ESPN's entire enterprise/institution has been reduced to S.A. Smith clickbait reactio

[Neal Romer]

It's not his fault or ESPN's fault necessarily, the internet has reduced demand for quality programming, and therefore the budget for quality programming has dwindled. Letting the public choose its entertainment (a la the internet) is like letting school kids choose their curriculum. It will naturally be a low brow and shallow curriculum. Thats simply the public's general level and taste for things.

But it's just crazy to think of what ESPN used to be. Sportcenter every morning with Craig Kilborn, Kenny Mayne, Stu Scott, Linda Cohn, Steve Levy etc... Sunday Conversations.... NFL Countdown with Boomer and Tom Jackson. PTI (still on but not as prominent).

Now ESPN's entire network enterprise is basically just clips of Stephen A with a contorted face, "blasting the cowboys" or getting "fired up over mad dogs comments" or "not having shannon's excuses for this or that player" or "infuriated by his knicks" or "hyped about his knicks."

The whole network is just Stephen A Smith yelling about the latest superficial sports drama.

Again, it's not anyones fault. The internet and social media has stretched the content web so thin by creating so many options, theres no imperative now to consolidate a lot of resources into select options. You just have to screech and make outrageous faces like everyone else out there in the viral market place is doing. Or else youre just wasting time and money.

I guess it's just crazy to see even such a once proud and noble institution (on the surface anyway) as ESPN succumbing to the pressures of the modern frenzied shit show mania of stupidity that is public entertainment now.

[SouBeachTalents]

Tbf though it's far from only ESPN. Granted, I know they've been kind of irrelevant for a while now with print media going the way of the dinosaur, but Sports Illustrated used to be by far the premier sports magazine in the country, I even had a subscription back in the day.

You check out their website now, it's unreal how trashy it is. Nothing but gossipy headlines like

"Bills source had telling quote about split with Diggs"

"LeBron had blunt response to what he still needs to accomplish in his career"

"Tatis Jr. had four-word message right after hitting home run"

Just the absolute lowest common denominator, clickbait "journalism" imaginable. And they used to produce legitimately great content.

Sadly, fans get the coverage they deserve, and most fans seem to like this bullshit.

[SouBeachTalents]

Not that I ever disputed OP's claims, but taking a quick look at ESPN's site right now, literally 5 of the top stories are Stephen A reaction videos :oldlol:

[Neal Romer]

Tbf though it's far from only ESPN. Granted, I know they've been kind of irrelevant for a while now with print media going the way of the dinosaur, but Sports Illustrated used to be by far the premier sports magazine in the country, I even had a subscription back in the day.

You check out their website now, it's unreal how trashy it is. Nothing but gossipy headlines like

"Bills source had telling quote about split with Diggs"

"LeBron had blunt response to what he still needs to accomplish in his career"

"Tatis Jr. had four-word message right after hitting home run"

Just the absolute lowest common denominator, clickbait "journalism" imaginable. And they used to produce legitimately great content.

Sadly, fans get the coverage they deserve, and most fans seem to like this bullshit.



Link?


For a friend, btw. I dont care about this stupid sensationalism myself, but just... cuz my friend wants to read it, could you hook me up with that Lebron story?

I agree tho this stuff is out of control and terrible.

But when you get a chance. I'll take the link to the Lebron story.

[jlip]

This is the current state of news media period. Honestly, there simply is not enough real, meaningful news actually happening warranting 24/7 coverage, but social media has created the demand for news outlets to have something posted and attention grabbing available 24/7 just to be "relevant" and competitive, no matter how insignificant and pointless the story is. In terms of sports, we know FAR more useless information about athletes' and sports personalities' lives than what we knew 30 years ago.

[ILLsmak]

Shuda kept lowe.

I don’t agree about internet, tho. The internet has amazing content and they could have partnered with great content creators. Espn is behind the times with their model. They could have kept picking up yt level guys then letting them go when they wanted to much. I am a bball fan, so i don’t really go in on other sports, but like this guy: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12091721/

There are plenty of people they could put on. Talent is at a high imo, and nobody really likes steven (stephen?) a.

-Smak

[Hey Yo]

I saw where they're bringing "sports reporters" show back which will probably be dumb cause whoever they use will more than likely not be reporters.

Use to be one of my favorite shows back in the day.

[Wardell Curry]

It is the nature of humanity's fault. People are emotional creatures.

The internet isn't the cause, it's just the medium. But to be fair to your point, what the internet has done is create a field of competition that is seemingly endless so the most outrageous attention grabbing garbage wins. It is indeed a race to the bottom and if networks don't do it, they're out of business.

[Full Court]

Link?


For a friend, btw. I dont care about this stupid sensationalism myself, but just... cuz my friend wants to read it, could you hook me up with that Lebron story?

I agree tho this stuff is out of control and terrible.

But when you get a chance. I'll take the link to the Lebron story.

I'll save you some time and just give you the cliffs, bro.


"LeBron had blunt response to what he still needs to accomplish in his career"

- Still needs to catch Jordan to be in the GOAT conversation.
- Still needs to pass Curry to be the best of his generation.
- Still needs to trademark Taco Tuesday.
- Still needs to convince the public that he's not the biggest choker of all time.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.