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Bashing ESPN is Old News

14
Vote

by Ibearg

I constantly read comments on this site about how ESPN is awful. People bash them for having stupid gimmicks or bad analysts or for trying to create angles that aren't really there. Heck I fall in this trap often, I want ESPN to do a better job and they certainly can. However the constant bashing of ESPN is really really old news. We get it ESPN has flaws, but one thing remains... it's still the world wide leader in sports.

If you want to catch the NBA or NFL draft, who are you looking to? If you want to watch an MLB game when your team isn't playing on a Monday who are you looking to? And if you actually want to catch a soccer game in this country who are you looking to? That's right ESPN and I'm certainly glad it's them rather then other options like Fox. If you're fed up with ESPN feel free to turn to the "Best Damn Sports Show Period." With a title like that it's gotta be good!!!!!!

Was the “Who's Now” gimmick something most sports fans should care about? probably not. It's simply an attention getting gimmick, but they ran it during July. In July apart from baseball the biggest sporting event is Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. The NBA and NFL drafts are over, and the NFL hasn't even started training camp. The MLS is in full affect, but soccer is played once maybe twice a week and a good portion of the country unfortunately doesn't care about it. So if you're part of a 24 hours sports and entertainment network you're telling me you don't have time for a debate as inane as Who's Now? Yes they could spend mooooore time talking about the NFL or maybe add some cricket coverage, but otherwise i don't really see the problem in having this debate. Thousands of people voted every day so someone must care, and they're probably the more casual fans who lets remember ESPN also has to cater to.

If you’re really that upset with ESPN don’t watch it. If all you want is sports highlights, watch ESPN news, you’ll have all the highlights you need in half an hour. If you don’t like the announcers on a particular game, turn the mute button on, or watch a different game.

ESPN certainly has its flaws, but they still do it better than anyone else. So let’s remember they are not in fact Satan.


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InsanMajor Leaguer
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Exactly, I agree with you 100%. ESPN does not suck, there's a reason they're the world wide leader. The Who's Now thing was a fun segment that was interesting. It was done at the right time as a show filler and it grabbed a lot of attention, 100,000 votes daily, 300,000 for the finale. If you are a hardcore fan and don't care about that stuff, watch ESPNews, you get caught up on the news in 30 minutes.
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
You have to be the only person here to possibly like Who's Now.
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InsanMajor Leaguer
846 days ago
Score 0+-
I don't really like it. But I didn't hate it. It was fine, whatever, it's not that serious. You guys act like it causes cancer.
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 1+-
No, it causes aneurysms.
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IbeargRed-Shirting
846 days ago
Score -1+-
oh give me a break you've never debated with friends, who's a better player or a bigger star? it's not causing aneurysms and if it does you should be reevaluating yourself.
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Baltimoresports247All-American
846 days ago
Score 0+-
if you're a REAL sports fan, Who's Now was an insult
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
I think the only way we won't watch ESPN is if they lose some major sports rights. Other than that, they grab everything and I can't stand it.
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
If you want to catch the NBA or NFL draft, who are you looking to? If you want to watch an MLB game when your team isn't playing on a Monday who are you looking to? And if you actually want to catch a soccer game in this country who are you looking to? That's right ESPN and I'm certainly glad it's them rather then other options like Fox. If you're fed up with ESPN feel free to turn to the "Best Damn Sports Show Period." With a title like that it's gotta be good!!!!!!


That's the problem. CBS could do a better job with these events than ESPN (FOX is just awful). I say CBS because Gus Johnson works there.
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B-ryeJV Squad
846 days ago
Score 0+-
ESPN is the Worldwide Leader because nobody has the resources or the financial capital to wrestle it away. As long as ESPN has the rights to broadcast EVERY major sport with the exception of the NHL, they'll continue to be the the only option, thus can put complete crap like "Whos Now" or ESPN Hollywood on TV. ESPN is ripe for the taking, if somebody would step up and make a serious play to be a major sports network, ESPN would be in some trouble if they dont change their ways.
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IbeargRed-Shirting
846 days ago
Score -1+-
newscorp/fox don't have the resources? and again i ask... you're telling me a 24 hour sports network (which already gives you the option of ESPN, ESPN classic etc), in July, has much better things they could be doing with their time then who's now?
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Whatever happened to airing international sports? Worldwide leader in sports, and they constantly air stuff within the USA?
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IbeargRed-Shirting
846 days ago
Score 0+-
they air the champions league games... I'm not sure what other sports/games you'd like them to air? Cricket? Rugby? Japanese Baseball?
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 1+-
That wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd take that over friggin Rock Paper Scissors.
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CheezerAll-Star
846 days ago
Score 0+-
ESPN used to air sports like Aussie Rules football and Rugby. It was before they became mainstream and signed contracts with US sports. They aired whatever sports they could get. And I preferred it to the modern line-up.
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Aussie Rules Football IS Rugby.
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Taytay 24All-American
845 days ago
Score 0+-
Aussie Rules Football is NOT rugby. Different game, mate.
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Yakob878MVP
846 days ago
Score 1+-
i agree with insan i never really liked it but it was a new sort of thing that espn tried out and was a flop oh well Espn is not as bad as people make it out to be the shws are byt plain espn news is fine i bet we can all agree there is no faster way to ctch up on the day in sports than watchin espn news
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BigPPupMajor Leaguer
846 days ago
Score 1+-
ESPN is bad because it has gone away from what it wanted to be and what it was founded to be. Instead of being a sports network it is working to be an entertainment network. My hope is that once football season kicks back into gear they will have something else to fill up their Sunday segments besides who is now. THey neey to open ESPN PInk, so they can put these fufu entertainment stories on that and leave ESPN for actual sports reporting.
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LocknessmonsterDraft Pick
846 days ago
Score 1+-
That's the real issue here. I don't think ESPN is overwhelmingly bad, but it has definitely lost its way. Several years ago, I could have watched ESPN all day, everyday. Granted, I have a little less time on my hands these days, but I hardly ever watch, for instance, SportsCenter anymore, because I don't really care about the puff pieces. ESPNews is certainly a good alternative, but you can't watch it for any more than half an hour every six hours or so. I wish I had an actual suggestion for what they could do, but it seems to me that they used to be able to hold the attention of the average sports fan for hours on end, and now they don't. To me, that's all the proof you need that they aren't fulfilling their mission as they once did.
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Agreed, I think ESPN is.....wait a minute, the Lockness Monster is actually commenting?
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Oh No RomoDraft Pick
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Who owns ESPN, that's right...It's Disney....Damn Mouse!
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BigPPupMajor Leaguer
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Actually that is true the shift came when ESPN became part of the Disney family and they wanted to do more of the puff feel good pieces to widen the audience. They have made an ideological shift that has segragated its original fanbase.
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RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer
846 days ago
Score 2+-
I dislike a lot of the programming on ESPN. I hate the way certain things are covered (MLS and poker being the 2 worst), and I'm not a fan of SportsCenter.

But I don't think I could live without ESPN. It still has Baseball Tonight (still a great show despite John Kruk's efforts), Sunday Night Baseball, Monday Night Football, Champions League soccer, and tons of college football (especially if you count GamePlan and ESPNU). They tried getting the NHL but the NHL and Versus decided making a stupid but higher priced deal was the best way to go.

Do they have as much sports as they used to? No. But you've got to keep in mind that when ESPN started it was the only sports channel, now there are many sports channels and many niche channels that focus on particular sports. You've got the NFL Network, NBA TV, the Golf Channel, Speed, Fox has an empire of sports networks, regional sports networks, and onDemand. All these channels are vying for sports programming. Some of these channels are nothing but sports programming. But all these other channels have their own original programs, just like ESPN.

ESPN is on 168 hours a week. I've never seen infomercials on there. Is there crappy programming? Yes. But in the world of 1,000 channels, there just isn't enough good programming to go around, even for the big channels like ESPN.
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CheezerAll-Star
846 days ago
Score 1+-
If I really need to find some sports facts immediately, I go to the internet. Not ESPN.
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
If I really need to find actual sports, I go to anything else but ESPN.
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IbeargRed-Shirting
846 days ago
Score 0+-
so do i... ESPN.com
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SSreportersLegend
846 days ago
Score 0+-
If I really need to find actual sports without a crapload of graphics, I go to anything else but ESPN.
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BigPPupMajor Leaguer
846 days ago
Score 0+-
Yeah I rarely use ESPN for actual data mining, but I still enjoy reading ESPN.com for general information and insites.
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This page was last modified 18:52, 6 August 2007. Content is available under the GFDL.

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