AND THE WINNER ISN’T ...
ESPN Emmys scandal a hallmark of shadiness
IT’S ALL a con, continued: Bernie Madoff, the Guinness Book of Records Ponzi operator, had a rule that, for subscribers to the too-good-to-be-true dictum, served as a red flag:
The rule: You’re not allowed to ask questions. Just give him as much cash as you can gather, then sit back and reap the totally unqualified and beyond-belief interest on your investment as per an earnings report provided by the accounting firm of Null & Void.
Thus last week’s tale of ESPN, the self-destructive Disney sports network, winning sports Emmys for 13 years based on submitting fabricated names came as a shock — only in that it took so long to have its cover blown off. After all, once a secret is shared — and this con had to be shared by plenty — it’s no longer a secret.
Consider the path this couldn’t-end-well scam traveled, from the submission of phony names of imagined production staffers to those assigned to scratch off those fabricated from the statuettes and replace them with on-air talent, nearly 40 of them, from Kirk Herbstreit to Desmond Howard.
None even knew they’d been nominated? None asked for exactly what they’d been nominated or who they beat out to win? NATAS, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, took ESPN’s word for it for 13 years, never even slightly curious as to who all those nonexistent production folks are? Never even asked for a bio, even if it was bogus?
Or weren’t you allowed to ask questions?
Naturally, and presumably transparently, ESPN’s oblivious hierarchy was caught totally unaware — until the day last week when ESPN was caught at something it had little chance to contain. Heck, 13 years of bogus acclaim and purloined honor is a pretty good run, thus a damned good try.
The sports Emmys have always reeked of insider trading in service to egos that don’t much care if the flattery is sincere or based on a lie.
Years ago, an NBC Sports junior executive confessed that, as a sports Emmys judge of live programming, his bosses instructed him on how to vote:
Vote NBC’s entry for first place. Next, vote what struck him as the best competing production for last. Then the most unworthy nominees second, third and so on. Imagine grown men and women in authoritative positions playing such a silly and shameless game.
Then again, NBC spent last week excitedly telling us how fortunate we are that Saturday night’s Dolphins-Chiefs playoff game can only be seen behind an NBC paywall. Hooray for us! Bernie Madoff lives!