Espn

[JoVision]

I know how Braves fans feel about this, but I wanna get a good sample of other fans to see what everyone else thinks.

ESPN comes across to me as being very biased. The only two teams that I ever hear about are the Yankees, and the Bo Sox (Now the Dodgers because they have Torre). Whenever they have a game on TV no matter who is playing they seem to favor one team and make it VERY obvious. They almost seem to hate the Braves. I have watched several games when the Braves where pitching well and rather than give credit to the pitchers they make the assertion that the hitters are having a bad day. This is not just limited to the Braves of course, but I watch more Braves games than any other. They are constantly kissing Joe Torre's rear. In the first televised ST game for the Braves on ESPN they faced the Dodgers. All I heard about was Torre and how he was 7th all time in wins, and how great he was. They seemed to have missed the fact that sitting in the other dugout was a man who is 4th all time. Granted Torre has way more rings, but they weren't even talking about that. The other day the Braves missed a no hitter by one out. They had one little 5 sec clip about the game and barely mentioned it. Then they went into this long story about Hank Steinbrenner flapping his gums about the Red Sox nation. Not trying to discount either team, but I wanna see baseball not drama. Just to clarify, I love sportscenter, but I hate ESPN's coverage of baseball.

I may be way off here, and if so please correct me.

[insanefishpossay]

I've been frustrated at times about things like this too, but you have to keep in mind that the Yankees and the Red Sox do have the two largest nationwide fanbases. Sure it sucks, but I'm not going to hate a business for trying to appeal to the largest part of it's market.

[KCGHOST]

I can't believe you are accusing the Eastcoast Sports Programming Network located in Connecticut of bias.

[JoVision]

Location is irrelevant, they are a NATIONAL network, and there are other teams on the east coast.

[VIBaseball]

I can't believe you are accusing the Eastcoast Sports Programming Network located in Connecticut of bias.

My main beef with ESPN is the Disney mentality: relentless cross-promotion and the idea that everything has to be part of an "entertainment package."

[JoVision]

I know they have the right to broadcast anything they want. They could be the Yankees Network if they wanted to, but it would behoove them to keep the bias to a minimum in order to maximize veiwing. The reason it makes me mad is because they are the only sports network on tv worth watching and there are several teams that they harp on that I don't care for. I also understand them trying to get the widest base of fans and the Yanks have that, but they also are the most hated team in all of baseball by a long shot. How many veiwers do they gain with that extra 5 minutes of yankees vs. how many do they loose with it. Keep in mind the extra 5 is probably only gonna attract die hard fans and they would have been watching anyway. The yankee haters might be turned completely away from ESPN though this means they probably aren't die hard fans.
When TBS was the Braves network the commentators were subjective, but they did give credit where credit was due and they were a national network.

Anyway I wanted to say that my assertion about Braves fans feelings on this subject was a little bold let me change that to say all the Braves fans I have talked to. I just wanted to express my frustration before the beginning of the season so I can watch having gotten this off my chest.

[Old Sweater]

Talk show host was just talking about this. He said that ESPN, was a profit making network that do what is best to improve their audience. That is the main reason that ESPN quit televising golf. ESPN promoted golf to the max and still lost money on it.

[SouthwestAmAZins]

ESPN promoted golf to the max and still lost money on it.

Now they just promote Tiger

[dabigyankeeman]

Some of us would be perfectly happy just to see ESPN cover the Yankees and Dread Sox.

[bigtime39]

The day of the Santana trade, ESPN made their jumping of the shark official, when they lead Sportscenter with "Santana to the Met$...how will this affect the Yankee$?"
Their last flicker of credibility died there and then.


BTW, have you also noticed that they threw the NHL down a black hole after they stopped televising games?

[bigtime39]

Some of us would be perfectly happy just to see ESPN cover the Yankees and Dread Sox.

Others among us would be perfectly happy to see the Yankee$ and Red $ox either forced to work within an NFL-style revenue sharing system, or disbanded.

[bob]

They'd have alot more complaints if they focused half the program on a kansas city v tampa bay match or 2 other small town teams. It just mkes good business sense to focus more on the teams with the largest support base.

[philkid3]

I feel ESPN is a lot less biased than most fans seem to accuse them of being, but there is a definite, if slight, Red Sox slant. They are also more suseptible (how come I can't spell that?) to the east coast bias than a national media source should be. And by that I don't mean they show preference towards the east but rather a lack of knowledge of the west. I don't think they actually like the ACC more than the Pac-10, they just focus on it a lot more since it's more local and fits their time zone better. Their perception is skewed.

As far as the Sox and Yanks, the Yankees are the most popular team. I guarantee you ESPN isn't full of Cowboys fans, but as a Cowboys fan I am never hurting for news on my team. Why? Because the Cowboys are the most popular team in the country and ESPN is catering to viewers. The Yankees are the biggest team in baseball and thus they get the most air time. They also have a big rivalry with the Red Sox, who are also very popular, and thus Boston gets a lot of attention as well.

It would be nice if ESPN was perfect, but they're a business and as such need to get viewers. They get viewers by appealling to casual sports fans (the rest of us are going to watch anyway), reporting the most sensational stories and spending time on the biggest teams and players.


This isn't to defend ESPN, I hate ESPN, but as much as I'm annoyed by a one hour special on the state of the Yankees, I don't think it's because of bias. It's because it sells.

[redlegsfan21]

BTW, have you also noticed that they threw the NHL down a black hole after they stopped televising games?

I think the NHL put themselves in a black hole with their strike but thats another story.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Some of us would be perfectly happy just to see ESPN cover the Yankees and Dread Sox.

The air is thin on Mt. Myopia, though. If ESPN is going to do that, they need to stop making themselves available to cable companies throughout the country.