-serving bullshit. He might have a point somewhere but I'm not wasting my time waiting to get to it.

 

So let me get this straight --

Ball State tries just as hard as the other schools and should get just as much recognition.

Right?

 

I'll say this and I believe my attachments are well enough known that you can apply any pro-ESPN bias on my part.
Sports fans have never had it so good. Period.
If you want to watch it, listen to it, read about it or get live scores from it, you can.

 

Do I have to say it?

Glad it wasn't the other way around.

Now that's out of the way: Whitlock raises some interesting points, but I feel he's been running crusades for too long now. Sentences such as "ESPN is the enemy of the truth, and all who believe a pursuit of the truth is the lifeblood of a genuinely free society must stand against the Wal-Mart-ization of sports journalism" need to be backed up with a tad more substance than just the fact that Fowler dropped Ball State from his top 25.

ESPN's done a lot of bad things with the worst intentions, but seeing as the WWL is picking up a lot of talented writers and giving them time, resources and opportunities to deliver the latest "E-Ticket," I wouldn't go pointing fingers so harshly.

If Whitlock's been on Oprah (which he annoyingly mentions before he even gets to the point) he has the clout to arrange a chat with Le Anne Schreiber, Fowler and some reporters/producers outside of the ESPN circle. Maybe take a few minutes out of the days of Midwest scribes who have been covering Ball State and Nate Davis. When Whitlock hits the right notes, he's as good as anyone in the country, and this topic certainly had the potential to make a beautiful column.

What could be a scathing indictment of national sports journalism becomes a disgruntled rambling from a man with a Blackberry in the top row of Scheumann Stadium, which will serve as his ivory tower for today. That kind of journalism is killing what we do as much as ESPN. [/rant]

 

At least two BCS conference champions will not be as good as (and would probably lose to) Ball State this year.

Of course, the two in question are the Big East and ACC.

 

Jason, don't hate on Fowler just because he married one of the ladies of Bodyshaping.
On the other hand, if Fowler really did leave BSU off his top 25...that's just stupid.

 

ESPN "undressed." Not often a very pleasant mental image.

 

And, if you read the book on ESPN that was written several years ago, he supported the women who levied harassment charges against the network. Even when it involved Tirico, who he has worked with since.

Sounds to me like Chris is an up-and-up decent guy.

 

LeFevour is better than Davis. Davis isn't even the best player in the MAC West.

 

I know someone who has worked with him in some capacity at ESPN, and they would agree.

 

That read like a fanboi message board rant (though with better grammar).

 

I've met him. He is a nice guy.

Leaving Ball State out of his top 25 was idiotic. I'd love to hear his explanation, but there's no way it would be good enough.