On what ESPN does wrong

I get these daily emails from a very worthy journalism school of sorts called the Poynter Institute.

A few weeks ago I got one that included a link to the final Ombudsman column of George Solomon. He recently stepped down and I've actually linked to a column from the new Ombud in reference to Colin Cowherd.

For reference, an Ombud is supposed to be an objective third party of sorts that works to maintain balance and good news judgment. Every major news source has one. They are paid to ask the tough questions of their staff and make sure they have integrity.

Anyway, that's all just an intro to say how I came upon this column that Solomon wrote noting the good, bad and ugly from his time at ESPN. It's unabashedly critical at times and not to overly self-indulgent.

Specifically, Solomon takes the ESPN.com column writers to task, saying:

I would suggest ESPN.com do more editing of its Page 2 columnists -- some of whom seem to shoot from the hip for the sole purpose of shooting from the hip. In the same vein, ESPN commentators, including some of the network's biggest stars on TV and radio, might be more thoughtful and less outrageous and loud in their opinions. I've always believed just because someone has the title of commentator or columnist, it doesn't mean he or she should not be held to the same journalistic standards of fairness and accuracy as everyone else on the ESPN team. I also wonder why some commentators believe viewers are interested in their political views? Also, ESPN editors should be more careful of their staffers claiming exclusive stories when these stories are not always exclusive.

That's one paragraph of Solomon's column, but it sums up neatly what is wrong with much of ESPN's content. Reporting of sports doesn't preclude you from the rules that govern journalism. Covering sports doesn't somehow mean you aren't going to be expected to have journalistic integrity.

You can make jokes about the media and journalists and bias, if you'd like. But first and foremost, I'd like someone to define this all-encompassing term of "the media." Certainly one cannot claim that the folks who work at ESPN are the same as the people on MSNBC or CNN and certainly all those folks are infinitely different from the journalists who work on your local newspaper.

Frankly, I'm not particularly sure what my point is in posting this. I just found it interesting and I think it says a lot about the state of journalism today and I thought I'd share.