Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [373]
JOHN SKIPPER:
People look at ESPN as kind of a totality and so it is, “You guys have these fun-loving anchors—are they journalists or are they entertainers? You got games. You’re in bed with your partner, with the leagues, yet you’re covering them as well.”
To me, and I’m not a journalist by trade, the company is remarkably conscientious about separating those ventures. You’ll have trouble finding any of our news guys who will say I’ve pulled them off stories, because the answer is I never have. Now, more subtle, is the pressure of “Should I do that?”—because we’re in partnership with that organization and it will cause trouble.
I supervise the people who acquire the rights from the NFL and manage relationships with the NFL. I also supervise the people who manage the news of reporting on the NFL. I manage it all by keeping them completely separate. The people who I’m in business with don’t like that. But Roger Goodell understands we’re a news-gathering organization. We’re going to report on the league. We’re going to call him for comment but we’re not going to tell him what the story is. We won’t let him approve questions. I think we follow all the rules over here.
RUSH LIMBAUGH:
The McNabb controversy affected how ESPN covered my bid to buy the Rams. Somehow my name was the only name that got leaked as a member of the Dave Checketts group. There were supposedly two other groups, but the names of people in those groups didn’t get leaked. The only people that knew who the bidders were and the members of the groups were the Rams; Goldman Sachs, who were brokering it; and, of course, the NFL.
The first reaction that Kornheiser and Wilbon had on Pardon the Interruption was all positive. I remember, because I got an e-mail from Checketts about it; he was all excited. Kornheiser had said, “Do you think Rush should get in there after the game and hug those big sweaty black guys all taped up?” And Wilbon said, “Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!” But the next day, everyone had done a total 180, and all these phony quotes that I had never said got circulated.
SKIP BAYLESS, Columnist:
From the bottom of my heart the most shocking thing to me about being at this network is that no one has ever told me, “You can’t say that”—after I said it—or told me I can’t say something before I say it. Ever. Not one time. I’m honored by that and I’m proud of it. I’m not a clichéd speaker; I just give it to you from the bottom of my journalist’s soul. Not once has anyone ever said no. And that’s despite the fact that I feel like the token controversial guy. I’m obsessive-compulsive. I’m fanatical. I live this job. I watch everything at night, I read everything and I call all the people that I know in every sport, every night. I’m not half-cocked. I’m not unplugged. I’m not knee-jerk. I don’t care what anybody else thinks of me, and I never have. Andre Iguodala nicknamed me “the diabolical hater.” I always kid back, “Nope, I’m the diabolical truth teller.”
In the summer of 2009, it was discovered that a crazed and overzealous “fan” had stalked Erin Andrews and videotaped her as she brushed her hair and put on makeup while naked in what she thought was the privacy of her hotel room. Reversing the peephole in the door (ironically installed there for a guest’s security) and using a cell phone as a camera, Michael David Barrett secretly taped Andrews three different times, and some of the footage popped up on the Internet before being discovered and removed.
Actually, it wasn’t as simple as that. There is more than a hint of dispute as to how that process developed and who was responsible for what. Andrews was understandably distressed when the story broke on a Thursday night and immediately went to ESPN, asking