CONFIRMATION BIAS ESPN Kobe reporting latest example of self-promotion
THERE is nothing so broken within ESPN that couldn’t be fixed with a small, but well-aimed nuclear warhead. 1) Would ESPN conspicuously and shamelessly exploit the sudden, tragic death of Kobe Bryant for cheap, transparent self-promotion? Yes. And it did. 2) Would ESPN’s shameless, indecent exploitation of Bryant’s death at least be honest? No. And it wasn’t. Sunday, shortly after the world learned Bryant was killed, ESPN got to work doing what it does — worming in on the story to fabricate its first-with-the-most presence. ESPN posted these graphics:
“Breaking News: Kobe Bryant dies in helicopter crash at age 41. Reports: Lakers legend dies at 41, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (1st reported by TMZ).”
So what did ESPN and Wojnarowski have to do with it? Nothing. It was just another unconscionable ESPN sell of ESPN to an audience it believes too dim to know better.
ESPN’s online reporting of Bryant’s death was no more credible: “Sources have confirmed to ESPN’s Wojnarowski” that Bryant is dead.
But this is what ESPN has become. And, like a box of assorted rancid chocolates, much to choose from.
Sunday I chronicled how ESPN, starting three years ago, destroyed an innocent man’s TV career for calling Venus Williams a “gorilla” when every right-minded soul knows he did nothing of the sort — he’d complimented her successful “guerilla” tactics.
Then ESPN, to avoid a wrongful termination suit it would almost certainly lose, rehired tennis analyst Doug Adler, with the promise that his ESPN assignments, including the Australian Open and Wimbledon, would be restored.
Instead, ESPN placed him on its persona non grata shelf, so he could further feel the pain of ESPN’s dishonest persecution and prosecution.
Last week, ESPN distributed a news release giving the reactions of its MLB analysts and hosts to the Astros’ cheating scandal. Among others we heard from Eduardo Perez, Mark Teixeira and Tim Kurkjian. Guess whose take was missing? Correct, that of ESPN’s No. 1 game analyst, Alex Rodriguez.
That ESPN chose to hire one of the most notorious drug-cheats in sports history remains sickening, so bereft of good faith that Rodriguez is excused from answering such questions and addressing such a cataclysmic baseball issue. But that’s ESPN. ESPN even toys with history to suit its sells. For years it found any excuse to air its “Bobby Knight Goes Berserk” reel. But after ESPN hired Knight, that disappeared from view.
It returned only after Knight left the network.
ESPN has violated minimum standards of honest broadcast journalism, so much so that it paid Barry Bonds for exclusive access and allowed his “people” to approve the scripts of reports as the drug-cheat approached Hank Aaron’s career home run record.
But that’s ESPN. And its shamelessly forced, dishonest sell of itself as attached to the shocking death of Kobe Bryant is more disturbing than surprising.