media Page 88 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The New <em>SportsCenter</em> Commercial You're Going To See Everywhere

It's been a rough stretch for ESPN and SportsCenter. Ratings for ESPN's flagship show have been sagging, bringing in about 828,000 viewers this year, down from about 1 million last year. Primetime ratings for ESPN and ESPN2 have seen declines too. ESPN's gotten really defensive about it, especially...

Pam Oliver Nearly Steamrolled By Ohio State Band

It's been a rough season already for Pam Oliver. She suffered a concussion from being hit in the head by a football in the preseason, and now her producer's set her up in the middle of a marching band's path. At least she avoided this fate....

Kirk Herbstreit Unhappy ABC Showed KSU-Texas To Only 36% Of The Country

This is fun! We got our hands on some raw, off-air satellite backhaul footage from tonight's Kansas State-Texas broadcast on ABC, and in the post-game we're invited to listen in on Kirk Herbstreit and Brent Musburger discussing the day in college football—and, notably, why so few people were able ...

If Arian Foster Is A Prostitute, Is Dick Vitale A Pimp?

Dick Vitale compared Arian Foster to a prostitute last night and apologized for it this morning. ...

Sal Paolantonio's Postgame Andy Reid Interview Was Weird

Andy Reid had every reason to be happy. His Kansas City Chiefs were freshly 3-0 with a win over his former squad in Philadelphia, and the team building the kind of camaraderie that leads to a Gatorade shower in Week Three. Reid did not seem very happy, though, when talking to ESPN's Sal Paolantonio...

"Football Rain Delay" Drew Higher Ratings Than <em>MNF</em> And <em>60 Minutes</em>

The 49ers-Seahawks rain delay—a weather delay—was the second-highest-rated block of programming this week, according to Nielsen. The hourlong delay drew 17.84 million viewers, five million more than the viewership for 60 Minutes and nearly double that of America's Got Talent. Six of the week's seven...

Why Howard Beck Left <em>The New York Times</em> For Bleacher Report

"I understand the reactions," Howard Beck said over the phone, "because of where I have been working for the last nine years and because of where I'm going." ...

The NFL Wants $1.5 M. From M.I.A For Flipping The Bird At Super Bowl

Remember when M.I.A. flipped the bird at the Super Bowl halftime show? Yeah, it's sorta fuzzy for me, too. The NFL apparently does remember, and being that this is the NFL, the offense will not go unpunished....

Bleacher Report Poaches Howard Beck From The <em>Times</em>

Well, then. Six weeks after Bleacher Report poached Mike Freeman, Turner's flagship sports site has gone and hired New York Times basketball reporter Howard Beck. ...

BBC Presenter Introduces News Report Holding A Pack Of Printer Paper

We're big fans of the BBC 24-hour news channel around here, but when we saw presenter Simon McCoy introducing a story about drunk tanks while holding a pack of printer paper, we wondered if this was some kind of British journalism tradition that never made its way to our shores....

How An MMA Fighter Faked His Own Death

The Times has produced another intimidatingly pretty story this morning, in the "Snow Fall" vein. This one concerns a low-rent mixed martial arts fighter in Michigan, and unlike with "Snow Fall," you will actually read this and enjoy it immensely and not merely pretend to. ...

Mark May's Twitter Broke And Gave Us So Many Hot Takes

Mark May's Twitter account just went bananas, and it was delightful. Judging by the timeliness of the tweets sent, all of May's drafts went out at the same time. We got a good look at all the gems May chose not to send....

Thanks for the lesson, Phil....

Fox Cuts To Halftime Show With A Minute Left In Vikings-Bears

It's a banner day for Fox production. There have been video problems, audio issues, hinky telestrators, rogue tickers. But this takes the cake....

Fox Ticker Has Spontaneous <em>Spartacus</em> Moment

Orlando CBS Affiliate Apologizing To Viewers For Airing Jaguars Game

Oh, that hurts....

This Is The Most Impressive "Pick-Off Throw" You'll Ever See

I mean, it's not even the pitcher and he uses a bat! These pennant races are crazy....

OK State Registrar: <em>Sports Illustrated</em> Still Hasn't Called Us [Update]

Over the last day, one of Sports Illustrated's main sources for the second part of its five-part investigation into Oklahoma State has been under attack. Fath' Carter claimed that he graduated from the university with a degree in education, and, more significantly, that he and former Cowboys runni...

Ron Morris Again Allowed To Cover Steve Spurrier And South Carolina

A day after Jim Romenesko reported that Steve Spurrier had bullied The State into banning Ron Morris, a columnist often critical of Spurrier and the Gamecocks program, from writing about South Carolina football, the newspaper has backed off its stance....

College Team Limits Media Access. Paper Says <em>OK, We Won't Cover You.</em>

This is the exact reverse of the Steve Spurrier/The State kerfluffle that saw the newspaper bowing to the coach's wishes and taking a critical reporter off the beat. But where in the world does a local newspaper have more power than the football team? The SWAC, obviously....