ESPN's Disastrous "Town Hall Meeting"

We didn't watch ESPN's timely Michael Vick Town Hall Meeting last night, but from just about every account, it was a total disaster. The audience was so partisan for Vick — which, to be fair, is the opposite of what you typically see — that anyone who so much as pointed out that Vick confessed to electrocuting puppies was shouted down. Even the slightly pro-Vick people on the panel seemed embarrassed; ESPN itself admitted this morning that many "were lured more by the prospect of getting some face time on the live broadcast rather than their feelings about the Vick case."

We know how the NOIS folks think about this, but some in Atlanta felt ESPN got what it deserved for trying to invent some sort of TV "controversy" that exploited racial biases.

Maybe these loudmouths represent the true voice of Atlanta, a voice which believes Michael Vick was somehow the victim of a massive conspiracy designed to run the most gifted athlete Atlanta's ever seen, a guy who was almost singlehandedly responsible for transforming the team from doormat into perpetual sellout, out of town. Maybe that's it. Or maybe the vast majority of Atlantans have had it with discussing a confessed dogfighter, and are sick to death of manufactured, made-for-TV "events" that try to drive racial wedges into a city that's got enough problems seeing beyond black and white as it is.

Man. We're pretty glad we didn't watch this.

ESPN Reminds You That Black And White People Hate Each Other [The Fynal Cut] Vick Divides Us This I Know / Because ESPN Tells Me So [Atlanta Magazine] It's The Falcons' Fault [NOIS Blog]