Remember the day when CNN was the end all, be all of primetime news?  Those days are long gone now that FOX News has become the dominant player in primetime media due in part to its “Fair and Balanced” approach to journalism.  Fox News has taken market share from CNN simply because CNN developed a media agenda and lost its objectivity. 

ESPN is spiraling downward to the same abyss CNN reached which eventually lead to CNN looking up the ratings ladder at its competition instead of down.  ESPN provides very good sporting events and news coverage but has become part of the “establishment” media fraternity since it sold out to media giant ABC.  These “establishment” media houses are apart of the northeastern liberal corridor that much of America despises.  Since the buyout by ABC, ESPN has promoted and protected those athletes who they endorse instead of fairly covering the news.

ESPN sat on the recent Ben Roethliesberger story but earlier that week released a video of Pacman Jones in a strip club from two years earlier.  While the Big Ben story was not worth covering, the timing of the Pacman Jones video was very questionable.  Why would ESPN wait until a few days before NFL training camps open up to release the video when the video was two years old?  ESPN had an agenda to protect Big Ben and an agenda against Pacman Jones.

The day after Phil Mickelson finished 2nd again at the US Open this year, the only thing Mike Tirico could talk about was how Phil “couldn’t get it done”, “can’t finish when it counts” or “makes a mistake down the stretch.”  Tirico nor ESPN ever mention how Tiger Woods failed to close out the US Open when holding or being tied for the lead in 2005 and 2007.  Tiger bogeyed 16 and 17 on Sunday to lose by 2 strokes to Michael Campbell at Pinehurst.  How Tiger failed to close out the Masters in 2007 when holding the lead on Sunday.  How Tiger was in the last group of the 2009 Players Championship and shot 73 and eventually losing by 7 strokes to Henrik Stenson.  ESPN has an agenda to protect Tiger Woods’ image.

ESPN Radio talk show host Colin Cowherd spent an entire show in 2006 speaking of the ills of baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett the day after Puckett died prematurely from complications of a stroke.  Cowherd and ESPN had an agenda on domestic violence and used Puckett’s death as a platform to air their agenda.  While I do not condone any form of violence against women, this show was a despicable display of journalism with very poor timing.  Puckett’s family had just lost a loving father and son and ESPN could not wait for Puckett’s body to get cold before promoting their agenda.  ESPN and Cowherd were classless members of the media that day.

Journalism should be about presenting the facts objectively and letting your audience form an opinion on their own.  When you have the public’s ear, you have a responsibility to maintain fairness and objectivity.  This holds true mostly in journalism and education.  Journalist and professors who make the news for their petulant antics are a disgrace to their professions.  Journalism and educating are just like refereeing a sporting event.  If the audience knows who or remembers the referee, the referee has over stepped his bounds.

Its high time ESPN got some competition in order to bring their biased agenda back to a “Fair and Balanced” approach.

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