media Page 90 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Did Disney's General Counsel Urge ESPN To Wimp Out On Concussion Doc?
So why did ESPN end its relationship with Frontline less than two months before their co-reported, two-part documentary on the NFL and concussions was set to air? We know that ESPN president John Skipper found the trailer for Frontline's documentary to be "sensational" and "over the top." We know t...

How An ESPNer Found Out The "Battle Of The Sexes" Was Probably Fixed
As usual, this one started with a tip. It came courtesy of Hal Shaw, a 79-year-old man who lived in Florida. ESPN investigative reporter Don Van Natta Jr. knew him. The two had met when Van Natta was researching his 2011 biography of Babe Didrikson Zaharia. Shaw once worked at the country club that...

That Joe Schad Tweet About Erin Andrews's Peephole Video Is Fake
Update: The tweet from Schad is a fake. We've changed our headline. Sorry, Joe....

If The Jets Are Going Down, They're Taking The Media With Them
The New York Jets have graduated from hapless ne'er-do-wells to full-blown snowball rolling down the mountain, taking out everything in its path. Tonight, the Jets jump-started an ugly dustup between national and local media. Maybe, just maybe, some good can come out of this Jets season: total media...

Bottom Line: How Sports Leagues Crack The Whip On ESPN
"We're not in the business of antagonizing our partner," the ESPN executive told the New York Times, defending the network's sudden withdrawal of support for a program that made the NFL look bad. This wasn't last week. This was nine years ago. ...

This Is Perhaps The Most Moronic Argument In Sports Radio History
Yesterday, we told you about local-sports-reporter-turned-vigilante Vic Lombardi defacing Joe Flacco posters in downtown Denver. For whatever reason, Glenn Clark of WNST in Baltimore was pissed about this, and got into a Twitter spat with Lombardi. That led to Lombardi calling into Clark's radio sho...

MLB Network Beat Fox Sports 1 In Primetime Last Week
The ratings are in: Fox Sports 1 finished its first full week about 1.94 million viewers behind ESPN. Variety reports that Fox Sports 1 averaged 161,000 viewers in primetime, behind ESPN's 2.17 million, ESPN2's 473,000, the NFL Network's 383,000 and MLB Network's 193,000. The good news for Fox is th...

Denver Sports Reporter Turns Vigilante, Defaces Joe Flacco Banners
Because of scheduling complications, the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens will be playing on the road during the NFL's Thursday night opener, a game which the previous year's champion customarily gets to play at home. This has led to some awkwardness from a marketing standpoint, as the NFL has p...

Keith Olbermann's New Show Is Entertaining. Should We Be Surprised?
ESPN prodigal son Keith Olbermann made his return to the four-letter network last night, premiering his eponymous hour-long ESPN2 program while calling up a number of golden-age SportsCenter memories. Here are the highlights....

The Bridges Of Olbermann County
Keith Olbermann's new late-night talk show will premier on ESPN2 tonight. This is good news for a network that could use some right now, but if history is any guide, we know where this is heading:...

ESPN Can't Deny It's A Joke Of Itself After This
Send stories, photos, and anything else you might have to [email protected]....

What The Fuck Is Mike Florio Talking About?
Florio is on an absolute roll today. After spending the morning carrying the NFL's water up and down the page like a good shill is supposed to, he went and dumped this pile of crap on his website....

How ESPN Pulled A Bullshit Colin Kaepernick Story Out Of Thin Air
By pulling out of its partnership with Frontline, ESPN reminded us, yet again, where its newsroom stands. It's second fiddle to the company's business interests. So, let's show you what the flagship show of ESPN's newsroom does in lieu of participating in a documentary that the NFL is afraid of. It...

ESPN Producer: We Made "Conscious Decision" To "Get In Bed" With PBS
So why the hell did ESPN pull out of its collaborative relationship with PBS and Frontline? PBS's statement says that ESPN news executives were supposed to have "editorial input" into the League of Denial documentary. ESPN's statement says the network backed out because it had no "editorial control"...
![ESPN Pulls Out Of <em>Frontline</em> Concussion Investigation [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18xu3t2m015jijpg.jpg)
ESPN Pulls Out Of <em>Frontline</em> Concussion Investigation [UPDATE]
For a while now, ESPN's big alibi, the thing Bristol would trot out any time someone questioned the company's journalistic bona fides, was its joint investigation into NFL head injuries with PBS's Frontline. Now that's done with. PBS announced the news. It reports:...

<em>SportsCenter</em>'s New Set Will Be Roughly 10,000 Square Feet
We got a preview of this before, but here's a new video showing off SportsCenter's new set, narrated by Steve Levy. He says the set will be nearly 10,000 square feet. Watch the video and it looks like it also includes approximately 750 anchor desks and 48 different studios. But seriously. Christ. T...

Last Night On Fox Sports 1: The Worst Sports Panel Discussion Ever
Above, Donovan McNabb, Andy Roddick, and Gary Payton discuss Ichiro's legacy and—I don't even know. This is such a mess. Roddick can barely speak. McNabb is really into doubles? I'm not convinced they know who Ichiro is. Everyone had a stat or fact or two to memorize and they can't pull that off. F...

Sports Twitter In Vancouver Is Cutthroat
The Vancouver Canucks Twitter account was just doing its usual Wednesday fan-interaction/brand-optimization-through-social-media thing earlier today when the Whitecaps (MLS) account came over and took a big piss all over the place. ...

Here's How The Jets Train Their Players To Be Boring With The Media
Yesterday Jets players went through media training, where they were taught things like "body language." During the session, they were also handed a list of "media bridges," which I'm guessing are a bunch of really horrible, studiedly dull transitions to use in conversation with reporters. The photos...

Despite Layoffs, ESPN Will Soon Have "More Employees Than Ever"
Earlier this year, ESPN went through a unexpected series of layoffs, in the end shedding somewhere close to 400 people. It was done, ESPN folks were told, as a critical cost-cutting measure in the run-up to the launch of Fox Sports 1 and with higher fees looming for Monday Night Football and basebal...