Recently, the dude who runs the Big Lead wondered aloud whether our looming partnership with NBC will prompt the peacock peeps to “egg [me] on” to bash competitors, like ESPN.
For starters, more than a few of the folks at ESPN would think that I need no egging.
At a deeper level, and as we’ve said multiple times already, nothing will change here.
So with or without the NBC deal, we’d be posting this one — even though it languished for a little while in our e-mail.
On March 15, Lee Ann Schreiber signed off as ESPN’s ombudsman. More than three months later, there’s no replacement.
A reader pointed that fact out to us earlier this month. On June 9, ESPN spokesman Bill Hofheimer confirmed that no new ombudsman had been hired. Hofheimer told me that the “[p]rocess is ongoing” but that it is “pretty far along.”
Last time around, there was no lag. George Solomon ended his tenure on March 28, 2007, and he handed the baton to Schreiber in his final column. She began a two-year term on April 1 of that year, so it’s not as if her departure caught the network unprepared.
Regardless of the reason for the absence of a replacement, ESPN knew for two years that Schreiber would be leaving, and yet ESPN didn’t have someone lined up to take her place when she left — or for more than three months thereafter.
It’s a surprising turn of events, especially since we firmly believe that ESPN needs more, not less, oversight of its various platforms and personalities. We’ve previously argued for a full-time, real-time ombudsman to keep the talent and the producers honest not simply with a once-a-month review of the most egregious gaffes, but on an as-needed basis.
If nothing else, the existence of such a function might provide valuable deterrence.
Instead, ESPN has gone the other way — and for more than a quarter of a year this function has disappeared.
Maybe ESPN has decided that the blogosphere serves as a sufficient external watchdog. But we in the basement-and-boxer-shorts carry far less weight than a seasoned newspaper person who has the ability to identify potential problems, flesh them out, and articulate the situation in a thought-provoking manner.
It’s not as if a few of them aren’t looking for work.
No New Ombudsman For ESPN, Yet
Posted by Mike Florio on June 20, 2009, 11:07 PM EST
17 Responses to “No New Ombudsman For ESPN, Yet”
ESPN long ago became a rag sheet. Drama Queen Chris Mortenson is particularly an embarrassment. They decided they no longer wanted an ombudsman after Schreiber called them out on their incessant over the top one sided 24/7 and repetitive reporting on the video taping conflict between the Jets and Patriots. ESPN is an outfit that doesn’t just report the news, they editorialize it, and they subscribe to the “anything that sells” mantra of pop celebrity “reporting.” I stopped watching them and visiting their web site 2 years ago. I go to Fox Sports and smaller sites like this to keep up with the news in a more tasteful manor.
NIce football story.
Amen. ESPN seems to want to concern itself more with popular culture and recycled than hard hitting, important news stories.
About time someone called them out.
NBC sucks.
@JaredAllen69: After July 1, that will never get posted.
ESPN doesn’t listen and does not care.
Remember when MTV was about music and ESPN was about sports? WTF happened?
As for the TV version, they have become a bunch of gossip mongering, pop culture whores who when pressed to actually report the news, refuse to do so in order to try and create news. It is a sad fall for a once great source of sporting news. The written version isn’t much better. There are only a couple of their older writers who I still read.
Since the cable service where I lived switched over to DirectV, I haven’t watched more than an hour of ESPN in the past month. I have been getting my sporting news here and at NFL Network.
I wouldn’t worry. The Big Lead is the hackiest blog around, and I don’t think anyone respects them. I trust that PFT wouldn’t have taken a deal that didn’t allow editorial freedom, considering opinion is a big part of the site’s unique commentary – as well as the irreverence that is a main draw.
Plus, although Florio is a WV hillbilly, he is a lawyer and probably would have told NBC where to go if they tried to give him a bad deal.
What the hell is an ombudsman?
ESPN is a biased “sports news” rag. As far as ESPN is concerned as their stories are about Boston teams everything is fine.
Sure, maybe I’m biased myself now since the ESPN website banned me for life last year for posting this picture on my ESPN Profile: http://www.mynba2cents.com/espnlovesboston.jpg
Hollywood Wags:
Have you also noticed how they are now trying to insert Rick Reilly into various on-air positions. They guy is barely a writer, and knows almost nothing about sports. He is deadly on camera.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they never hire a new ombudsman. Unless there is a real public outcry for one, they don’t care. They are the world wide leader, and if you wait 4 seconds, anyone who works there will tell you that. They don’t need someone telling them about the quality of their work. They are the best. They will tell you so themselves.
E!SPiN is quickly becoming TMZN. That said, their coverage of Spy-gate was justified. It’s a proven fact that the Patriots were cheating for over 6 years and there’s ample video evidence to prove it. And if “the genius” Bill Belichick didn’t see an advantage to doing it then he wouldn’t have done it for so long………..plain and simple.
twice now, you made me use that wiki thing to look up what an ombudsman is.
Is this the same The Big Lead that accused Bernard Berrian of using steroids and then crossed out the whole post and said “he had been drinking”? Dude is a shamockery, always trying to talk about the media like maybe one day he will be on ESPN.
Truth is, ESPN/NBC/ABC/Fox, whoever, dont want someone on thier staff that worked for US Weekly and focuses on what kind of clothes athletes are wearing.
As for the NFL, he predicted Hakim Nicks would be drafted by 7 teams. His posts consist of one long block quote followed by either “really”, “huh”, “oy” or just a block quote.
Florio, you merged with GE, imagine that!