Internal critique of ESPN

[Mr. Scot]

Here: ESPN guilty of the teller becoming the tale

The highlights:

Chris Mortensen reported a rumor about a possible sale of the Raiders without actually contacting the Raiders for info. Asked to explain himself after a heated denial from Raiders leadership, Mortensen stated that the Raiders had "lost the privilege with me of running stories past them for comment".

(really Chris? talking to you is a privilege? you're so good you can report whatever you want without fact-checking? wow)

Mortensen later apologized, but still...

The article also examines the whole Ed Werder/Stephen A Smith flap over Terrell Owens. The writer takes Stephen A Smith to task for being "soft" with Owens and indicates that his desire to be more sympathetic to guys who are locker room cancers gets him plenty of TV time but makes him untrustworthy as a reporter.

(we had largely the same view of Smith's article here, especially the part where he tried to intimate that all this stuff happened because Tony Romo and Jason Witten were closet racists)

The writer also talks about Cris Carter's on air suggestion that he's shoot Terrell Owens if he were the Cowboys coach and the announcer swap between the college and pro basketball teams.

Long, but a pretty good read.

[Mr. Scot]

Saw ESPN First Take today. Pretty clear "Screamin' Stephen' has been stung by the criticism that he isn't a real journalist, which likely means the writer isn't the only one at ESPN who's saying it.

In his debate with Skip Bayless, Bayless referenced the charges that he's acted as a mouthpiece for a--hole players. Smith alternated between acting like a rabid dog and a whipped puppy.

[Skew]

Do you get all your football news from PFT?

[L.A. Fanatic]

good I cant stand that dude

[Mr. Scot]

Do you get all your football news from PFT?

I tend to surf PFT, ESPN, SI and Sporting News for the national stuff. I check KFFL a lot in the offseason and lately I've been checking more into the National Football Post (Mike Lombardi's page).

I'm also subscribed to the print edition of Pro Football Weekly (print subscription grants you 'insider' access to their online stuff). And my weekday schedule is conducive to catching ESPN First Take fairly regularly.

Locally, Observer, Herald, Gazette (same as probably everybody else here).

[Fox007]

I think Stephen A is the racist, closet or not.

Same with Barkley.