Quote:For example, two different broadcasters on the network, analyst Brock Huard and anchor Cassidy Hubbarth, proclaimed that Florida State – one of only two teams in this week's AP top five not in the SEC – "barely escaped," "struggled" and took Wake Forest "down to the wire" in a game it won 43-3.

Or consider the way ESPN covered a pair of wins against Tennessee earlier this season. The first, a 24-point margin of victory for the Big 12's Oklahoma, was characterized on Twitter as "Oklahoma holds on to beat Tennessee 34-10." [Emphasis added.] The second, a three-point win, 35-32, for the SEC's Georgia, was positioned, "Dawgs run away from Vols."

Quote:ESPN's coverage of off-the-field transgressions by athletes is patently inconsistent across conferences, with clear de-emphasis of violations committed by athletes in the SEC and hyperscrutiny of those outside it. For instance, save a link on its SEC blog, ESPN has yet to report the discovery of 100 grams of marijuana and nearly $5,000 in cash in Alabama tight end Kurt Freitag's dorm room.

Meanwhile, the chaplain for Oklahoma, a "staffer" for Cincinnati and RB Joey Iosefa of Hawaii have all received pixels and airtime for their offenses. Of course, Jameis Winston is a fixture atop the network's programming blocks, tickers and home pages, mostly for news based on unfounded allegations. In fact, a statement issued on October 17th by FSU declaring it has found no evidence that Winston received compensation in return for over 2,000 autographed items was spun with the following headline: "FSU: No evidence yet of payment." The word "yet" does not appear anywhere in athletic director Stan Wilcox's actual statement, and its addition is both crucial and arguably reckless.

Contrast that with a recent feature on ESPN.com about Alabama linebacker D.J. Pettway, kicked off the team in 2013 for his involvement in a robbery and assault so brutal one of the assailants believed the victim dead until they gave his lifeless body an investigative kick. As the article states, "[Head coach Nick] Saban said he was satisfied with the way he handled his punishment: 11 months of what amounted to exile at a junior college in Scooba, Mississippi." The victim, as a result of the vicious attack, contemplated suicide and dropped out of school.

Not high-profile enough? Consider the treatment of the starting quarterback opposite Winston in last year's national championship game, Nick Marshall, who was cited in July for possession of a small amount of marijuana, a violation of a city ordinance. Auburn imposed a half-game suspension, drawing no criticism, while Winston received the same penalty over a publicly shouted obscenity – not a crime – and earned this line from ESPN's Mark Schlabach: "How many strikes does Winston get before he goes from being a foolish, immature college student to a complete knucklehead who can't be trusted?" Shortly thereafter, Winston's suspension was expanded to a full game.

In early 2012, Marshall was also dismissed from the University of Georgia after he was caught stealing from a teammate. You would think that, like Winston, his missteps would follow him into every broadcast. But you'd be wrong.

Quote:But allegations of bias are finally beginning to bubble up from the fan level, prompting ESPN's College GameDay host Chris Fowler to take to twitter last week in defense of the mothership.

Fowler further acknowledged the controversy during GameDay on Saturday, weirdly breaking the fourth wall to declare "I get defensive when stupid, uninformed stuff gets repeated again and again, and people all over the world think that somehow we have a stake in having three teams from [the SEC] get in [the playoff]."

Let's forget that ESPN has built a $50 billion sportszilla by repeating stupid, uninformed stuff again and again – it does have a stake in placing as many teams in the playoff as possible. Fowler admitted as much during the same 70-second screed. Of the current power imbalance in college football that favors the SEC he said, as if to refute ESPN's aforementioned stake, "That's great for the SEC…That's great for the SEC Network…" But the SEC Network is ESPN. Even defenses of the network end up making the case against it.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/feat...z3HT1eiKkh
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

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This is the same rag that featured the Boston Bomber on the cover because of his looks.

Compelling case made in article.

Am I allowed to throw out conspiracy theories or no?

(10-28-2014 11:17 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  Am I allowed to throw out conspiracy theories or no?

On THIS message board? You're not allowed to not throw out conspiracy theories!

(10-29-2014 12:49 AM)justinslot Wrote:  

(10-28-2014 11:17 PM)ncbeta Wrote:  Am I allowed to throw out conspiracy theories or no?

On THIS message board? You're not allowed to not throw out conspiracy theories!

UNC grads in the media pumping up the SEC while the athletic debacle goes down. As CFB continues to bash FSU, they'll eventually get screwed out of the playoff. That's when they announce their move to the SEC and the fans agree that the move is the best thing for the program.

ESPN killed the original Big East, the ACC is next!

From the quoted passages alone, one can tell that the article was poorly researched. It began with an agenda, then created a fiction around it to make it plausible. I am not an apologist for ESPN, as I believe that the network is often the TMZ of sports. But the writer of this story stating things as fact that are clearly untrue. Take the Freitag comments. The article claims that ESPN "has yet to report" the incident, but the truth is that the day it came to light, the story was all over ESPN, had segments, devoted to it on shows other than Sportscenter, and it appeared on the crawl.

There are several other examples, but the truth is that this was shoddy reporting, poor writing and an agenda driven shock piece, no matter how one feels about ESPN.

(10-29-2014 06:46 AM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  From the quoted passages alone, one can tell that the article was poorly researched. It began with an agenda, then created a fiction around it to make it plausible. I am not an apologist for ESPN, as I believe that the network is often the TMZ of sports. But the writer of this story stating things as fact that are clearly untrue. Take the Freitag comments. The article claims that ESPN "has yet to report" the incident, but the truth is that the day it came to light, the story was all over ESPN, had segments, devoted to it on shows other than Sportscenter, and it appeared on the crawl.

There are several other examples, but the truth is that this was shoddy reporting, poor writing and an agenda driven shock piece, no matter how one feels about ESPN.

So you're saying that someone has an agenda to prove that ESPN has an agenda?

There's more college football fans in the deep south, plain and simple. Call it a conspiracy if you want but they're just playing to their biggest audience. It's the same thing that every media company does.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/skeptici...-espn.html

Even if Fowler's point that ESPN is completely without bias is true, skepticism and constantly holding the Worldwide Leader accountable is still a healthy thing for college football and its fans.

And Fowler's points aren't wholly without merit, but the ad hominem attacks were needless and undermined whatever he was trying to get across. It reeked of the old "Bush Not Liar, Bush Says" Onion headline.

(10-29-2014 07:39 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 06:46 AM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  From the quoted passages alone, one can tell that the article was poorly researched. It began with an agenda, then created a fiction around it to make it plausible. I am not an apologist for ESPN, as I believe that the network is often the TMZ of sports. But the writer of this story is stating things as fact that are clearly untrue. Take the Freitag comments. The article claims that ESPN "has yet to report" the incident, but the truth is that the day it came to light, the story was all over ESPN, had segments devoted to it on shows other than Sportscenter, and it appeared on the crawl.

There are several other examples, but the truth is that this was shoddy reporting, poor writing and an agenda driven shock piece, no matter how one feels about ESPN.

So you're saying that someone has an agenda to prove that ESPN has an agenda?

Why yes, yes I am.

The SEC has, with rare exception, stood out as the superior college football conference of the past decade and has accounted for seven of the last eight national champions and nine of the last eighteen BCS Title Game participants. ESPN doesn't even get the marquee SEC game each week. That goes to CBS. The SEC also leads the nation in attendance by total fans and average per game. It gets attention because it is worthy of attention. If some AP voters (most of whom work for other media entities) happened to overrate Texas A&M and South Carolina earlier this season, that's their responsibility, not ESPN's. Does ESPN push the SEC Network harder than it ought to? I am willing to accept that as a possibility, but don't think they've gone over the line and it's a channel that frankly is meant to preach to the converted more than anything else. I'd actually argue that for a variety of reasons, Fox Sports Media Group doesn't push BTN hard enough.

Frankly, if Rolling Stone reported that the sun was hot and the ocean was wet, I'd be skeptical. Nobody does shoddy and biased like RS.

(10-29-2014 11:45 AM)Hokie4Skins Wrote:  The SEC has, with rare exception, stood out as the superior college football conference of the past decade and has accounted for seven of the last eight national champions and nine of the last eighteen BCS Title Game participants. ESPN doesn't even get the marquee SEC game each week. That goes to CBS. The SEC also leads the nation in attendance by total fans and average per game. It gets attention because it is worthy of attention. If some AP voters (most of whom work for other media entities) happened to overrate Texas A&M and South Carolina earlier this season, that's their responsibility, not ESPN's. Does ESPN push the SEC Network harder than it ought to? I am willing to accept that as a possibility, but don't think they've gone over the line and it's a channel that frankly is meant to preach to the converted more than anything else. I'd actually argue that for a variety of reasons, Fox Sports Media Group doesn't push BTN hard enough.

They've totally gone over the line. It cost them with lousy ratings in 2011. They had a BCS show and were trying to show why Alabama should be #2 instead of Stanford, who also was not a conference champion and Oregon, who had 2 losses. Never even MENTIONED Oklahoma St. Couple years later in one of their shows they were speculating whether 1 loss Missouri could jump Ohio St. in the BCS standings. Never even MENTIONED unbeaten Baylor who nearly did pass Ohio St. and actually would have jumped them if Baylor had been upset one week later.

They fail on all standards of journalism. It would be one thing to argue silly eyeball tests. Its dishonest when you don't even mention the logical contenders.

Funny how ESPN doesn't seem to be much a cheerleader for the SEC from mid January-April...you know, during basketball season when the SEC doesn't excel.

(10-29-2014 08:36 AM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 07:39 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 06:46 AM)Zombiewoof Wrote:  From the quoted passages alone, one can tell that the article was poorly researched. It began with an agenda, then created a fiction around it to make it plausible. I am not an apologist for ESPN, as I believe that the network is often the TMZ of sports. But the writer of this story is stating things as fact that are clearly untrue. Take the Freitag comments. The article claims that ESPN "has yet to report" the incident, but the truth is that the day it came to light, the story was all over ESPN, had segments devoted to it on shows other than Sportscenter, and it appeared on the crawl.

There are several other examples, but the truth is that this was shoddy reporting, poor writing and an agenda driven shock piece, no matter how one feels about ESPN.

So you're saying that someone has an agenda to prove that ESPN has an agenda?

Why yes, yes I am.

Agreed.... ESPN has an agenda because of all the media it controls...darn near bordering on "The Carver Media Network" from Tomorrow Never Dies.

(10-29-2014 04:12 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  Funny how ESPN doesn't seem to be much a cheerleader for the SEC from mid January-April...you know, during basketball season when the SEC doesn't excel.

Doesn't excel? We've won as many titles as the ACC in the last 20 years. We placed 2 in the final four last year, and narrowly missed a third. If that is mediocrity then let us wallow in it.

(10-29-2014 04:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(10-29-2014 04:12 PM)All Dukes_All Day Wrote:  Funny how ESPN doesn't seem to be much a cheerleader for the SEC from mid January-April...you know, during basketball season when the SEC doesn't excel.

Doesn't excel? We've won as many titles as the ACC in the last 20 years. We placed 2 in the final four last year, and narrowly missed a third. If that is mediocrity then let us wallow in it.

Sigh...okay. SEC basketball is very top heavy and has reguarly measured out as either the worst or second worst of the P5 (and occasionally lower than that) for the last half decade. Kentucky and Florida have certainly been great, the rest? Meh.

RPI Ranks:
2014: 7th
2013: 8th
2012: 4th
2011: 6th
2010: 4th
2009: 6th
2008: 3rd
2007: 1st
2006: 3rd

I hardly consider that great. SEC teams usually do some damage in the tournament, but half the conference is usually pretty uncompetitive during the regular season. Nice little stretch from 06-08 though.