ESPN reminds me of CNN back when they were the only game in town. Not early, but towards the end of their dominance when they thought they were untouchable.
ESPN is bloated, corrupt, and arrogant. They're a lackey for the big leagues and are a major player in the SEC bias as they profit directly from it.
Everyone I know that likes sports ball watches ESPN, but of that group I'm hard pressed to find anyone who thinks they're fair or even provide good coverage of events. I don't know anyone that's an ESPN defender.
ESPN is ripe for a competitor to step up and take a large portion of their audience, but I don't know who can do it right now. The only real contenders are FOX (Worst website in history) and CBS.[/color]
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 9:32 am
by TheCatt
Wait... Tosh is ripping people for using the phrase "Ready to give it another shot?" Like he has a trademark on that?
Maybe ESPN is in its Stephen King phase. Yeah, it's not as good as it used to be, but it's a cash cow and who's going to f with that?
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 10:42 am
by Leisher
Nah, he criticized them for blatantly ripping off his whole segment. I think he just hammered home that the guy used his exact phrase.
If you've never seen Tosh's "Web Redemption" he starts off by showing the clip, then interviewing those involved, he uses that exact phrase when the interview is done, and finally shows them "redeeming" their mistake.
That was exactly how the ESPN piece was formatted and they also used the exact phrase he does. They clearly stole the idea from him.
What probably happened is a young man or woman (either an intern or a kid of someone) got a chance at a segment and is a Tosh fan. All the geezers there are too busy watching SEC football or polishing Roger Goodell's knob to even know about Tosh, thus they didn't realize what they were airing.
Cue the Tosh response, the media inquiries, and the denials.
I don't want ESPN to go away, but I'd love if it someone stepped up to give them competition and to keep them honest. Right now they're getting away with murder.
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 5:45 pm
by TPRJones
But they said "are you willing to give it another shot?" not "ready to give it another shot?"
Vanilla Ice says that's totally different.
Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 6:15 pm
by Malcolm
Vanilla Ice says that's totally different.
Patents have been given based on smaller differences.
Bill Simmons is the single best sports writer (/pop culture) going today. He's the one driving Grantland (Without his traffic the site would already be gone. That's an actual fact.) and created the award winning 30 for 30 series among many, many other things he's done at ESPN.
So why are they shit canning him? Most sources say it's because of his constant clashes with management and other talent. Not to mention his constant criticism of ESPN. Simmons even said he was basically done with ESPN back when they suspended him during the Ray Rice fiasco because he had the balls to say Goodell was a liar.
Simmons made a point years ago that ESPN keeps losing their best folks (and they have, go look at the people who have left) because they treat them like shit, have an inept management structure, and refuse to let personalities be themselves. A theory echoed by several other ESPN personalities.
Simmons will now move onto where ever the fuck he wants because other outlets are already publicly courting him like Fox Sports, CBS Sports, Deadspin, etc.
Meanwhile, ESPN "the leader in sports" is filling its air time with sports shock jock Colin Cowherd (who I like, but let's be honest, he's Howard Stern without sex/women and sports instead), Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, and other ignorant jackasses who actually make sports less interesting. This from a network that is continually being accused of crushing negative stories about the SEC and the NFL (business partners), and who thinks the entire nation gives a fuck about seeing every single Red Sox-Yankees game.
ESPN is CNN before Fox News came along and rapidly moving into MTV country where no actual sports will ever be shown like MTV doesn't show music videos.
So ESPN, this year alone, has lost their best columnist and the guy responsible for their best programming (Bill Simmons), their #1 radio show host (Cowherd), one of their original crew in Olbermann (although his leaving is not really a loss), and a co-host of their #2 radio show in Van Pelt.
Many years ago I was watching UNC play someone on local TV. A moment in I realized something was odd. There were no announcers. They had lost the announcer feed, and all you could hear was the ACTUAL GAME. Shoes squeaking, people calling out plays, etc. It was AWESOME.
Of course, CBS decides to fix this by REVERTING to an SD feed with announcer audio. Fuckers.