2013年8月26日 星期一

The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, Rob Oller column

Source: The Columbus Dispatch, OhioAug.儲存倉 26--Size and strength are not synonymous. Large can be weak. Gigantic can lack backbone. Just look at ESPN.As enormous as ESPN is, a series of recent reports in The New York Times indicate the World Wide Leader backed down from an even bigger beast: the NFL.The cowardly lion comes to mind.The Times reported on Saturday that ESPN last week divorced itself from a jointly produced documentary on the NFL's handling of head injuries. The network had been working on the project with Frontline, a Public Affairs Television series, until the NFL complained about the documentary during a recent lunch meeting between league and ESPN executives.The meeting was combative, the Times reported, as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made clear his displeasure with how the documentary attempts to portray the league as having ignored evidence that players were suffering brain trauma that could lead to long-term cognitive disability.Rather than further rile the NFL, with which it does business -- among other elements, Monday Night Football is an ESPN enterprise -- the sports network pulled out of the partnership with Frontline.The NFL denied trying to influence the project's narrative, according to the Times. ESPN's explanation for parting with Frontline, which it has collaborated with previously to produce powerful investigative journalism, included misunderstandings about which entity had editorial control over the documentary, which is scheduled to run in October.It is difficult to believe the NFL did not exert pressure on ESPN to distance itself from the documentary. The league has turned pro football into the most popular sport in America, in part by masking the message. Whereas the NBA excels at spinning information, the NFL goes one better by controlling it. Everything is on a need-to-know basis, with the league office being the only one who needs to know.People prefer parties to funerals, and the NFL delivers good times by keeping the worst of the bad news to a minimum, eve迷你倉沙田 when that means burying it by making a fist during lunch at a tony Manhattan restaurant. Credit where it's due, I suppose.But when facing something so gratuitous as brain trauma, even the NFL cannot -- or at least should not be allowed to -- hide behind its powerful presence.ESPN, however, let the league off the hook. The network had a chance to make a statement by remaining connected with Frontline. That statement could have read: "We expect to be taken seriously both as an entertainment enterprise and as a respected news organization. For that to happen, we need to shine light into the shadows, come what may."ESPN does do some fine journalism. Its Outside the Lines news show is notable for its fair and unflinching approach to controversial content. But this cave-in to the NFL takes the network back two steps.Unfortunately, it is not the first time ESPN has kowtowed to the NFL. As the Times reports, in 2004 the NFL was displeased with Playmakers, an ESPN series that depicted NFL players in an unflattering light. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue was so unsettled by the series that he complained to the chief executive of the Walt Disney Co., ESPN's parent company. Soon after, ESPN stopped promoting the series, then canceled it after one season.The NFL seldom loses, which is the shame of this latest tussle between a league and the media-entertainment behemoth that covers it. Certainly, networks have backed down before when faced with a choice between promoting real journalism and maintaining proper -- re: lucrative -- network-sports league relations.The difference here is that ESPN might be the one media-entertainment monster that could tell the NFL to back off and not suffer for it. The network is that big. Unfortunately, apparently it also is that chicken.Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.roller@dispatch.com@rollerCDCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at .dispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉價錢

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