Quote:
Originally Posted by SmootSmack
ESPN, unlike MTV and music, is still about sports. And it's, more often than not, the first place people go to.
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I think that's the point. If it is really is about sports then why all the junk? At some point the whiny internet crowd is not going to be just the whiny internet crowd anymore. In my opinion, and a lot of other people it seems, ESPN is headed the wrong direction.
I would argue that ESPN's focus is no longer sports. Their focus is story-telling using sports as the backdrop. They have to keep sports in the fore-front as much as they can but it is clear they consider the entertainment value of the story of the sports most important. They constantly highlight personalities and conflict. It seems very clear that ESPN "makes" stories. Not that they make them up but instead they turn what just 10 years ago would have been an afterthought into major strories. When you become the news maker and not the news teller you are on dangerous ground. Again, it really is the entire industry but ESPN, as far as sports goes is the leader in this regard.