MLB to ESPN: Drop dead

[BYH]

I doubt anyone on SportsCenter's staff beyond the top rungs knew about the all-star embargo.

I disagree. [size=16pt]MLB YELLED IN REALLY BIG BOLD LETTERS ON THE PRESS RELEASES THAT THIS INFORMATION HAD TO BE EMBARAGOED UNTIL THE END OF THE TBS SHOW. Anyone who got the release(s) knew no one except TBS could release the info until the end of that silly ass show. If PR directors throughout the land were checking their watches and reminding folks the TBS exclusive was still alive, then ESPN has no excuse for not doing the same.

Again: I'm glad MLB is putting the screws to ESPN here. Because if this were Joe Blow releasing the info--even accidentally because the damn Braves-Marlins game went eight hours too long--it certainly would yank his credentials..

 

[wickedwritah]

They probably pulled it off the wire.

 

[shotglass]

Speaking of the wire, I'm really kind of amazed and ticked that AP has not chosen to address this. At all.

 

[markvid]

Address which part of it?

 

[shotglass]

Just the fact that ESPN has been banned from the site. I would think that's worth a story.

 

[markvid]

Honestly, does anyone outside the media care?

 

[shotglass]

I'm as big as anyone on us not being the story, but yeah, I think this is eye-popping enough. I know I'd certainly make a point of getting it into our daily notes package.

 

[markvid]

True enough.

 

[CitizenTino]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-all-stars-espn&prov=ap&type=lgns

There's your AP story.

I don't know how the logistics of satellites and broadcast feeds work, but would it be possible for ESPN to just broadcast their Baseball Tonight show from somewhere else in San Francisco, away from the stadium?

 

[wickedwritah]

So AP effed up, too. Had a feeling all along that's what happened.

ESPN reported the NL starters, including San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds, before the show on TBS aired, using a vote list mistakenly released on The Associated Press wire. The AP sent an advisory after that transmission, saying the list was embargoed until after the TBS show.

ESPN also revealed the entire rosters shortly after they were announced on TBS but before the end of the TBS show in violation of baseball's embargo.

 

[markvid]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-all-stars-espn&prov=ap&type=lgns

There's your AP story.

I don't know how the logistics of satellites and broadcast feeds work, but would it be possible for ESPN to just broadcast their Baseball Tonight show from somewhere else in San Francisco, away from the stadium?

It's easily done, but MLB controls that, too, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[shotglass]

And really, if you could do that and did, wouldn't you just be escalating the war? Maybe ESPN just wants to take its medicine and move on.

 

[Left_Coast]

So AP effed up, too. Had a feeling all along that's what happened.

ESPN reported the NL starters, including San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds, before the show on TBS aired, using a vote list mistakenly released on The Associated Press wire. The AP sent an advisory after that transmission, saying the list was embargoed until after the TBS show.

ESPN also revealed the entire rosters shortly after they were announced on TBS but before the end of the TBS show in violation of baseball's embargo.

At least they didn't release the phone numbers of the players who made the team.

 

[Lugnuts]

This incident has parallels to the "CWS Live Blogging" brouhaha.

I was working that Sunday and noticed AP released the NL team early. I figured somebody over at AP got an itchy trigger finger, and that's exactly what happened. It was a mistake. I can understand MLB being ticked about ESPN and NBC pouncing on the mistake.

But attempting to enforce an embargo on information that's already "out there"? It's one thing to embargo video, but public information?? In the internet age?? It's naive and laughable.

So, every blog on the web could publish and discuss the All-Star rosters after TBS revealed them, but ESPN couldn't talk about them? C'mon.

It would be funny if ESPN replaced its planned All-Star crap with wall-to-wall coverage of the NFL supplemental draft. ;D

 

[dooley_womack1]

Or the rock-paper-scissors supplemental draft.

 

[markvid]

Or, just maybe, they might think of starting to televise poker.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Or they could fill the time with a show with a bunch of talking heads spewing rhetoric to score literal points. That could work.

 

[Songbird]

Dooley, Dooley, I think you're making reference to the best show on ESPN.

If so, well done, Sir.

 

[Left_Coast]

New York Times story:

“We understood that it was an embargo through the end of show, but we considered that impractical and really unfair in terms of its enforceability,” said Len DeLuca, an ESPN senior vice
president. He said nothing was signed but added, “We were very clear about what we would do.”

And

DeLuca said that ESPN behaved no differently than it did when it revealed the NCAA men’s basketball tournament brackets shortly after CBS did; he insisted that ESPN expected news media outlets to quickly report the draft picks announced on its broadcasts of the
NFL and NBA drafts.
“Can you imagine if we told everybody, ‘You have to hold off your reports until the end of the first round of the NBA draft’?” DeLuca said.

Also

DeLuca suggested that ESPN was an easy target because it is so big and wondered aloud how many other outlets used All-Star rosters that were erroneously distributed by The Associated Press in violation of the TBS embargo.

 

[shotglass]

DeLuca suggested that ESPN was an easy target because it is so big and wondered aloud how many other outlets used All-Star rosters that were erroneously distributed by The Associated Press in violation of the TBS embargo.

DeLuca's just being cute there. He knows damn well that very few outlets had the opportunity, with their time frame, to do that. But he knew nobody would bother to call him on it.