Sad day for those of us who miss sports NEWS

[Cobra Mgr]

Bob Ley is retiring. TV sports journalism now rests in its grave. The weeds of the sports personality now overruns the tombstone.

[Déjà Bru]

Now, now, CM. It can't be as bad as all that. Weed-covered tombstone, indeed.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Now, now, CM. It can't be as bad as all that. Weed-covered tombstone, indeed.

When can you watch sports these days and not have a bunch of blowhards giving their personal (often poorly informed) opinion, but sticking to reporting facts? I miss the days when commentary was restricted to the final segment of the broadcast.

All I want is for someone to tell me what happened. I can form my own opinion. This is why I rarely, if ever, watch sports talk shows. Give me news, not hot takes.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

When can you watch sports these days and not have a bunch of blowhards giving their personal (often poorly informed) opinion, but sticking to reporting facts? I miss the days when commentary was restricted to the final segment of the broadcast.

All I want is for someone to tell me what happened. I can form my own opinion. This is why I rarely, if ever, watch sports talk shows. Give me news, not hot takes.

Well, tombstones aside, I can't say that I disagree with you. It's part and parcel of the dumbing down of society which is a real phenomenon, not a generational thing.

Goddamned television and now social media are the worst in this regard. People flock, some of them complaining but doing so anyway, to be momentarily entertained rather than solidly informed. Whatever feels good now, you know? Short sound bytes, distorted faces, waving arms - titillation!

Taking it a step further, and being doomy and gloomy myself, it's the reason why I don't believe democracy is viable nor the natural state of man. Most people are basically too damned dumb for it survive and now that their dumbness is magnified exponentially by social media, it's headed for the trash heap.

[Buster Cherry]

Sports journalism (especially on television) today is composed mostly of geeks who are bitter because they couldn't play the game, former jocks who are bitter because they can't play the game anymore, and women who are hired for their looks and little else.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Taking it a step further, and being doomy and gloomy myself, it's the reason why I don't believe democracy is viable nor the natural state of man. Most people are basically too damned dumb for it survive and now that their dumbness is magnified exponentially by social media, it's headed for the trash heap.

Oh I know that's true. Jeremiah 10:23 - "I well know, O Jehovah, that man's way does not belong to him. It does not belong to man who is walking even direct his step."

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

When can you watch sports these days and not have a bunch of blowhards giving their personal (often poorly informed) opinion, but sticking to reporting facts? I miss the days when commentary was restricted to the final segment of the broadcast.

All I want is for someone to tell me what happened. I can form my own opinion. This is why I rarely, if ever, watch sports talk shows. Give me news, not hot takes.

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

When can you watch sports these days and not have a bunch of blowhards giving their personal (often poorly informed) opinion, but sticking to reporting facts? I miss the days when commentary was restricted to the final segment of the broadcast.

All I want is for someone to tell me what happened. I can form my own opinion. This is why I rarely, if ever, watch sports talk shows. Give me news, not hot takes.

Agree with all of that. But, hey, why should sports talk/reporting be any different than news? I'm fine with the shows on cable news that clearly market themselves as opinion, but have you seen, for example, CNN's purported news shows lately?

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by thehef

Agree with all of that. But, hey, why should sports talk/reporting be any different than news? I'm fine with the shows on cable news that clearly market themselves as opinion, but have you seen, for example, CNN's purported news shows lately?

No. I don't watch any of it. Opinions have infiltrated news reports so bad, that I have to read multiple sources to be clear on what is a fact and what is spin.

And that is terrible. It didn't used to be that way. The reputations of newscasters has gone the same place as the integrity of the police or the sincerity of the scientist: Oblivion. Why anyone would prefer a world where the honesty of the person in front of them is always in question is beyond me.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

No. I don't watch any of it. Opinions have infiltrated news reports so bad, that I have to read multiple sources to be clear on what is a fact and what is spin.

And that is terrible. It didn't used to be that way. The reputations of newscasters has gone the same place as the integrity of the police or the sincerity of the scientist: Oblivion. Why anyone would prefer a world where the honesty of the person in front of them is always in question is beyond me.

So unless you turn the sound down I'm guessing you don't watch either college football or college basketball on the Disney Channel. ESPN commentators turn every college game into a talk radio. The game becomes background noise.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by David Watts

So unless you turn the sound down I'm guessing you don't watch either college football or college basketball on the Disney Channel. ESPN commentators turn every college game into a talk radio. The game becomes background noise.

I watch the games. I try to tune out the announcers. It gets on my everlasting nerves listening to ESPN stump for the NCAA football "playoff" as an equitable system. And, my god!, having Vitale & Walton talk about everything except what is going on the court. (Hubie Brown, save us!) Then this season, the frikkin' Zion cult that ESPN started.......I never was less knowledgeable about the college basketball national landscape than last season because I wanted to strangle every ESPN exec when they did a feature on Williamson & dook on every frikkin' broadcast! I just flipped the channel or hit mute during halftime. Didn't ever look at the highlight shows.

It's a shame, IMO, that the public puts up with this.They have to much influence on the sports narrative. But the average viewer's brain is too numb to realize they are being manipulated.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

I watch the games. I try to tune out the announcers. It gets on my everlasting nerves listening to ESPN stump for the NCAA football "playoff" as an equitable system. And, my god!, having Vitale & Walton talk about everything except what is going on the court. (Hubie Brown, save us!) Then this season, the frikkin' Zion cult that ESPN started.......I never was less knowledgeable about the college basketball national landscape than last season because I wanted to strangle every ESPN exec when they did a feature on Williamson & dook on every frikkin' broadcast! I just flipped the channel or hit mute during halftime. Didn't ever look at the highlight shows.

It's a shame, IMO, that the public puts up with this.They have to much influence on the sports narrative. But the average viewer's brain is too numb to realize they are being manipulated.

Still debating whether I will up my directv package this fall when college football starts. As of now, I don't even have ESPN and ESPN2. U and News is all I have. 20 bucks a month is too much for a station that drives me away from sports, more than to it.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Still debating whether I will up my directv package this fall when college football starts. As of now, I don't even have ESPN and ESPN2. U and News is all I have. 20 bucks a month is too much for a station that drives me away from sports, more than to it.

I hear ya. I watch the games for the love of the sport. But what surrounds the game off the field is a real turn off. When I watch, I flip on the match, then go online & surf or play Cities Skylines or OOTP. That way the convos don't disturb me as bad cause I'm distracted.

[Buster Cherry]

Baseball Tonight on ESPN is the worst. For years they have spent the first two-thirds of the program talking about the Noo Yawk Yankees and the Bahstan Red Sawks and the final third of the program about everyone else. They need to move ESPN headquarters somewhere besides Bristol CT which is in the heart of both Yankee and Red Sawks county. For the ESPN poohbahs it seems that those are the only two teams that exist.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Buster Cherry

Baseball Tonight on ESPN is the worst. For years they have spent the first two-thirds of the program talking about the Noo Yawk Yankees and the Bahstan Red Sawks and the final third of the program about everyone else. They need to move ESPN headquarters somewhere besides Bristol CT which is in the heart of both Yankee and Red Sawks county. For the ESPN poohbahs it seems that those are the only two teams that exist.

Sports media bias began w/the baseball press making the Yanks/BoSox the epicenter of the sport. That, & the Notre Dame football love affair.

[Buster Cherry]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Sports media bias began w/the baseball press making the Yanks/BoSox the epicenter of the sport. That, & the Notre Dame football love affair.

Don't forget the America's Team video by NFL Films that made everyone in sports media fall in love with the Dallas Cowboys.

[rink23]

There are sports outside of the NBA and Duke basketball?

Watching ESPN these days will make you think that is the case. …

Another example why ESPN has gone to hell. They break into their NBA talk for 30 seconds to announce Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs has passed away. Go to break and they come back to continue arguing about if KD going to the Nets is a good decision and what's going to happen to the Warriors.

[Ty Cobb]

Like most things that are bought up by the Magic Kingdom Political Machine, the (E)xtra (S)ensitive (P)olitics (N)innies became a worthless shell within a year. I'm frankly surprised that Disney didn't screw up the MCU any more than they did.