The Eye Black on Sports Journalism

Here's a perfect example of what's wrong with the media today: Over the weekend, on a day when there were perfectly good football games to report on, ESPN SportsCenter spent the first seven and a half minutes of its presentation discussing something that MIGHT happen. They had a live report from Yankee Stadium about the fact that Joe Torre might be fired as manager of the Yankees. Today, the news emerges that Torre won't be fired.
So, let's see. SportsCenter got it wrong, spent almost eight minutes getting it wrong, and no doubt today will not admit that they got it wrong. Their whole power block was based on a questionable newspaper report, to start with. The execution was bad and the journalism was worse. This does not even consider the fact that on an amazing football weekend, they dedicated inordinate blocks of their time to a baseball story was didn't really exist.
Since ESPN is the lead dog in the sportscasting pack, almost every little yapper out there in the sportscasting world went with some version of "what might happen to Joe Torre." It was ridiculous and embarrassing.
Don't get me wrong, if the Yankess had actually fired Joe Torre, then I wouldn't have a problem with SportsCenter of any other sports media outlet dedicating time and resources to the story. That's becuase it would have been a story, which it wasn't and isn't. Or, is it? It's a story today because Torre won't be fired. Of course, the fact that he's keeping his job is only a story today because one newspaper in New York and one cable outfit made up a story over the weekend. That is the sorry state of journalism today.

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