media Page 216 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Media Approval Ratings: Tim Kurkjian
For the longest time, we thought the way Tim Kurkjian would pronounce his last name while signing off on ESPN telecasts was some sort of sonic illusion. "Tim KIRK ... (endless pause) ... JUN!, ESPN." We couldn't imagine he answered the phone like that at home....
Media Approval Ratings: Mike Patrick
With the Duke-North Carolina game this weekend — and the accompanying drinking games — we thought it'd be the perfect day to take a look at the occasionally bizarre Mike Patrick....
Brett Favre's Fun Can Save Dying Newspapers, End Poverty, Defeat King Koopa
All media junkies have either Poynter or Romenesko bookmarked in their Internet browsers. Those who barely pay attention to the media, let alone stories about the media, the Poynter Institute's website basically acts as a cheerleader for the state of journalism, offering helpful advice yet trying to...
Media Approval Ratings: Bob Costas
We once joked that Bob Costas seems like the type of guy who would pee sitting down, but that's a little harsher than our personal opinion toward him really is. He's a St. Louis guy, after all, and it's not everyone who can deal with both Dan Marino and Keith Olbermann....
Media Approval Ratings: Trey Wingo
Trey Wingo's real name, in case you're wondering, is Hal Chapman Wingo III. Our family's naming conventions require the son to name his first son after his father, which means our name is William Franklin Leitch III, and our father's is William Bryan Leitch II. We've tried to come up with a good nic...
Media Approval Ratings: Lee Corso
We'll confess: We have a rather difficult time thinking of Lee Corso without mentally referencing the Lee Corso slo jam, via the indispensable Every Day Should Be Saturday. This is the soundtrack that rolls around our brains all day....
Jay Mariotti Is Moved (Again)
One of our all-time favorite Deadspin posts was pointing out the ridiculous platitudes shelled out by sports columns in the days after September 11. (We were not immune from this ourselves.) One of those columnists was Jay Mariotti, whose signature schtick doesn't lend itself well to tragedy. Fortun...
Media Approval Ratings: Cris Carter
On the day we say goodbye to Sean Salisbury on ESPN, we think it's perhaps fitting that our Media Approval Ratings look at his replacement....
Media Approval Ratings: Erin Andrews
Honestly, it can't be easy to be an attractive female sideline reporter. Well, OK: The job doesn't look THAT hard; how many different ways can you ask a coach what he told his team at halftime? (Of course, he could always attack you.)...
Media Approval Ratings: Gus Johnson
For some reason, we tend to forgive Gus Johnson for sins we'd find unforgivable in other broadcasters. He's high histrionics, high volume, high intensity, high volume, high pitch, all of it. He's 95 percent bluster. Of course, this is why we love him....
Media Approval Ratings: Billy Packer
We're getting awfully darned close now to the NCAA tournament business, which means one thing: The return of Billy Packer as the central force in our lives for a month. We know, we know, he broadcasts games throughout the regular season, but it's not until the Tournament that he takes over the voice...
Media Approval Ratings: Brent Musberger
We remain stunned by the Scott Van Pelt results yesterday; we like Van Pelt too, but 94.3 percent approval? We are absolutely certain we would not get 94.3 percent approval ourselves. Anyway, let's go for the generational shift today; Good ole Brent Musberger....
Media Approval Ratings: Scott Van Pelt
Of all the anchors on "SportsCenter," it would seem unlikely that Scott Van Pelt would be the one with such a long history with this here site. He doesn't have the Berman boom, the Vitale scream, the STEPHEN A. SMITH blare or the Skip Bayless smirk. But with one phone call, he became part of Deadspi...
Media Approval Ratings: Doug Gottlieb
So here's something scary we learned from Wikipedia just now: Doug Gottlieb is younger than we are....
Media Approval Ratings: James Brown
Bill Simmons has implied that the success of CBS' pregame show over FOX's is because James Brown, Harvard grad (and former Atlanta Hawks draft pick), switched to the Eye in 2006. We would like to remind you all, by the way, that this guy hosted "America's Funniest Home Videos." Also, and we didn't r...
Media Approval Ratings: Linda Cohn
In that book thing we just wrote, we referred to Linda Cohn as "competent, and seemingly pregnant every three months." We're not sure that's true anymore, but it really did seem like that for a while, didn't it? Every time you turned on "SportsCenter," there was Linda Cohn, all preggers again. We re...
Media Approval Ratings: Greg Gumbel
To introduce today's Media Approval Ratings discussion feller, we thought we'd head to Wikipedia and see what fascinating facts we could drum up about Greg Gumbel....
Media Approval Ratings: Chris Mortensen
Mr. Mortensen, ESPN's NFL reporter who isn't a cranky old coot, has been on the air less and less in recent years. We always enjoyed him bickering with Bill Parcells, back when they were on NFL Countdown together. Mr. Mortensen certainly receives some credit for siring an actual, real live football ...
Media Approval Ratings: Jim Gray
True story: Way back in 1998, when we were a wee lad logging agate text at The Sporting News, one of the magazine staffers sent a company-wide email after Jim Gray's famous Pete Rose interview demanding that all writers sign a petition saying that Gray should be fired. We found this a bit extreme, a...
Introducing The Media Approval Ratings
One of our favorite features ESPN.com has run is the NFL Coach Approval Ratings. We liked watching the fluctuation, seeing a coach go from 81 percent to 20 percent with one loss. But mostly, we liked the collective wisdom of Crowd. We trust Crowd's judgment. Therefore, we've decided to start a new f...