ESPN's Coverage of Sean Taylor's Death "Shameful" According to One Blogger

This is a very sad day in sports, and honestly, all of us should have a Sean Taylor avatar for the next few days. Now, before anyone gets ticked that I'm bashing ESPN, you haven't gone to Awful Announcing. The founder (Brian Powell), is a diehard Redskins fan and said that Sean Taylor was his favorite player. Today, he went out on an all out assault about the coverage ESPN put into a shooting of a star player, as opposed to the awesome 3-0 game between the Pittsburgh ~~Pirates~~ Steelers and the Miami Dolphins. Here are some excerpts from this article (in italics, my statements are in regular font):

As far as ESPN's coverage on the subject I just wanted to tell you/them that it's a f'ing joke. Last night they barely broached the subject of the shooting on Countdown and during the game. God forbid you wing things and stray from your schedule and planned New England praising. They even had extra time to come up with something after lightning delayed the start of that pathetic game. They had Suzy Kolber report on the field about 20 times during a game that was tied at zero until 2 minutes left in the contest. I had to change the channel to local coverage to get updates.

It's not just the reporting AA, it's how many times they had to mention that the field was a fricking nightmare.

Even this morning Sports Center talked about his passing for 60 seconds during a lead-in and are just rerunning the Sports Center, which of course is loaded with Monday Night Football highlights. And you wonder why I've blasted Sports Center in the past? Flip to ESPN News....Monday Night Football is the lead in. Flip to ESPN's First Take....yep, Monday Night Football. How about actual news programs not associated with Sports? Of course Sean Taylor's death is the main topic. On ABC’s "Good Morning America," CBS’ "Early Show" and NBC’s ‘Today’ all spent a good amount of time covering the story this morning.

Goodness me, what? See, that is the exact boldness coming from ESPN. It's become a comedy show, not a sports show. A 3-0 football game is more important than Sean Taylor's murder? Granted, he died this morning right? So the radio shows talked about it. However, the shooting happened, yesterday right? So.....who gives a damn about the Pats right now?

I watched a good chunk of countdown, and let me tell you this, they were admiring the Patriots, previewing the Packers/Cowboys, they were doing everything to hype up what was a 3-0 football game, instead of talk about real life stories. ESPN, if I had my way, I'd put you on the Friday Fryer.

Awful Announcing

Go on, rip him, rip me, I give up. Fire away.

RIP

This user is a Sean Taylor fan.

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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 5

Considering they don't know what happened and everything is "alleged" at this point, there's not much more to report on it than the news and a moment of silence. Otherwise they'd just be rehashing the same five sentences over and over. As for them not leading off the show with it, I wouldn't expect many programs would want their first few minutes to be such a downer. And, Taylor wasn't exactly an overly well-known player. Most know him only because he's been in trouble with the law. It's an important story, and a tragic story, but it's really not stop the presses important.

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SSreportersLegend

758 days ago

Score -1

I'm sorry, but when a star football player, a top 5 pick in the 2004 draft, is dead at 24, that's a HUGE story. ESPN bombed.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 7

It's a good thing everyone is not like you, SSR. It would be a boring world.

I never met the guy so while I feel sorry for his family and friends for their loss, there is other things going on in the world to talk about. SOME people turn to sports to escape the death and tragedy in their personal lives.

If a shooting happens on the field of play, go all day with it. Otherwise, it's a NEWS story, not a sports story.

We still don't know anything about what really happened. It could have been an ex-girlfriend, it could have been an accident, it could have been retaliation for something he started, maybe he shot himself? We just don't know, and we shouldn't assume ANYTHING... and I'm not going to change my avatar as a knee jerk response to every news nibble.

You should assume a major network MIGHT know what they're doing on occasion. I have a feeling this is a situation that "more information" isn't neccessarily "better information" - They've been in these situations before.

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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 5

I think the media is playing it safe and finding out the circumstances of what actually happened before glorifying a guy that could be the victim of circumstances he created himself. And I think you're using the term "star" pretty loosely.

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SSreportersLegend

758 days ago

Score 0

Actually......ESPN has messed up 3 recent stories (Michael Vick, Eli Manning injury, Alex Smith injury), so maybe you're right.

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SSreportersLegend

758 days ago

Score 0

For everything else, go to AA's website and comment.

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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 4

What are you waiting around here for? Why are you letting the biggest sports media conglomerate in the world mess things up when you have the answers? Go put in your application at ESPN and fix it!

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ASwaffAll-American

758 days ago

Score 1

I'm sure it will continue to be reported as the incident is looked in to. The reason they don't go overboard on one night is because it will get continual, on-going coverage. Monday Night Football is a one-night story.

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SSreportersLegend

758 days ago

Score -1

Here's one comment from Hollywood Wags on AA's site:

To the people that run ESPN, human beings are merely objects.

It has got to be one of the most callous organizations. But that goes for NBC, ABC and the rest. They consume the humanity in everything around them.

Pathetic. Maybe Sean's death would have gotten more coverage if he was found with a young white girl who was crying about being raped. Cynical? Not really. Sex sells according to the asshole producers at ESPN.

The people at ESPN are nothing more than vampires and parasites. Is it just one asshole over there that creates this culture? I wonder...

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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 1

You have a lot to learn about the real world, and more specifically how the media works, young one.

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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 4

Lesson number one: The news isn't run on emotion. (That's what blogs are for)

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ASwaffAll-American

758 days ago

Score 1

I think y'all know that I'm no fan of ESPN, but I don't know what that blogger is talking about when he says they barely broached the subject during the game. During the game, he was in the hospital with no updates forthcoming. Despite that, they had numerous cut-ins and updates. I don't know if he didn't see them because he was switching to local news for updates or what, but I don't know how anyone who watched the game could say they barely broached the subject.

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JuTMSY4Legend

758 days ago

Score 2

i agree...it'd be one thing if the skins were playing. I also didn't watch much of the game...

But controversy is news and the Taylor Incident (so far) is not controversial, mostly because nothing has been released/is known. The story will be the lead today but its the details that will get more attention...

Plus the NFL is a weekly game...you will heard a lot about this for the next week (easily) and perhaps for the rest of the season as details emerge...

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SSreportersLegend

758 days ago

Score -3

Remember folks, most of this is not my opinion, it's Awful Announcing's.

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Interceptor79Varsity

758 days ago

Score 3

don't back down now...you write an opinion piece based on yours and another persons views and try to tell us it's not your opinion? I guess I am reading a different article. Look if you are going to take the time to write an article and base it primarily on opinion and in said article elaborate on and agree with those opinions don't turn around and hide behind the article you based your opinions on. Man up SS

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I am a cpcpMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 3

If you didn't agree you wouldn't have passed the word.

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ASwaffAll-American

758 days ago

Score 2

This wasn't your opinion?

"So.....who gives a damn about the Pats right now?"

How about this:

"ESPN, if I had my way, I'd put you on the Friday Fryer"

Most of the content of the article is not yours, but these two are right to say that you're agreeing when you pass on someone else's opinion.

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MetsJetsDevilsDraft Pick

758 days ago

Score 0

Boy I couldn't disagree more. Nothing pisses me off more than when news channels have a headline but no story and spend all day talking about it. If ESPN where CNN they would have had a show a ticker running across the bottom that says in big red letters "Crisis in DC." It would then have a 30 second recap of the only facts we know. After that they would go to a "special" reporter who talks about how little they know about the case. That would be followed by some type of "expert." Perhaps in this instance it would be a ballistics expert or medical expert to explain what type of bullet it was or where he got shot. That would be followed by an interview with his high school history teacher who said he was a good kid even if he did get in trouble and another with a guy who tutored him in astronomy while at the University of Miami. After that hour was over they would return to the anchor who would repeat the 30 seconds of facts that we know only to be cut off by special coverage of some type of press conference, maybe the hospital or the Redskins which would repeat the same 30 seconds worth of actual factual information. That would be followed by an in-house panel of experts to discuss the press conference. This would go on for 3 days.

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Jay100Soccer Kid

758 days ago

Score 0

i watched sportcenter today here in canada and they had a moving peice..its hard to believe that the home of the cfl and terrible college football would put more into the coverage then espn its sad that another high end player goes down to a shooting this one more so then the Denton Williams incident of last year he was protecting his family and got shot in the leg the man should be a hero in the united states not some 60 second lead in i never seen any American coverage but im disgusted by the articles ive read.ive seen washed u- veterans who killed someone driving drunk get better coverage then this.

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CRS-ONEVarsity Captain

758 days ago

Score 2

You people are all to fickle. There's not much news on Taylor's condition last night and you want constant coverage and updates. Now that he passed, you'll be complaining that this is getting too much coverage.

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CoreyisarealboyMajor Leaguer

758 days ago

Score 0

I don't know how well-rehearsed Awful Announcing or you are in journalism, but libel and slander are pretty scary charges in the media world and the reason you report on what you know, not what you can infer. So that's probably the reason for the lack of coverage.

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