Who is stopping you from reading about sports news and forcing you to read about "bitiching about everything and putting people's business out the streets (Manti Te'o)"?
Deadspin.com trying to kill football and this whole PBS fiasco
- Thread starter Trip
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Deadspin:
Omg did you see what we found on Darren Rovells phone!!!
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Why Jason Collins is an American hero and if he's not on a roster next year we should be ashamed as a country.
ExodusNirvana
Change is inevitable...
Damn man I be trying to explain this shyt to my homies and they give me theThe question is whether the NFL has purposely misled players and the public, employed doctors with the implicit mandate to skew short-term and long-term consequences of head injuries, and feigned complete innocence and ignorance while making money hand over fist yet refusing to establish a remotely appropriate post-career fund for the mentally and physically crippled on whose backs and mushy brains the lucrative NFL empire has been built.
The question is whether the NFL is trying to retroactively rewrite the narrative on its disregard for player safety by levying exorbitant fines against players with non-guaranteed contracts for the exact kinds of hits that have for years generated fan excitement, powered highlight reels, and buoyed video games sales. The question is whether the NFL is playing the absurdly duplicitous role of knowingly endangering the long-term health of players while also projecting the public image of punishing players for endangering other players. Which is similar to a corrupt police force running drugs out of its precincts while making public arrests of petty drug users with the cameras rolling and assuring the public that the war on drugs is vigilant and successful.
The question is whether ESPN can - as it long has - lay claim to institutional integrity as a "news" organization while having business relationships with the sports it "covers." The question has always been whether ESPN can actually do objective, critical reporting on real sports issues as opposed to being an extension of those sports whose sole purpose is marketing and promoting the league while running fluff pieces.
The other question is when is enough enough when it comes to money versus truth, integrity, and basic decency? When you're making piles and piles of money, at what point do you realize that manipulating your employees and the general public isn't worth squeezing every possible dollar out of every situation? Because the NFL is fukking its players in both holes - they've purposely covered up evidence of long-term mental and physical consequences of head injuries, they've made no significant moves to help the people who make them their money post-football, and now they're stealing player money with increasingly severe and subjective fines to cover their own asses in anticipation of the flood of lawsuits that will be tacked on to all of the current litigation they're facing due to their own neglect and deceit.
But your take on the situation is that Deadspin is trying to kill football? That the New York Times is framing ESPN? That ESPN didn't join with PBS to prove their validity as an investigative, impartial news outlet, only to pull out last minute because they were told to by a business partner? And your cynical take is "of course ESPN pulled out." Which is tantamount to you excusing a news organization for killing a well-researched investigative piece on massive corruption and cover-up by a company because the news organizations parent company gets significant ad revenue from the company under investigation. Which is, pretty much, you saying "stop being outraged by corruption, lack of integrity and principle, it's just the way things work, nothing to see here." And instead you focus on the "douchey" photos of the Deadspin staff?
face like I'm threatening their enjoyment of football and the existence of the sport...as I'm getting older, topics like these I tend to avoid because I see the big picture but dudes ain't trying to hear that IRL. They just wanna watch the games.I'm thankful for The Coli in that regard because at least I know a few people on the internet give a shyt about discussing something that could have huge repercussions on the sports world.
the next guy
Superstar
Thing is that story went from them to everywhere and it was headline news. Did this nikka kill somebody? No he lied, to his family not even the public.
Maybe football wasn't sustainable in the long term.
In a league where the goal is to be bigger and faster every year, maybe this was always going to happen.
Maybe this is why they'll pass(and actually reinforce) the HGH testing rules.
Rather than let the game gradually go down over the next 15-20 years due to dramatic rule changes and other stuff, maybe you start at the possible reason alot of these guys are so much bigger and faster nowadays.
I'm sure they'll give them 1-2 times to fail a test before it's made public, but it would cean things up over time.
Damn man I be trying to explain this shyt to my homies and they give me the
I'm thankful for The Coli in that regard because at least I know a few people on the internet give a shyt about discussing something that could have huge repercussions on the sports world.
And I'd counter that with saying guys choosing to play NFL football isn't the equivalent of cock fighting. They know it's dangerous. Blogs using this as an opportunity to take a layup against ESPN is just...it's not as heroic as they think. It's easy.
Where's the crusade against steroid dealers?
Compared to most publications, the Times has a pretty damned good record. I know more than enough to avoid the simplistic trap of viewing the Times as some bastion of honor and intergrity. But that has little to do with this specific story about the NFL.
I've never claimed to be some devotee or champion of Deadspin. There are plenty of things about that site that gets on my nerves. However, as a counterpoint to ESPN's pathetic reporting and as a check on accuracy when it comes to several significant stories, they've served an undeniable purpose. I guarantee you certain major stories would've been swept under the rug quickly if not for Deadspin's dogged and detailed reporting. I don't understand their (or their audience's) fascination with pictures of athletes' dikks; I don't care for how quickly they sink into snark and condescension when asserting an editorial opinion; I couldn't give a fukk less about their opinions on movies or the links they post to music. I think they tend to over-write and over-analyze simple points about sports to validate a sense of intellectual rigor when it's not called for. I think posting photos of people doing crosswords or reading books at baseball games is dull fodder. But I'll gladly skip over those stories and keep going to their site if they continue to cover important issues that would otherwise be glossed over due to a complicity fostered by business interests.
Exactly. PBS is examining this.
They do have a choice; they did have a choice. They've painted themselves into the corner - no one else is to blame for this. Goodell and the owners have neglected one of the most basic criminal tenets - as the mafia preaches, a dead man can't pay his debt. Sure, it'll cut into profits a bit to come clean about research into head injuries instead of suppressing it, and to set up a strong post-football health care system. But it would've allowed them to avoid this horrible muck that's killing the game. They could've jumped out in front of the problem. They've shown no vision at all in this case, only a propensity for manipulation and denial.
I wasn't talking about them hand-holding or running a human resources office for players post-football, I just meant those suffering from clear head trauma. Players of all stripes and political beliefs are pretty united in speaking about how weak the NFL has been in taking care of former players who have been left dysfunctional as a result of their injuries.
I'm on my phone again so ill respond more later this weekend. But this shyt is going to predate Goodell. Rozelle, who's basically an American icon. The Rooneys, the Maras...Bob Kraft. If we're really going to get after the league all these good guys deserve blame. Tagliabue is basically the Bill Clinton of NFL football.
the next guy
Superstar
No doubt, I would never say you are. But for me Deadspin is a sports gossip rag; a people mag for the sports fan, and that I find is just unnecessary.
Deadspin, for all it's faults, is definitely more important and contributes more to discourse than a gossip rag.
I agree, by the way, about the Deadspin contributors' photos. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I didn't say either of them were, although the NYTimes is a pretty solid source imo.
But that's isn't really relevant to how poorly you understand the problem with ESPN's actions.
A journalistic institution who essentially cedes editorial authority to the parties it is supposed to cover/investigate ceases to hold any integrity. However you feel about ESPN as a whole, some corners of the company still hold journalistic weight. The joint investigation into the NFL's handling of the concussion problem is clearly important. But if they find that the NFL is at fault, they can not allow the NFL to change their coverage.
This is the most basic of journalistic ethics.
I personally could care less about the Manti T'eo story. That said, T'eo possibly fabricated a girlfriend, fabricated her death and said fabrications were reported as facts during his 2012 season. How would revelations that a Heisman finalist and highly touted NFL prospect lied to the public not be newsworthy? Deadspin broke a story and the rest of the media ran with it. Seems your issue is with the amount of coverage which is something Deadspin has no control over.
But that's really besides the point. News outlets are charged with informing the public. That's an immense responsibility, and more often than not, some of the most notable and accessed venues take that responsibility lightly. The news media is sometimes referred to as the fourth estate or branch. The thing about branches is that they have a system of checks and balances imposed upon them to regulate the power and reach of each other. But who checks the media? Who checks what is possibly the most influential construct in society? Outlets like Deadspin are important because, despite being part of the media, their aim is to hold a magnifying glass to outlets like ESPN whom the majority of people use as their default source of sports news. Checks for the media can only truly come from within. The majority of the things Deadspin holds ESPN accountable for are basic tenets of journalistic integrity and ethics. I was a journalism major in college and the first prerequisite we had to take is Ethics of Journalism. There can be no genuine reporting of the news without a firm foundation in the ethical means of doing so. Having that foundation and seeing what goes on in the media is exactly why I chose to not become a journalist. It's also why I can see the value in what Deadspin does. They can be sickeningly sanctimonious at times, but I'm willing to deal with that considering the good that they do bring to the table.
Dude, I know how awful ESPN is. Its the worst, by far...and ESPN begging for mercy gives my pale white irish ass jollies....
However
This crusade by the blogosphere, who we KNOW generates hits off of taking ESPN to task...is fukking stupid too. They couldnt give two shyts about the players...all they care about is taking it to ESPN...and this concussion story is a fukking layup for them. Big picture, this doesnt do any good for anyone.
Another thing, its a shytty reality but....its 2013.....anyone, any public interest group, any corporation.... isnt going to bite the hand that feeds them. They know how hard it is out there. Security > integrity. Always.
I'd love to see where Barry Petschky's father works.