ESPN Ombudsman on Mike Leach

[Steak Snabler]

Much stronger effort than his last. He actually takes the WWL to task a bit for fudging Craig James' role in the controversy:

In November, this column addressed the Steve Phillips affair and the fact ESPN was criticized for seeming to ignore, on its air, a messy sex scandal involving employees. Vince Doria, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, noted at the time that "stories involving us are angst-ridden, and we recognize that we don't always do our best work on them. Fortunately, they don't come along too often."

Well, two months later, there comes another big story involving an ESPN analyst [James]. Cover those stories too much, and it might appear self-serving. Cover them too little, and it's deemed a cover-up. That's the reality and the curse for ESPN.

Controversies lurk around every corner, and conflicts are troublesome for any company. Of course, they're particularly dangerous if a large part of your business relies on being perceived by an audience as factual, fair and credible.

As ESPN grows, so will the conflicts. All the policies in the world won't cover the potential scenarios. The company needs to develop a hypersensitivity to such developments. News decisions in these cases must not be resolved by asking "What's permissible for the employee?" but rather "What's fair to the audience?"

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=ohlmeyer_don&id=4844048

 

[The Big Ragu]

Well, as long as it didn't involve OJ, I say call yourself out!

 

[Ace]

I am interested in the issue but could not read that whole tome.

 

[LongTimeListener]

And yet now that Craig James' behavior well before the concussion incident is a central subject of the lawsuit, ESPN lets him get away with the "I'm not here to talk about the past" B.S. They could compel him, as an employee, to answer the questions about whether he called Leach and the assistants all season and told them Adam was the best receiver on the team. But they won't because they have no balls.

So that's how much the ombudsman column means. In case anyone didn't already know.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Y'know . . . the WWL could function quite well without Craig James.

 

[terrier]

He's trying to position himself as the uberconservative in the Texas Senate race. He probably believes Leach is a liberal.

 

[Boom_70]

Y'know . . . the WWL could function quite well without Craig James.

My bet is that Craig James will slowly fade away from Bristol.

 

[Bob Cook]

And yet now that Craig James' behavior well before the concussion incident is a central subject of the lawsuit, ESPN lets him get away with the "I'm not here to talk about the past" B.S. They could compel him, as an employee, to answer the questions about whether he called Leach and the assistants all season and told them Adam was the best receiver on the team. But they won't because they have no balls.

So that's how much the ombudsman column means. In case anyone didn't already know.

ESPN can't necessarily compel him to do this as an employee. But Mike Leach's lawyer can.

 

[playthrough]

Moving to journalism topics. I too thought it was a better effort than previous from Ohlmeyer.

 

[Matt1735]

Agreed. Very critical eye and not serving as a yes man or blind defender of all things four-letters.

 

[Boom_70]

Interesting note also at the end on GMAC bowl. It was a joke the way game was broadcast. I am not surprised that ESPN got complaints.

 

[clutchcargo]

You know, I wish somebody would really dig back into the SMU football scandals of the 1980s and see just how much Craig James, as well as his Pony Express teammate Eric Dickerson, were likely sliming their way through NCAA violations.

The SMU crap didn't really hit the fan until 1985-86, after those guys had left. I can assure you that as much as SMU got penalized, the likes of James and Dickerson got off pretty much scot-free. They had skated away 2-3 years earlier before things got really bad.

I just don't think James has ever been fully scrutinized and held personally accountable, and it would be interesting to see what the likes of TMZ could dig up---James et al got away before the posse caught up with the Ponies. Then-AD Bob Hitch and Gov. (and SMU board member) Clements were among the main evildoers, but there were a number of SMU players blatantly flaunting their ill-gotten gains, and I"d be interested to see how deep James's hand was into the till.

What do you say, Craig? Let's hear you come clean, and I don't mean Mark McGwire "clean."

 

[slappy4428]

Far, far better than his first effort... took WWL to task when and why it should have....

 

[Football_Bat]

More is forthcoming on Herr James as Leach's discovery process works. Let's just say Kay Bailey isn't losing sleep.

 

[fishhack2009]

In the end, this sad saga will just fatten a bunch of lawyers' bank accounts and prove to us what we already knew: That Craig James and Mike Leach are douchebags.

Is Leach stupid, arrogant or some lethal combination of the two? I have a feeling Texas Tech has a pile of dirt just waiting to be unleashed. My instincts tell me that no program's going to want to touch him with a Geiger counter when this all shakes out.

 

[Ace]

I really don't understand the Craig James and son hatred. It's completely irrelevant to the way Leach treated the kid.

As a matter of fact, it highlights what a dimwit Leach is by picking on the kid when anyone could see that the **** was going to hit the fan over it.

Bottom line, if you work with, supervise or coach someone you think is a whiny, complaining brat who is going to run to their powerful daddy, that's someone you treat by the book so you protect your own butt.

Stupid Leach.

 

[Steak Snabler]

You know, I wish somebody would really dig back into the SMU football scandals of the 1980s and see just how much Craig James, as well as his Pony Express teammate Eric Dickerson, were likely sliming their way through NCAA violations.

The SMU crap didn't really hit the fan until 1985-86, after those guys had left. I can assure you that as much as SMU got penalized, the likes of James and Dickerson got off pretty much scot-free. They had skated away 2-3 years earlier before things got really bad.

I just don't think James has ever been fully scrutinized and held personally accountable, and it would be interesting to see what the likes of TMZ could dig up---James et al got away before the posse caught up with the Ponies. Then-AD Bob Hitch and Gov. (and SMU board member) Clements were among the main evildoers, but there were a number of SMU players blatantly flaunting their ill-gotten gains, and I"d be interested to see how deep James's hand was into the till.

What do you say, Craig? Let's hear you come clean, and I don't mean Mark McGwire "clean."

Actually, there's a documentary in the works about SMU and the death penalty:

http://tinyurl.com/ydz3fcc

As for the Pony Express, it's pretty well established that Dickerson was a long-time commitment to Oklahoma, that is, until he got a new Trans Am from a Texas A&M booster (Dickerson was from Sealy, Texas, about 40 miles west of Houston). He then got $20,000 from SMU, so he signed with them. He kept the A&M car, drove it to Dallas his entire college career, and beat the Aggies four straight years.

 

[Ace]

You know, I wish somebody would really dig back into the SMU football scandals of the 1980s and see just how much Craig James, as well as his Pony Express teammate Eric Dickerson, were likely sliming their way through NCAA violations.

The SMU crap didn't really hit the fan until 1985-86, after those guys had left. I can assure you that as much as SMU got penalized, the likes of James and Dickerson got off pretty much scot-free. They had skated away 2-3 years earlier before things got really bad.

I just don't think James has ever been fully scrutinized and held personally accountable, and it would be interesting to see what the likes of TMZ could dig up---James et al got away before the posse caught up with the Ponies. Then-AD Bob Hitch and Gov. (and SMU board member) Clements were among the main evildoers, but there were a number of SMU players blatantly flaunting their ill-gotten gains, and I"d be interested to see how deep James's hand was into the till.

What do you say, Craig? Let's hear you come clean, and I don't mean Mark McGwire "clean."

Actually, there's a documentary in the works about SMU and the death penalty:

http://tinyurl.com/ydz3fcc

As for the Pony Express, it's pretty well established that Dickerson was a long-time commitment to Oklahoma, that is, until he got a new Trans Am from a Texas A&M booster (Dickerson was from Sealy, Texas, about 40 miles west of Houston). He then got $20,000 from SMU, so he signed with them. He kept the A&M car, drove it to Dallas his entire college career, and beat the Aggies four straight years.

Yeah. I don't know that there was anyone in the state of Texas who didn't at least assume those two were paid off.

 

[Boom_70]

figure this is about the look that James was sporting at practice walking around field.

most likely would put most coaches over the edge -- specially for a kid that was a problem anyway.

Does not make Leach actions right but just sayin.

Best result would have been if he just apologized and moved on. Pride got in the way.