Calling it a riot may be premature, but the events taking place in College Station State College Wednesday night following Joe Paterno’s ouster as Penn State head coach are happening largely in the dark, thanks to some serious news misjudgements by the “worldwide leader in sports,” ESPN.
Though ESPN apparently has a reporter live in the area, for several hours following the Paterno firing ESPN had no video or even still pictures from the scenes of the controversy — the massing crowds of students on College Avenue, or a smaller crowd outside Paterno’s house.
Conversely, on the ground Twitter reports were breaking news left and right, with CBS columnist Gregg Doyal using his @greggdoyelcbs to be among the first to report news trucks being overturned. And the school paper’s blog, @psufootblog, was the first outlet we saw to report Paterno’s brief public statements to the crowd outside his house. Other tweeters posted pictures of the crowd and of the overturned trucks, at least an hour before ESPN got any still images on TV.
ESPN recovered a bit later on, with some taped interviews by reporter Tom Farrey, including one with a brave student who said, on tape, that he supported the decision and that Joe Pa had to go. There was also an interview with another student who seemed a bit possessed with anger; but throughout the crisis, ESPN’s live cameras were nowhere to be found.
ESPN’s Poynter Review team issued a report Wednesday night saying the network missed the boat when the Paterno story broke. It appears that ESPN continued to be unready for more news at Penn State like Wednesday’s firing, which was predicted by many other media types. We’ll leave it to Jason Whitlock to deliver the coda on ESPN’s coverage:
And it looks like CBS Sports was on the scene with more material (HT to Bleacher Report for the heads up)
UPDATE: Here’s the Daily Collegian video from outside Paterno’s house:
I think the question I have is who cares. Trying to figure out why twitter was hammering ESPN, after reading this I discovered I just lost a few minutes of life. Who cares who films the news as long as you get it.
Of course ESPN wasn’t ready to cover the events on campus…all of their people were back in Bristol running in front of every camera and/or microphone they could find to call for Paterno’s head. ESPN is NOT a sports news network. It IS an activist organization with a bunch of low-rent Woodward and Bernstein wannabes who beat every one of these types of issues with coaches to death until they get their way. Jim Tressell no doubt agrees and so would Bobby Knight if they didn’t currently sign his paychecks.
Why are blogs and Twitter feeds and so on perceived as inferior? Get the facts right! It’s State College, not College Station. College Station is in Texas. Mediocrity everywhere!
Hah, good catch m. We have an opening for an unpaid copy editor, if you want to take it.
David, we care as we are actively watching the intersection of social/mobile technologies and sports. This is a big business that is expanding rapidly. I think anyone who bills themselves as “the worldwide leader in sports” needs to do a better job covering the day’s most important stories. What’s interesting to me is how the new tools available allow smart people with low overhead to do as good a job or a better job than the traditional “networks.”
That you don’t care where news comes from as long as you get it is proof that it doesn’t matter if the person telling you the news has on a tie and a sportcoat or is just a committed student in pursuit of the facts. That’s a pretty big revolution in perception in and of itself.
Michael, I would disagree with your perception… watching ESPN last night I would say it was running about 50-50 with various commentators/talking heads worrying about Joe Paterno’s “legacy” and trying to say this was a rush to judgement.
I also don’t remember ESPN leading the charge to get Tressel canned, or Bobby Knight. The fact that Knight was quickly welcomed back as an analyst I think shows that when push comes to shove ESPN will always side with teams and coaches, and not the other way around. They only seem to start calling for hides when the facts become so compelling that they have no choice. You don’t see ESPN refusing to cover Miami sports, do you?
While I disagree that it was 50/50, there were some saying he shouldn’t go. But the fact is, in pretty much every segment of every show, someone was asked if they thought Joe should be allowed to coach another game. With that, basically every 30 minutes or so there was someone calling for him to be fired or step down immediately. The fact that it was constantly brought up made it impossible for any group without a serious spine to not fire him.
If you don’t think ESPN lead the charge on Tressell then you just weren’t paying attention. Do a poll of Ohio State fans sometime and ask them what their thoughts are on it. I’ve dug around to confirm what I had already remembered from when it happened. Ohio State had punished Tressell and ESPN DID NOT accept that as being enough. Every football related segment came to a discussion of whether Tressell had been adequately punished and whether he should step down. They didn’t let the seemingly settled matter rest until Tressell was out and they had sufficiently tarnished his legacy.
As for Bob Knight being “quickly welcomed as an analyst”…not so. After getting canned at Indiana he went into relative exile at Texas Tech.
They only call for hides with compelling evidence? What evidence is compelling about misconduct by Joe Paterno? He reported his 2nd hand knowledge to the AD and the man who oversaw the campus police….he didn’t cover it up. The people who DID cover it up are facing charges….if Joe had covered it up he’d be facing charges too! But hey…the senior citizen failed to perform a ninja style assassination on Jerry Sandusky….he had to be let go…right?
Refuse to cover Miami sports? I don’t see that as anything remotely resembling a point. If you are alluding to the Shapiro scandal then what hide could they call for since Coker and Shannon were both already out. As for refusing to cover it….. What are you talking about? My point is when they want someone out, they oversaturate the issue with coverage until they get their way. Learn to follow an argument, please.
I agree with the coverage or lack-there-of for ESPN and I’ll add CNN to the mix. I tried to watch both channels and CNN, by far was days behind on the news at 1AM EST today. I would read something on Twitter then ESPN would report it 15 minutes later. As for CNN, they don’t even deserve to be mentioned when it comes to news. The anchor on the 1AM show did not even know when the next Penn State home game was and I’m surprised she even knows where Penn State is located. However, what else can we expect from the media, they are a bunch of useless leeches working in an industry that is one notch above prostitution.
You’re certainly entitled to your view of ESPN’s bias but compared to other national sports outlets I would continue to opine that they bend over backward in favor of the coach/team until the evidence becomes too compelling. Putting Matt Millen on air to talk about Penn State is just one example.
On Ohio State and Tressel asking OSU fans how they felt ESPN treated them would be predictable — nobody likes the bearer of bad news or strong negative opinion. And Bobby Knight in exile? Head coach of a Div 1 school is hardly exile, it’s national TV, coaches shows and then the eventual analyst gig. Hardly disgraced or the kind of kindness shown to someone ESPN allegedly tried to run out of town. And Miami — ESPN didn’t lead that, a great reporting job from Yahoo.com did. Your point that ESPN “oversaturates” things supposedly to get their way is not a point, they have no choice but to overcover things because sports is all they do. Like Brett Favre. ESPN basically doesn’t want these things. It wants to cover bowl games and have ha-ha fun discussions. If they have any agenda, it’s more along the lines of pushing conference realignment so there can be more games to broadcast. If you see witch hunts it’s your own tin foil hat providing the reception.
On Paterno — you are really on idiot island if you think he could or should have stayed on as coach another minute. Whether or not he ever broke any law, his moral and ethical transgressions — Sandusky allowed in the building as late as last week? — are simply too heinous. All I can say is that if it was your kid in that shower, would you feel the same way about Paterno? That he should get a “victory lap” because hey, all that stuff happened so long ago? Read the grand jury report. Then consider that Paterno ran everything at Penn State — he even refused to quit several years ago when asked by the administrators, so it’s clear who the boss was. That boss allowed an alleged child rapist to go unpunished and remain as an honored guest of the university for years. What, exactly, should he have been revered for? What would it say to the victims and their families if 70,000 gave good ol’ Joe Pa one more cheer?
Plus, Paterno gave the administrators no other choice than but to fire him, after he put it in their faces by saying he’d retire at year’s end and that they shouldn’t spend any more time on this matter. If they let him get away with that, their careers were finished, so their choice was easy. I’m actually amazed they had the spine to do it so swiftly.
I agree with your assessment of CNN because I tried the same thing — they can apparently cover wars in the Middle East but not in middle America.
Not sure I understand your rip on the media though, since you clearly were watching them in action… is there some other industry that you count on to get news and information? Or are you just a leech-watcher?
I agree in full Paul, one would think that main stream, being on site, would be one of the first to air thousands of pissed off protestors… Oh wait, it only took over 2,000 arrests in the OWS movement for anyone outside of a web stream to cover it. And still that is aired too little, considering the the size and impact it is having.
Whether you want to believe it or not, these type of actions are “filtered”, freedom of the press is non-existent in main stream media because of corporate interests. Wake up and smell the piss people, we have been hosed for decades now. The constitution is nothing more than a welcome mat for “the authorities” to step on as they take away every right that we as Americans are lead to believe are our birth rights.
Just the fact that the police stand by and allow this to happen, but at the same time use excessive force against the OWS protestors who are peaceful and not flipping media vans over is a true sign that the “right to peaceful assembly and free speech” are just ideas that once existed in American history but now can be considered folk lore similar to Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox Babe.
Pfft. I see, so since I completely disagree with you, you assume I’m on “idiot island” and wearing a “tinfoil hat” (project much) and of course must not have read the grand jury testimony. I’m really sorry you lacked the intelligence to follow my argument or to make yours but name calling doesn’t make you look any smarter. All it does is make clear to anyone who couldn’t already see it, that you are frustrated, uninformed, and out of your league.
Now, I’ll try again on Miami..I’ll type slowly for your benefit. Miami has N-o-t-h-i-n-g to dio with this. ESPN didn’t lead the charge at Miami because 1) Yahoo broke the story (you finally got 1 right). 2) There was nobody left to charge against because Larry Coker and Randy Shannon were already gone…I thought I said that. 3) Let’s remember you brought up Miami…so you bring up a completely unrelated case to argue…nevermind.
Bob Knight: If you don’t see Texas Tech Basketball as a MAJOR downgrade from where Indiana Basketball was with Bob Knight then you have no business writing sports or really even chatting up your bros around the office water cooler about sports.
Any disputing that Joe Paterno reported that he was informed of the incident? No? Right, thought not. You just join right in with all the mainstream media whores to fight to see who can jump to a higher level of righteous indignation. Real objective journalism.
Go ahead and take the last word, sport. From looking around your little site here…we’re pretty much the only ones reading this anyway. There are more comments on your average high school bathroom wall than every article I’ve looked at. Most of them just have you and 1 other writer making comments. With the level of knowledge,insight and objectivity you showed here…pretty clear why.
Oh, I missed 1. Overcover the issue…sure that goes without saying. But the issue is the constant ‘should he be fired?’ questions. When that is repeatedly asked, they DO NOT stop until whoever the target is is gone. Do some research sometime on ESPN’s coverage of Bob Knight and Miles Brand because you clearly don’t know what the Hell you’re talking about. Maybe you’re a little young to rememeber.
Maybe Ivan Maisel didn’t get the corporate memo that they wanted JoPa out:
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7211674/penn-state-nittany-lions-coach-joe-paterno-legacy-sullied-wake-sandusky-scandal
Posting links is fun huh? Since you love all things media..here’s one for ya……http://bleacherreport.com/articles/934266-espns-coverage-of-joe-paterno-one-disgrace-leads-to-another
The poll in the story you linked to says that 52 percent of people think the ESPN coverage is fair. I can see why you like the story, like you the author just claims that everyone at ESPN was calling for Paterno’s head when in fact for the two hours I watched they were confused and at times even seemed stunned that Paterno was fired. Levy in particular spent about an hour asking everyone in disbelief if it was true that Paterno had been fired over the phone. Like that matters.
ESPN’s own ombudsman (an independent reviewer) had a pretty good compilation of facts and links showing that ESPN was way behind in covering this story (link is above, in the main story). I would say that once the grand jury report came out ESPN, as the home of college football, had no choice but to saturate its coverage. That’s what you do when you are in the business of sports news. Where I disagree is that they have any kind of concerted agenda. I don’t think they are smart enough to do something like that, and the premise lacks a credible goal — why would they all of a sudden decide somebody had to go as a corporate goal? How, beyond a day or two of ratings, does it help drive profits or sell ads? Doesn’t make sense, even if it were remotely true.
If they were repeatedly asking the question of whether or not Paterno would be fired it’s because it was a legitimate follow to his statements and because the trustees hadn’t yet filled the vacuum. If some there were calling for his head that merely reflects the opinion of a large segment of society who heard or cared about this subject. Your premise that this is all they do is where I think you’re off base. But I assure you we will be watching coverage of future coaching-scandal developments closely as this startup site grows and gains more readers itself. The more proof/links/stories you can submit to back up your opinions only helps inform our readers, so please, have at it. And my apologies for the tin hat references and the idiot island riff. You’re correct, we’re better than that and we will strive to be so going forward.
ESPN was busy creating the news by working to break up and create new D1 conferences based primarily on football programs.
It’s not a question as to whether ESPN is smart enough to have a concerted effort and I am not a conspiracy theory nut who believes there is some emperor of ESPN who gives them their marching orders. But any ESPN on air talent will tell you that they cover the story of the day about every 15 minutes because most people only tune in for a few minutes at a time. So naturally they want the story that catches the auduence’s attention. They DO try to turn things into a bigger story than it should be for the sake of bringing in more vieweres/listeners. These are like minded individuals (as is generally the case with people in the same profession at the same company) who work many hours a day on a campus that essentially becomes their universe. They all talk to each other and there does become serious repetition on the points the individual on air talents make. There becomes a set of talking points on nearly every issue. Just watch ESPN for 3-4 hours a day for a week or two with that in mind and tell me I’m not right. Examples…Paterno must go, Tressel must go, Tebow can’t throw, Brett Favre…well…too much to even name, Cam Newton wasn’t as good as Blaine Gabbert (how’s that working out?)
I get that you posted the Maisel article to prop up your argument that they aren’t all against Paterno, but fact is I never E-E-EVER said they were ALL calling for his head. Again, point is this, The Paterno story was the story of the day, discussed every few minutes, each and every show that has any focus on college football asked multiple people if Joe Paterno should be fired or step down. The result was having someone saying he should be fired or step down every few minutes and most of those that didn’t say he should be fired avoided giving a straight answer.
All that said, I do think there are those at ESPN who go out of their way to go after college coaches. They describe (on air) college coaches as being kings or dictators on their campus. A good many at ESPN would prefer they be the kings of the sports world. Much, maybe even most of the issues come down to simple journalistic biases. The reporters have their favorites and those who they just hate. Bill Plashke has been one who called for Paterno to resign from the time the story broke, today admitted that Paterno had not been very courteous to him in an interview when Penn State was last in the Rose Bowl but Plashke had not mentioned it until now because he didn’t want it to seem like he was whining. Is it that or is it that he didn’t want his opinion to be seen as biased? Now, look for a story about someone at ESPN calling for Pete Carroll’s head when it became clear he was essentially running a semi-pro team at USC. You will be hard pressed to find any. Why? Carroll was an all access guy. Bow down and kiss the four letter network’s ring and you shall be granted forgiveness. But, if like Jim Tressel, Bob Knight and especially Joe Paterno, you run an isolated program and you would prefer not do a lot of interviews or in some way make an ESPN reporter feel somehow slighted…when the opportunity arises, those at ESPN will bury you.
Oh and I had not even noticed or voted in that poll on the article I posted. Clearly I was posting the article. But since you brought the poll up, if 46% (what it is currently at) of your viewers think you are biased or unfair…are you really going to call that a success? But as it sits, it’s still way too few votes to call it a fair sampling one way or the other.
See? Now 50.9 unfair to 49.1 fair. Online polling can generally be pretty unreliable anyway. Easy to manipulate and stuff a ballot box.
http://www.sportsgrid.com/ncaa-football/buckeye-witch-hunt-does-espn-suing-ohio-state-create-a-mammoth-conflict-of-interest/
Again, give access and they’ll give you a pass but if you dare shut them out,,,well…read for yourself.