Throughout
its history,
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
and its sister networks have been the targets of criticism for programming choices,
biased coverage,
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
, and controversies with individual broadcasters and analysts.
Additionally, ESPN has been criticized for focusing too much on men's college
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
,
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
,
Aaron Judge
Aaron James Judge (born April 26, 1992) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). Judge was unanimously selected as the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year in 2017, and finishe ...
and football and very little on other sports such as the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
and
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
. Other criticism has focused on issues of race and ethnicity in ESPN's varying mediated forms, as well as carriage fees and issues regarding the exportation of ESPN content.
Some critics argue that ESPN's success is their ability to provide other enterprise and investigative sports news while competing with other hard sports-news-producing outlets such as
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...
and
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
. Some scholars have challenged ESPN's journalistic integrity calling for an expanded standard of professionalism to prevent biased coverage and conflicts of interest.
Mike Freeman's 2001 book ''ESPN: The Uncensored History'', which alleged sexual harassment, drug use and gambling, was the first critical study of ESPN. And then in 2011, a detailed oral history about ESPN by
James Andrew Miller and
Tom Shales
Thomas William Shales (born November 3, 1944) is an American writer and retired critic of television programming and operations. He was a television critic for ''The Washington Post'' from 1977 to 2010, for which Shales received the Pulitzer Pr ...
called ''Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN'' was released.
Cost and finances
ESPN currently charges the highest
retransmission consent
Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commercia ...
fee of any major cable television network in the United States. In 2011, the main channel alone carried a monthly rate of $4.69 per subscriber (nearly five times the price of the next-costliest channel,
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
), with ESPN's other English language channels costing an additional $1.13 per subscriber; these prices rise on a nearly constant basis. By 2017, ESPN's fees had risen to over $7 for the main channel and roughly $3 for its sister outlets.
Part of the cause of this high fee is the amount of money that ESPN pays for sports rights, particularly the NFL. In August 2011, ESPN agreed to pay the NFL $1.9 billion annually for the rights to carry ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...
'' through 2021; this despite the fact that the broadcast networks pay approximately half that price for their packages, which include lucrative and highly watched contests such as the
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
, conference championships and
Thanksgiving games while ESPN's package does not (ESPN's package does include the
NFL Draft
The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...
). Cable and satellite television providers condemned ESPN's most recent contract extension with the NFL and have contemplated moving the network to a higher programming tier to mitigate cost increases.
In 2012, ESPN reportedly paid about $7.3 billion over 12 years for the broadcasting rights to all seven
bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
s of the
College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...
, an average of about $608 million per year. That includes $215 million per year which they previously agreed to air the Rose, Sugar and Orange bowls,
plus $470–475 million annually for the rest of the package.
Also in 2012, ESPN and
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
agreed to an eight-year extension, increasing ESPN's average yearly payment from about $360 million to approximately $700 million. In October 2014, ESPN signed a nine-year extension with the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
, worth three times as much as the previous deal.
These deals were made when new sports channels like
NBCSN
NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...
and
Fox Sports 1
Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...
emerged, and so analysts believe that ESPN deliberately drove the prices up as a defensive measure to block these competitors from acquiring live rights.
Wall Street
Wall Street is an eight-block-long street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs between Broadway in the west to South Street and the East River in the east. The term "Wall Street" has become a metonym for t ...
analysts have also raised concerns that the amount ESPN is paying for all of these rights could be a major drain on
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
as a whole, since the amount of money that can be recuperated from retransmission consent fees and advertising is limited; Disney still profits from the ESPN division but as of 2015 was cutting the network's higher-priced content to ensure long-term profitability. In October 2015, ESPN laid off about 300 employees, citing the rights costs combined with the increasing trend of
cord-cutting
In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reduc ...
. Another 100 employees, mostly in news gathering and including large numbers of public faces of the network, were laid off in April 2017.
[
]John Skipper
John Skipper is an American television executive, former executive chairman of DAZN Group, and former president of ESPN.
Career Education and early career
Skipper attended Lexington Senior High School in Lexington, North Carolina. He the ...
's time as President of ESPN was tumultuous. During Skipper's tenure (from January 2012 to December 2017) ESPN lost nearly 15% of its subscribers and laid off more than 500 employees. Additionally, ESPN's television ratings declined significantly across the board and the network endured criticism from some quarters over the declining quality of its programming.
Bias towards certain teams and players
ESPN has been accused of having a bias
Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...
towards certain sports teams and a "love affair" with superstar players. ESPN's ombudsman
An ombudsman (, also ,), ombud, ombuds, ombudswoman, ombudsperson or public advocate is an official who is usually appointed by the government or by parliament (usually with a significant degree of independence) to investigate complaints and at ...
, Le Anne Schreiber, responded to these criticisms by saying that the industry is ratings-driven.
Since MLB Network
The MLB Network is an American television sports channel dedicated to baseball. It is primarily owned by Major League Baseball, with Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit, Comcast's NBC Sports Group, Charter Communications, and Cox C ...
launched on January 1, 2009, ''Baseball Tonight
''Baseball Tonight'' (stylized as ''Baseball Tonight presented by Chevrolet'' for sponsorship reasons) is an American television program that airs on ESPN. The show, which covers the day's Major League Baseball action, has been on the air since ...
'' has been the target of criticism because of its perceived bias in favor of certain teams such as the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
and the New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
, both based within driving distance of ESPN's studios in Connecticut. One opinion was expressed by former major-leaguer Heath Bell
Heath Justin Bell (born September 29, 1977) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. As a closer with the San Diego Padres from 2009 to 2011, Bell was a three-time All-Star and twice won the Rolaids Relief Man Award. He was ...
:
Despite achievements by female athletes, ESPN underrepresents them in its coverage. A longitudinal analysis found that women's sports received less than 2% of the coverage on ''SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...
''. When they are covered, critics argue that female athletes have been featured through the lens of femininity, characterized by a display of sociability and passivity.
Carriage disputes
Dish Network
On August 4, 2009, Dish Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
sued ESPN for $1 million in a federal breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party ...
lawsuit, alleging that the network violated the "Most Favored Nations" clause by not extending the same carriage terms that it provided to Comcast and DirecTV for ESPNU
ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...
and ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns 20%).
The channel was originally l ...
. On August 5, ESPN announced it would fight the lawsuit and stated in a press release
A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...
that "we have repeatedly advised Dish that we are in full compliance with our agreement and have offered them a distribution opportunity with respect to ESPNU and ESPN Classic consistent with the rest of the industry. We will not renegotiate settled contracts and will vigorously defend this legal action, the apparent sole purpose of which is to get a better deal."
Dish Network moved ESPNU from its "America's Top 250" package to its "America's Top 120" package on September 30, 2009. However, the provider claimed that the change had nothing to do with the lawsuit. On June 22, 2010, ESPN majority owner The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
pulled the high definition feeds of ESPNews
ESPNews (pronounced "ESPN News", stylized ESPNEWS) is an American multinational digital cable and satellite television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns ...
, Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
, Disney XD
Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years ...
and ABC Family
The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...
from Dish Network's lineup, although the standard definition feeds of all four channels remained on the provider. In March 2014, Disney signed a comprehensive carriage deal with Dish Network for its networks (along with several new networks, such as Disney Junior
Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven yea ...
, Longhorn Network
Longhorn Network (LHN) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and is operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company a ...
, and SEC Network
The SEC Network is an American multinational sports network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications (which holds ...
), including high definition feeds and TV Everywhere
TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" themselv ...
access for the networks and ABC owned-and-operated stations, and the ability to distribute their networks on a planned over-the-top
An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...
internet television service. As a condition of the new deal, Dish Network agreed to disable the ability to use the automatic commercial skipping function on its Hopper DVR on ABC programming within 72 hours of its original airing. In December 2014, Dish Network reached a similar new carriage deal with CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, restricting the use of AutoHop on CBS programming for seven days after its original airing.
Verizon FiOS
In April 2015, ESPN Inc. sued Verizon for offering ESPN and ESPN2 as part of an optional sports theme package under its new "Custom TV" offering for its FiOS service, breaching a requirement for the two networks to be carried as part of the basic service.
Integration of ABC Sports
In August 2006, ESPN announced that ABC Sports would be fully integrated into ESPN, using the channel's graphics and music for its sports presentations, in addition to handling production responsibilities for the ABC sports telecasts. The last live sporting event televised under the ABC Sports banner was the U.S. Championship Game of the Little League World Series
The Little League World Series is an annual baseball tournament for children—typically boys—aged 10 to 12 years old, held in the Eastern United States. Originally called the National Little League Tournament, it was later renamed for the Wor ...
on August 26, 2006 (ABC was slated to carry the Little League World Series Championship Game on August 27, but the game was postponed to August 28 due to rain, and subsequently aired on ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%).
ESPN2 was initially fo ...
). The changeover took effect the following weekend to coincide with the start of the college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
season, with NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
, IndyCar Series
The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...
and NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
coverage eventually following suit.
Despite the rebranding, George Bodenheimer
George Bodenheimer (born May 6, 1958) is the former president of ESPN Inc. and of ABC's sports division, known since 2006 as ESPN on ABC. He was president of ESPN since November 19, 1998 and of the former ABC Sports since March 3, 2003.
The ''S ...
's official title remained "President, ESPN Inc. and ABC Sports" until his retirement at the end of 2011, upon which the "ABC Sports" portion of the title was retired. In addition, ABC itself maintains the copyright over many of the ESPN-branded broadcasts, if they are not contractually assigned to the applicable league or organizer. ABC-affiliated stations owned by Hearst Television
Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications. From 1998 to mid-2009, the company traded its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ...
(such as WTAE-TV
WTAE-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by Hearst Television since the station's inception, making this one of two stations that have been built and signed o ...
in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
; WCVB-TV
WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue ...
in Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
; WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, broadcasting ABC programming to most of New Hampshire. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on South Commercial Street in do ...
in Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644.
Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...
; WISN-TV
WISN-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, it is the second-oldest television station to remain with the company in all of its various iterations behind f ...
in Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
and KMBC-TV
KMBC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside CW affiliate KCWE (channel 29). Both stations share studios on Winchester Avenue in the List o ...
in Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
) have the right of first refusal
Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transactio ...
over the local simulcasts of ESPN-televised ''Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...
'' games involving teams within their home market, which are very rarely waived to other local stations in their market areas. Equally, other Hearst-owned stations affiliated with other networks (such as NBC affiliate WBAL-TV
WBAL-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship property of Hearst Television, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to the company's sole r ...
in Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
) have been able to air NFL games from ESPN for the same reason.
ESPN has been criticized for decreasing the number of sports broadcasts on ABC, especially during the summer months. One such example is NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...
: from 2007 to 2009, ABC aired all of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
races, along with the penultimate race to the chase. From 2010 to 2014, ABC only broadcast three Sprint Cup races with only one Chase race (held in Charlotte
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
, North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
) to the outrage of many NASCAR fans
Fan commonly refers to:
* Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling
** Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling
* Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially wit ...
and sponsors. Several other events such as the Rose Bowl, the Citrus Bowl and The Open Championship, have also been moved from ABC to ESPN. This, however, is not entirely the fault of ESPN, as ABC in general has attracted a primarily female viewership in recent years, with sports largely attracting a male-dominated audience.
Under NFL broadcasting rules, game telecasts aired on cable must be simulcast on broadcast television in the local markets of the teams playing, though the game cannot be televised in the market of the home team if it does not sell out tickets 72 hours before the time of kickoff – games that are not sold out must be blacked out in the market of origin. Similar rules and rights were previously in place for ESPN-televised Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
playoff games.
Coverage of individual sports
2006 FIFA World Cup
Dave O'Brien joined Marcelo Balboa
Marcelo Balboa (born August 8, 1967) is an American former professional soccer who played as a defender in the 1990s for the United States national team, becoming its captain. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
After retirin ...
on the primary broadcast team for the 2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...
coverage on ESPN and ABC Sports, despite having no experience calling soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
matches prior to that year. Because The Walt Disney Company, owner of both television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
outlets, retained control over on-air talent, the appointment of O'Brien as the main play-by-play voice was made over the objections of Soccer United Marketing
Soccer United Marketing is the for-profit marketing arm of Major League Soccer which primarily deals in the promotion and sanctioning of professional soccer in the United States.
In 2016, Soccer United Marketing was also chosen as the exclusive ...
, which wanted JP Dellacamera
John Paul "JP" Dellacamera (born January 11, 1952) is an American play-by-play sportscaster primarily for Major League Soccer with the Philadelphia Union, as well as major soccer tournaments and ice hockey.
Commentary career
Soccer
In the 1 ...
to continue in that role. Disney stated that its broadcast strategy was intended, in voice and style, to target the vast majority of Americans who do not follow the sport on a regular basis. Mispronunciation
In linguistics, mispronunciation is the act of pronouncing a word incorrectly. The matter of what is or is not mispronunciation is a contentious one, and indeed there is some disagreement about the extent to which the term is even meaningful. Lang ...
and incorrect addressing of names, misuse of soccer terminology, and lack of insight into tactics and history plagued the telecasts, resulting in heavy criticism from English-speaking
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...
soccer fans, many of whom ended up watching the games on Spanish-language channel Univision
Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...
instead.
Ronaldo vs Messi Rivalry coverage
The Messi-Ronaldo rivalry is one of soccer’s hotly contested topics for over a decade with journalists and pundits as well as fans having their own opinions. While both players have achieved incredible heights, the coverage of the two has been in different lights in some occasions and this hasn’t gone unnoticed with most soccer fans. After Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...
led Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
to their first major trophy, ESPN had a debate whether Portugal and Ronaldo deserved to win the trophy. The outlash came about when Messi
Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine Professionalism in association football, professional footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for club Paris Saint-Germain F.C ...
won the 2022 Finalissima and ESPN on their official twitter account tweeted “Tonight,football won”, leading many to wonder whether the coverage of the two was fair. Another occasion that fans were left pondering on the issue came from their twitter account. In 2018 after Ronaldo scored a superb overhead kick that won UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
goal of the season vs Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
in the quarter final of the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League, ESPN tweeted whether the goal was intentional despite Ronaldo jumping 2.30m in the air to score the goal. Leading many to claim how they were disregarding Ronaldo’s effort. On 6 August 2022 Messi scored an incredible overhead kick vs Clermont Foot in their opening 2022-23 Ligue 1 season. ESPN then tweeted “LIONEL MESSI WITH ONE OF THE GREATEST GOALS OF ALL TIME”. Again leading to many fans wondering whether the two were viewed under the same light by ESPN.
Arena Football League coverage
Some Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...
fans complained that ESPN's 2007 and 2008 game broadcast schedule "inequitably favors teams" such as the Philadelphia Soul
Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, Phillysound, or The Sound of Philadelphia TSOP, is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often feat ...
, Chicago Rush and Colorado Crush
The Colorado Crush were an arena football team based in Denver, Colorado. They began play as a 2003 Arena Football League expansion team. The Crush played in the Central Division of the American Conference until the Arena Football League suspen ...
, teams whose ownerships respectively include Jon Bon Jovi
John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He ...
, Mike Ditka
Michael Keller Ditka (born Michael Dyczko; October 18, 1939) is an American former football player, coach, and television commentator. A member of both the College (1986) and the Pro (1988) Football Halls of Fame, he was UPI NFL Rookie of Year i ...
and John Elway. Fourteen of the seventeen ESPN games featured at least one of the three teams playing in the broadcasts. The Soul (whose part-owner and team president is former ''Arena Football League on ESPN
''Arena Football League on ESPN'' was a presentation of the Arena Football League with games airing on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes. As with all other sports broadcasting on the ESPN family of networks, all Arena Football games had ...
'' analyst Ron Jaworski) appeared in seven of the 17 regular season games aired on ESPN platforms, more than any other team in the league. This criticism was also present when NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
opted to not let certain teams appear on their schedule. In 2008, the Chicago Rush had nine regular season games on ESPN and ABC, while the 2007 Arena Bowl Champion San Jose SaberCats
The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...
appeared in just one – a Week 1 game against the Rush; and the New York Dragons
The New York Dragons were a professional arena football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Dragons participated in the Arena Football League's (AFL) National Conference as a member of the Eastern Division. The team was founded i ...
appeared in one broadcast, a 10:30 pm game versus the Crush. Other criticism includes the scheduling of games on various days and times, as opposed to a weekly AFL gameday.
Major League Baseball coverage
''Bonds on Bonds''
In 2006, former San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...
outfielder Barry Bonds
Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants f ...
starred in '' Bonds on Bonds'', a 10-part reality series
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
that aired on ESPN. At the time, Bonds was mired in allegations of steroid use during his Major League Baseball career. ESPN was criticized for allowing Bonds such a one-sided public pulpit, as it was the most powerful name in American sports journalism; the show was seen by some as ESPN giving up any semblance of journalism in favor of becoming a public relations
Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...
front for major sports teams and players. ESPN responded to the criticism by claiming that Bonds would not have creative control and that the episodes would be fair, balanced, and only document the day-to-day activities of Bonds as they occurred, not as Bonds wanted them to occur. ESPN and producer Tollin/Robbins Productions officially pulled the plug on the reality series, citing "creative control" issues with star Barry Bonds and his representatives. No other details about the decision were given. ''Bonds on Bonds'' had been absent from the network's schedule since May 30, 2006, and had been generating poor ratings.
Major League Soccer coverage
ESPN has been accused of putting more emphasis on overall negativity and the more violent aspect of MLS games (such as two confrontations, two challenges and a player nursing a bloody head in its first six shots) in "Greatest Highlights of the Month" segment for their intermission reports.
NASCAR coverage
Local station pre-emptions
NASCAR's coverage during its time on ESPN when races aired on ABC was affected by local pre-emptions, usually for breaking news
Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...
and weather coverage in the vast majority of cases, but also due to conflicts in local programming
The terms local programme, local programming, local content or local television refers to a television program made by a television station or independent television producer for broadcast only within the station's transmission area or televisio ...
schedules; many of these examples pre-dated the current solution of most television stations, where the NASCAR race is moved to a sister station or digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
network.
The 2007 Subway 500 from Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville Speedway is a NASCAR-owned stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. At in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in ...
was not shown on ABC owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
KABC-TV
KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network. ...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
(owned by ESPN co-parent The Walt Disney Company) on October 21 due to coverage of a series of wildfires
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...
that affected Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
, specifically the Buckweed fire in Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17t ...
and the Canyon Fire in Malibu. The race was instead shown on its second digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
(branded as "ABC7+"), then not available on satellite providers or on select cable providers in the area.
Several stations chose to pre-empt the pre-race show ''NASCAR Countdown
''NASCAR Countdown'' is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series prerace show that debuted on February 17, 2007. It was a live on-site pre-race show for all Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races televised on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. It cam ...
'' to carry local newscasts. KABC-TV pre-empted the pre-race program before every Saturday night race, and as well as before the 2007 Ford 400, which was held on a Sunday afternoon, to air an episode of the Disney Channel series ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' is an American sitcom created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan. The series aired on Disney Channel from March 18, 2005, to September 1, 2008. The series was nominated for an Emmy Award three times and was also ...
'' from the network's ABC Kids block to fulfill E/I programming requirements enforced by the Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
. ABC affiliates WPLG
WPLG (channel 10) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Berkshire Hathaway as its sole broadcast property. WPLG's studios are located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard in Pembrok ...
in Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, and KSAT-TV
KSAT-TV (channel 12) is a television station in San Antonio, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Graham Media Group, the station maintains studios on North St. Mary's Street on the northern edge of downtown, and its transmitte ...
in San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
, also pre-empted ''NASCAR Countdown'' at least once during the 2007 NASCAR season.
KTKA-TV
KTKA-TV (channel 49) is a television station in Topeka, Kansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Vaughan Media, LLC, which maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Nexstar Media Gro ...
in Topeka, Kansas
Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...
, located about from Emporia, the hometown of NASCAR Cup driver (and 2007 Chase participant) Clint Bowyer
Clinton Edward Bowyer (born May 30, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver and commentator for ''NASCAR on Fox''.
He competed in the NASCAR Cup Series from 2005 to 2020, driving for Richard Childress Racing for eight yea ...
and about 55 miles from the Kansas Speedway
Kansas Speedway is a tri-oval race track in the Village West area near Kansas City, Kansas, United States. It was built in 2001 and it currently hosts two annual NASCAR race weekends. The IndyCar Series also held races at the venue until 2011 ...
in Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
, broke away from ABC's coverage of the 2007 Bank of America 500 early on October 13 to air its nightly 10:00 pm newscast and did not resume its broadcast of the race. KSAT also aired a brief news update, which came during a red flag, but returned in time for the checkered flag.
The 2008 Sharpie MINI 300 was not seen on several ABC stations for various reasons, ranging from weather bulletins (such as those aired on WSB-TV
WSB-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to rad ...
in Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
and WSOC-TV
WSOC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with ABC and Telemundo. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside Kannapolis-licensed independent station WAXN-TV (channel 64). Both stations s ...
in Charlotte) to stations airing coverage of the Big 12 men's basketball tournament
The Big 12 men's basketball tournament (known since its inception in 1997 under sponsorship agreements as the Phillips 66 Big 12 men's basketball tournament) is the championship men's basketball tournament in the Big 12 Conference. It is a single- ...
at the time of the race (such as with KLKN
KLKN (channel 8) is a television station in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Standard Media, the station maintains studios on 10th Street south of downtown Lincoln and broadcasts from a transmitter located near Ut ...
in Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
; where the race moved to an ESPN2 alternate feed, which is normally used when syndication exclusivity rules force an ESPN blackout). In addition, ABC's New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
flagship station WABC-TV
WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...
carried the race, but pre-empted ''NASCAR Countdown'' and the rain delay to cover a construction accident at a high-rise building
A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...
in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
One pre-emption instance involved the network's primetime programming, After a red flag during lap 284, the 2008 Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Presented by Pennzoil, viewers in the Eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
and Central Time Zone
The North American Central Time Zone (CT) is a time zone in parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, some Caribbean Islands, and part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.
Central Standard Time (CST) is six hours behind Coordinate ...
s were forced to watch the finish of the race on Lap 284 on ESPN2 as ABC ended its broadcast of the race to air ''America's Funniest Home Videos
''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on American Broadcasting Company, ABC, based on the Japanese variety show ''Kato-chan Ken-chan Gok ...
'' at 7:30 pm Eastern Time, while the network continued the race to its conclusion (ending at 313 laps) in the Mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...
and Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00) ...
s.
NBA coverage
ABC's NBA coverage
Some complaints regarding ESPN have concerned the promotion of NBA telecasts. The 2003 NBA Finals received very little significant promotion on ABC or corporate partner ESPN; while subsequent Finals were promoted more often on both networks, NBA-related advertisements on ABC were still significantly fewer compared to promotions on NBC. NBA promos took up 3 minutes and 55 seconds of airtime on ABC during the week of May 23, 2004, according to the ''Sports Business Daily'', comparable to 2 minutes and 45 seconds for the Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...
. Promotions for the Indianapolis 500 outnumbered promotions for the NBA Finals fourteen-to-nine from the timeframe between 9:00 and 11:00 pm Eastern Time during that week.
Pistons–Pacers brawl coverage
ESPN's studio team was generally more criticized than praised. After the Pacers–Pistons brawl
The Malice at the Palace (also known as the Pacers–Pistons brawl) occurred during a National Basketball Association (NBA) game between the Indiana Pacers and the defending champion Detroit Pistons on Friday, November 19, 2004, at The Palace ...
in November 2004, ESPN's studio team came under severe criticism, both by the media and by the network itself for their stance regarding the actions of Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...
player Ron Artest Ron is a shortening of the name Ronald.
Ron or RON may also refer to:
Arts and media
* Big Ron (''EastEnders''), a TV character
* Ron (''King of Fighters''), a video game character
*Ron Douglas, the protagonist in '' Lucky Stiff'' played by Joe ...
(who entered the stands to confront a fan, sparking the melee). John Saunders came down hard on Detroit fans, referring to them as "punks", while Greg Anthony
Gregory Carlton Anthony (born November 15, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst for NBA TV and Turner Sports. He played 11 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Anthony also cont ...
and Tim Legler
Timothy Eugene Legler (born December 26, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is currently an ESPN basketball analyst and co-host/analyst on SiriusXM NBA Radio.
Co ...
defended Artest. The day after the brawl, Steve Levy led into a report on the brawl on ''SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...
'' by saying, "before you unconditionally blame the players, take a look and a listen." He concluded the report on the brawl by calling it "on an overall sorry night for the NBA, and especially fans of the Detroit Pistons," without any reference to the Pacers.
WNBA coverage
During the 2006 WNBA Finals, Detroit Shock head coach, and former ESPN NBA analyst, Bill Laimbeer became irritated by ESPN's coverage. He was quoted by the ''Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'' as saying:
LeBron James' "Decision"
On July 8, 2010, basketball player LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
announced on a live, one-hour ESPN special titled '' The Decision'' that he would leave the Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...
and join the Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Southe ...
, beginning with the 2010–11 season. In exchange for the exclusive rights to air the special, ESPN agreed to hand over its advertising and airtime to James. James arranged for the special to include an interview conducted by Jim Gray, who was paid by James' marketing company and had no affiliation with the network. ESPN's reporting leading up to the James special, its decision to air the program, and its decision to relinquish editorial independence were widely cited as gross violations of journalistic ethics.
NCAA Basketball coverage
ESPN is often accused of having a bias towards certain college basketball teams, including those in the Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...
(ACC), particularly the Duke Blue Devils
The Duke Blue Devils are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Associatio ...
and North Carolina Tar Heels
The North Carolina Tar Heels are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The name Tar Heel is a nickname used to refer to individuals from the state of North Carolina, the ''Tar Heel ...
as well as the Kentucky Wildcats
The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...
of the Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
. ESPN maintains a broadcast rights agreement with the ACC that runs through the 2026–2027 season, which provides additional football, men's and women's basketball and Olympic sports coverage on a variety of platforms, suggesting that the bias may have a financial motivation.
Dick Vitale
Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster fo ...
is often criticized for being a "homer" for Duke, especially for Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Michael William Krzyzewski ( ; born February 13, 1947), nicknamed "Coach K", is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head coach at Duke University from 1980 to 2022, during which he led the Blue Devils to five nati ...
, as well as most teams within the ACC. He is also known for mentioning Duke frequently during broadcasts, even when the Blue Devils are not playing. Former Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...
head coach John Chaney once said "You can't get Dick Vitale to say 15 words without Duke coming out of his mouth".
NFL coverage
Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault case
On July 18, 2009, Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger
Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. (; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college footba ...
was accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit filed by Andrea McNulty. ESPN came under fire for being the only major media outlet that refused to report on the story. ESPN officials attempted to justify their actions by stating that the case is a private matter. Furthermore, ESPN claimed that since Roethlisberger had not addressed the issue publicly, and since no criminal charges had been filed, there was no reason to report on it. However, many have been quick to point out other instances where ESPN has reported on civil cases as well as statements addressing the matter by Roethlisberger's attorney. The network's actions resulted in some media sources accusing them of double standard
A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
s and poor journalistic practices. ESPN began reporting on the story on July 23, 2009; one month later on August 18, ESPN released a column on its website explaining the network's decision.
Fantasy football and advertising influence
In 2015, ESPN received criticism from ''Deadspin
''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media.
''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries o ...
'' for accepting advertising from DraftKings
DraftKings is an American daily fantasy sports contest and sports betting company. The company allows users to enter daily and weekly fantasy sports–related contests and win money based on individual player performances in five major American ...
, a daily fantasy sports
A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete bas ...
site, and integrating DraftKings into the network's football coverage through product placement, breaching the ethical wall between journalism and sponsorship.
Conflicts of Interests with NFL: Deflategate, concussions, legal issues
In 2011, ESPN agreed to a deal with the NFL worth more than $15 billion. This fact led several media organizations, including ''Forbes'', to argue whether the financial relationship with the league creates a conflict of interest when ESPN covers the NFL. The network has also been accused of alleged pro-NFL bias on labor issues with the league and the union and ignoring or downplaying crimes or scandals committed by owners.
Also, ''The New York Times'' reported that ESPN spiked its partnership with the PBS series ''Frontline (American TV program), Frontline'' on the 2013 documentary "League of Denial", which chronicles the history of head injuries in the NFL, shortly after a meeting between ESPN executives and league commissioner Roger Goodell took place in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, though ESPN denies pressure from the NFL led to its backing out of the project, claiming a lack of editorial control instead.
Boston-based journalist Michael Corcoran stated that in the first seven months after the Deflategate scandal became national news, ESPN.com used the term "Deflategate" in 844 separate articles or videos, including the Chris Mortensen's erroneous report about 11 of the 12 footballs used in the 2014–15 NFL playoffs#AFC: New England Patriots 45, Indianapolis Colts 7, 2014 AFC Championship Game were 2 pounds per square inch (PSI) under NFL regulation.[Chris Mortensen]
"11 of 12 Pats footballs underinflated"
''ESPN'', January 21, 2015; retrieved August 2, 2015. This was compared to when Jimmy Haslam, owner of the Cleveland Browns, was accused by the FBI in a 120-page affidavit of a five-year-long "conspiracy to scheme" and "defraud its customers" out of millions in rebates for his company Pilot Flying J. In the first seven months after the FBI raided Haslam's company, ESPN only mentioned the scandal 23 times, less than 3 percent of the coverage of the allegations of football deflation. "ESPN should, at a minimum, disclose the details of its enormous vested interest before reporting any serious story about the league," Corcoran's article concluded.
Nonetheless, in July 2015, ''The Hollywood Reporter'' reported that sources within ESPN believed that the NFL gave them a "terrible" 2015 ''Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...
'' schedule as "payback" for remarks made on air by both ESPN commentators Keith Olbermann and Bill Simmons that were critical of the league and Goodell; ESPN parted ways with both Olbermann and Simmons during that same year.
2020 NFL Draft coverage
ESPN immediately came under fire for their coverage of the first two nights of the 2020 NFL Draft for focusing too much on the family tragedies of players as they are drafted. Sports blog site Barstool Sports called it "tragedy porn", adding that ESPN not only kept focusing on the death of players' family members, but also questionable stories like a mom battling drug addiction for 16 years.
''Monday Night Football'' coverage
In 2006 NFL season, 2006, ESPN took over the ''Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...
'' package from its sister network American Broadcasting Company, ABC, who had broadcast the series for 36 years. 14 years later, in 2020 NFL season, 2020, Aaron Barnhart of ''Primetimer'' wrote:
The National Football League, NFL was never one to turn down a lunatic network waving a blank checkbook, so it agreed to let ESPN take ''Monday Night Football'' over to Cable television in the United States, cable. Like a billionaire who locks his trophy wife up in their The Hamptons, Hamptons home, ESPN immediately moved to minimize its prize. It started referring to the game as just "MNF", three letters, kind of like Fuck#Modern usage, WTF. It pulled in List of Monday Night Football commentators, announcers who would work for ESPN's modest salary. The results, over 15 years, are plain to see. Now it is ''Monday Night Football'', with its second-rate List of Monday Night Football results (2010–present), football matchups and endless turnover in the booth, that embodies the "droning blandness of prime time", while ''NBC Sunday Night Football, Sunday Night Football'' is the biggest show on turf, and most weeks is the List of most watched television broadcasts in the United States, top-rated show on television. And NFL on NBC, NBC is not alone. NFL on CBS, CBS and Fox NFL, Fox have outbid ESPN in recent years for game and league rights, since nothing like live events can bring a crowd to broadcast TV. Meanwhile, cable customers fed up with high monthly bills have been cord-cutting
In broadcast television, cord-cutting refers to the pattern of viewers, referred to as cord-cutters, cancelling their subscriptions to multichannel television services available over cable or satellite, dropping pay television channels or reduc ...
at record pace. All of this has upended The Walt Disney Company, Disney's apple cart. ESPN was able to justify paying sports leagues billions in contract deals because it made tens of billions in revenue on those games. ESPN has always been the priciest channel in your cable bundle, $9 per month per customer in 2017.
''Awful Announcing''s Ben Koo wrote on October 23, 2018, that Jason Witten was "in over his head" as an analyst. Koo added that "Witten made mistakes, was inconsistent, got tongue tied, and could be awkward at times". Meanwhile, the gimmick of placing Booger McFarland in on-field mobile platform is clunky because all involved had to have direct comments and questions to each other explicitly, and there were lulls in the broadcast at times when it's not clear which of McFarland or Witten should be jumping in. As for play-by-play man Joe Tessitore, Koo regarded him as an acquired taste and many were not acquiring it. This was due to Tessitore's style of "going HARD on a lot of calls, in energy and volume." Besides the commentators, Ben Koo complained about the distracting sponsorships from Old Spice and Genesis Motor.
On November 29, 2018, ''Deadspin
''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media.
''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries o ...
''s Drew Magary said that ESPN "Is too busy living in ''Monday Night Football''s glorious past, trying to turn the franchise into an event with needless innovations and halftime concerts – like The Chainsmokers during last week's 2018 Los Angeles Rams season, Rams-2018 Kansas City Chiefs season, Chiefs game. All of those efforts to recapture ''MNF'''s magic failed, but that hasn't stopped ESPN from continuously trying to doctor up ways to make the game as much of an EVENT as it was back in the 1970s. This is a show imprisoned by its own history. They still have pictures of Howard Cosell adorning the ''MNF'' production trucks. They still use the Heavy Action, theme. They dragged Hank Williams Jr. out of racist mothballs to sing his stupid fucking All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight, song from the '80s salad days. They still use ancient clips of Cosell slurring 'He could go all the way' and 'What a game this turned out to be' and all that nonsense. They refer to Monday records as if they are hallowed... None of that has stopped ESPN from still trying desperately to make ''Monday Night Football'' a thing. In the process, they've in fact cheapened the product."
Early on in the 2019 NFL season, 2019 season, there were so many Twitter complaints over ESPN's then new 1st & Ten (graphics system), down and distance marker that it was dropped after halftime. ESPN had made the down-and-distance graphic yellow, so it looked like there was a Penalty flag, flag on every play. ESPN's Bill Hofheimer tweeted "Our ESPN production team is aware of the feedback on the #MNF down and distance graphic. We have called an audible and adjusted for the 2nd half of #2019 Houston Texans season, HOUvs2019 New Orleans Saints season, NO and for the #2019 Denver Broncos season, DENvs2019 Oakland Raiders season, OAK game to follow."
When reviewing ESPN's production of the 2019 New England Patriots season, New England Patriots-2019 New York Jets season, New York Jets game from Week 7 of the 2019 season, ''The A.V. Club''s John Teti wrote that "Once, ''Monday Night'' was the climax of an NFL week. Now it often feels like a last gasp. ''Monday Night'' isn't special anymore, but the production never formed a new identity to contend with that reality. So there's a lot of pretending. We all must pretend it matters when, say, a running back gains more yards in the third quarter of a ''Monday Night Football'' game than anyone has before. It's not clear why the ''Monday Night''-ness of an achievement matters to anyone in 2019—though, did it ever? Regardless, part of the lore of ''Monday Night Football'' is that the lore of ''Monday Night Football'' is very important indeed."
Oliver Connolly, on November 26, 2019 in ''Guardian US, The Guardian'', wrote "''Monday Night Football'': the once great NFL show was now the worst on television". The article cited the overblown announcing by Tessitore, incoherent analysis by McFarland and bizarre Digital on-screen graphic, graphics. Connolly further wrote that "It often feels like the show's producers are more interested in their carefully choreographed packages and graphics than the actual game unfolding on the field. No other broadcast misses a play as consistently as ''Monday Night Football'', continuing to prove that there is nothing in media or entertainment that cannot be ruined by more money and time."
UFC and MMA coverage
Lack of coverage and negative coverage
Despite the growth in popularity of mixed martial arts and its largest promotion – the Ultimate Fighting Championship – in particular, many fans of the sport felt that ESPN treated MMA as a fringe sport by either not showing highlights of recent drawing matchups or by portraying the sport in a negative light. Commentators such as Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser of ''Pardon the Interruption'', along with Skip Bayless, formerly of ''ESPN First Take, First Take'' have openly criticized the sport as inferior to boxing. Jim Rome of the former ESPN program ''Jim Rome is Burning'' however, often defends the sport and featured fighters as guests.
Some MMA fans feel that the influence of ESPN's corporate parent The Walt Disney Company (both due to not having broadcast rights and due to Disney's traditionally family friendly image), along with the influence of the boxing media have contributed to what they perceived as negative coverage of the sport on the channel. Other complaints included the ESPN show ''MMA Live'' being aired in a late Friday night (1:00 am Eastern Time) timeslot that many MMA fans feel is inadequate, and is often prone to preemptions due to live programming. After the UFC signed a television rights deal with rival Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports, UFC president Dana White lashed out at ESPN following the cancellation of an appearance for an interview promoting the UFC 134 event.
In 2018, however, ESPN ultimately acquired the U.S. media rights to the UFC beginning in 2019, with a large focus on its subscription service ESPN+.
Coverage of professional wrestling as a legitimate sport
In its early days, ESPN aired various professional wrestling programs, including ''AWA Championship Wrestling'' from the American Wrestling Association as well as World Class Championship Wrestling / (United States Wrestling Association). ESPN started distancing itself from professional wrestling after the more athletic-oriented AWA went out of business in 1991, two years after WWE, World Wrestling Federation owner Vince McMahon admitted that professional wrestling was Kayfabe, staged and was more about entertainment than about legitimate athletic competition. ESPN would not distance itself completely from professional wrestling, as the network commissioned the Global Wrestling Federation for three years following AWA's failure, and Canadian sister network The Sports Network, TSN held the Canadian rights to ''WWE Raw'' from 1996 to 2006, as well as the parent network having aired This is SportsCenter ads featuring The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena and Becky Lynch on occasion.
On March 24, 2015, former UFC Heavyweight Champion and then-current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar appeared on ''SportsCenter'' for a "huge announcement" after it became public knowledge that Lesnar's WWE contract was set to expire after WrestleMania 31 and that he had been training for a return to MMA. However, Lesnar used the air time to announce that he in fact had re-signed with WWE and was retired from MMA, with part of the interview being done by then-''SportsCenter'' anchor Jonathan Coachman, himself a then-former WWE announcer. This would be followed up by a segment on ''SportsCenter'' covering Lesnar's match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31 for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, featuring Lesnar, Reigns, and Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman in studio for the segment. (Seth Rollins ultimately won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the event after he cashed in his Money in the Bank ladder match, Money in the Bank contract mid-match.) Although ESPN was not criticized for covering WWE, it did receive criticism for covering WWE like a legitimate sport as opposed to entertainment; unlike other countries, the United States generally views professional wrestling as entertainment due to it being an open secret that professional wrestling is staged. Lesnar would subsequently return to MMA (while under contract with WWE) for a one-off match at ''UFC 200'' while WWE and ESPN would gradually increase their collaboration into a regular segment on ''SportsCenter'' hosted by Coachman, as well as a subsection devoted to professional wrestling on ESPN.com.
The association between ESPN and WWE has received criticism outside of mainstream media and within the two organizations themselves. Coachman (who himself would leave ESPN in 2017 and eventually return to WWE a few months afterwards) stated he had wanted a connection between ESPN and WWE for years following his departure from WWE in 2008, but had to wait "until the right person was in charge" before the two sides started forming a partnership. In 2016, the wife of WWE wrestler Kevin Owens would post on social media their eight-year-old son's reaction following Owens winning the WWE Universal Championship. While the post would receive positive responses from most reporters, Amin Elhassin for ESPN Twitter, tweeted that it was feel-good moment for their son "until he finds out its scripted". Fellow wrestler Cody Rhodes, who had left WWE earlier that year, said that WWE needs to cut ties with ESPN and that having mainstream recognition "ain't always worth it" when one of their reporters tries to ruin it for a child. Rhodes did eventually return to the WWE at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022.
Despite ESPN and WWE having somewhat scaled back their relationship since (partially due to other mainstream sports media such as Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
, CBS Sports, Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...
, and Bleacher Report also reporting on WWE), the two still partner on occasion.
2021 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest
On July 4, 2021, ESPN experienced on and off technical difficulties during the last minutes of the 2021 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, where Joey Chestnut set a new world record by eating 76 hot dogs to win the event for the 14th time. The issues forced the network to take two in-competition commercial breaks. The feed cut off again during the finish of the competition, thus preventing viewers from seeing it. Many fans and viewers took to social media to express their anger towards ESPN over the technical issues.
Alternative outlets and third party accountability
Aside from ESPN's main competitors, such as Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
, NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Turner Sports, and Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...
, independent and regional sports-focused media firms and blogs, including Deadspin
''Deadspin'' is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media and Univision Communications, it is currently owned by G/O Media.
''Deadspin'' posted daily previews, recaps, and commentaries o ...
(now owned by G/O Media), The Big Lead, Bleacher Report (now owned by Turner Sports parent Warner Media), and 700 Level (now associated with NBC Sports parent Comcast), have served as alternatives for fans looking for balanced coverage or better local coverage.
Accountability attempts by third parties range from news articles, websites, and blogs either in a response to specific events or the ongoing lack of or over coverage by ESPN. ''Rolling Stone'' writers Jordan Burchette and Michael Weinreb each published articles examining the implications of ESPN's perceived SEC bias during the 2014 college football season. Moreover, independent blogging group Are You Cereal Box's main tactic is to track mentions of ESPN's alleged #Bias towards certain teams and players, favorite teams and players via mentions on ESPN.com's front page.
ESPN media outlets
ESPN MVP/Mobile
The book ''Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN'' notes that Apple Inc., Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly told ESPN President George Bodenheimer
George Bodenheimer (born May 6, 1958) is the former president of ESPN Inc. and of ABC's sports division, known since 2006 as ESPN on ABC. He was president of ESPN since November 19, 1998 and of the former ABC Sports since March 3, 2003.
The ''S ...
in reference to the network's failed attempt at a mobile virtual network operator mobile phone service, ESPN MVP, Mobile ESPN, in 2006, that "your phone is the dumbest fucking idea I have ever heard".
Longhorn Network
Concerns have been raised by some fans, bloggers and journalists that ESPN's financial stake in the Longhorn Network
Longhorn Network (LHN) is an American regional sports network owned as a joint venture between The University of Texas at Austin, ESPN and Learfield (formerly IMG College), and is operated by ESPN (itself owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company a ...
(which launched in August 2011) creates a potential conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
.[Open Mikes: Is the Longhorn Network a good or bad idea?](_blank)
USA Today. Retrieved August 29, 2011 Some fear that ESPN's involvement in the network will inhibit Journalism ethics and standards, journalistic integrity as ESPN has a financial interest in the success of the athletic programs at the University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas. ''Sports Illustrated'' writer Richard Deitsch wrote: "The network's existence... creates an impossible situation for ESPN's college football producers and reporters (plenty of whom care about reporting). For every story ESPN does on Texas and its opponents, they'll be skeptics wondering what the motivation was for the story." It has also created issues where the various teams of the Iowa State Cyclones, a Big 12 Conference, Big 12 team well outside the prime Longhorn Network footprint, has had to broadcast syndication, syndicate and create cable networks carried throughout Iowa (in this case, Mediacom carries a network known as "Cyclones.tv") to carry Longhorn Network-exclusive content involving the Longhorns as an opponent within Iowa under a secondary agreement with UT and ESPN.
Additionally, some have questioned the stipulation included in the network's founding agreement that gives Texas the right to dismiss LHN announcers that do not "reflect the quality and reputation of UT." An ESPN spokesperson addressed the situation by stating: "This is not common in ESPN agreements because this UT network is so unique/new for us ...The provision does not allow for random replacement of commentators or reaction to critical comments... it's more about potential situations where a commentator makes completely inappropriate comments or gets involved in inappropriate actions."
ESPN original programs
''First Take''
Through the show's success, ''ESPN First Take'' has also experienced substantial controversy and faced increasing criticism. The show was criticized for what is perceived by many as its excessive coverage of the career of Tim Tebow. During his tenure with the New York Jets, in which he did not start in a game, and threw just eight passes the entire season, Tebow was nonetheless often a leading topic.
As forward LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...
began a series of playoff appearances with the Cleveland Cavaliers, host Skip Bayless became well known for his belief that James had been overrated by the media and not received enough criticism for his team's playoff failures. Bayless has himself been criticized by fans as well as members of the media for exaggerating James' failures and diminishing his successes. In an exchange with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Cuban argued that Bayless had reduced his analysis of the 2011 NBA Finals, 2011 and 2012 NBA Finals series to subjective assessments of player psyche rather than relying on objective analysis based on the schematic principles used by the teams in each series.
The show has also received criticism for its treatment of issues of race. During a December 2012 discussion regarding Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and his commenting that he did not wish to be perceived solely as a black quarterback, frequent guest Rob Parker asked whether Griffin III was a "brother" or a "cornball brother". When pressed by host Cari Champion on what he meant, he mentioned that Griffin III had a white fiancé and questioned whether he was a Republican. Parker, though, acknowledged that he did not have any information substantiating that claim. In response, Bayless asked whether Griffin III's braids did anything to assuage his concerns. To many, this exchange was part of a larger trend of the nature of the treatment of issues of race by the show.
Sociopolitical issues
2015 Arthur Ashe Courage Award controversy
In June 2015, ESPN's announcement of Caitlyn Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, as the recipient of that year's Arthur Ashe Courage Award, one of its annual ESPY Awards, led to significant criticism among online commenters and some members of the media, with Bob Costas calling the decision to give Jenner the award a "crass exploitation play". Most of the critics of the Jenner award considered Lauren Hill (basketball), Lauren Hill, who 2014 Hiram vs. Mount St. Joseph women's basketball game, played college basketball despite suffering from a Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, brain tumor that would claim her life only a few months later, a more worthy recipient. Others cited Noah Galloway, an Iraq War double amputee who competes in extreme sports and was also a finalist in the Dancing with the Stars (U.S. season 20), spring 2015 season of ''Dancing with the Stars (U.S. TV series), Dancing with the Stars'', as a worthy candidate.[
]
Robert Lee controversy
ESPN made the decision to remove Robert Lee (sports announcer), Robert Lee from the broadcast team calling the University of Virginia home opener against College of William and Mary on September 2, 2017, because he shares the same name as Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Robert Lee, who is not related to the confederate general, is of Asian Americans, Asian American heritage. The decision was made in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which protested the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. ESPN was widely criticized for the move.
Jemele Hill tweets about President Trump
On September 11, 2017, ''SportsCenter'' anchor Jemele Hill made a series of Twitter, tweets critical of President Donald Trump, including describing him as a "white supremacy, white supremacist". ESPN issued a statement saying Hill's comments "do not represent the position of ESPN. We have addressed this with Jemele and she recognizes her actions were inappropriate." Hill later clarified that she stood by her comments as representative of her personal beliefs. "My regret is that my comments and the public way I made them painted ESPN in an unfair light", she added. Some criticized Hill's comments, including White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who called them "a fireable offense by ESPN"; Trump criticized the network and demanded an apology. Others voiced support for Hill and criticized ESPN and the White House's responses, arguing that Hill's comments were accurate and that a White House official suggesting Hill be fired infringed on the First Amendment.
Coverage of the Hong Kong protests
On October 8, 2019, in the wake of Chinese boycotts of the NBA after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey made a Twitter post in support of the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, it was reported that ESPN's senior news director Chuck Salituro had issued an internal memo directing on-air personalities to not discuss political aspects of the controversy unrelated to their effects on sport, as per prior directives discouraging "pure politics". On October 10, ESPN faced criticism for displaying a map of China during a ''SportsCenter'' report that included Taiwan and the Nine-Dash Line.
Doug Adler lawsuit
Former tennis player and ESPN commentator Doug Adler was fired after making an allegedly racist comment about Venus Williams on-air. In January 2017, during the broadcast of the Australian Open match, Adler commented "Venus is all over her. And you'll see Venus move in and put the guerrilla effect on, charging." ESPN insisted that Adler used not the word he claimed he said, namely guerrilla, but rather gorilla to describe Williams, who is African-American. Adler apologized for the remark after being told by his superiors to apologize on air, so that he could keep his job, but was fired by ESPN the next day. In February 2017, Adler filed a lawsuit against ESPN for wrongful termination.
On-air promotion of Disney+
In November 2019, ESPN's owner The Walt Disney Company launched the streaming service called Disney+. ESPN was soon accused of hurting its journalistic integrity with its promotion of Disney+. For example, there was a ''The Simpsons, Simpsons''-themed ''SportsCenter
''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...
'' "Top 10" to star NFL reporter Adam Schefter tweeting that Disney+ "will change lives". Writing in ''Slate (magazine), Slate'', Laura Wagner said that the "tongue bath" for Disney+ "represents a new inflection point in ESPN's decline from journalistic institution to entertainment company". Wagner added "This clumsy marketing blitz is an embarrassing exercise that turns ostensible reporters into stooges. It's also a stark example of just how flimsy ESPN's editorial vision has become." Meanwhile, Kelly McBride of the nonprofit journalism organization the Poynter Institute in an interview with ''The Washington Post'' said "You're turning the journalist into a salesperson and asking them to upsell the product. That's not the relationship you want the journalist to have with the audience member. You want that relationship to be about trust in the journalist's expertise."
Accusations of a racist culture behind the scenes
In July 2020, ''New York Times'' writer Kevin Draper spoke with more than two dozen current and former ESPN employees, who "described a company that projected a diverse outward face, but did not have enough Black executives, especially ones with real decision-making power. They said the company did not provide meaningful career paths for Black employees behind the camera and made decisions based on assumptions that its average viewer is an older White man, in spite of its audience trends."
Accusations of political bias
Republican political leaders including Donald Trump and Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson have accused ESPN incorporating their political bias into sports news. A 2017 survey of 1,423 adults found that 30 percent of respondents believed that ESPN was politically biased. Of those respondents, 63 percent responded that they saw a liberal bias, while 30 percent saw a conservative bias.
Criticism of employee salaries
ESPN has been criticized for its perceived low salaries relative to other networks. During a presentation of an ''Inside the NBA'' postgame show on TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
in November 2016, Kenny Smith satirically told his co-host Charles Barkley to join ESPN so that the two could have a rivalry akin to that of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Barkley pivoted to his criticism of ESPN, saying "they're not gonna work me like a dog and not pay me." To the humor of his co-hosts, Barkley said that the network would have him on "ESPN One, ESPN2, Two, ESPN3, Three, ESPNews, ESPN News, ESPNU
ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...
, ESPN Radio," and that the network would have him on ESPN Deportes "saying 'Muy bien, gracias!.
See also
* Criticism of The Walt Disney Company – pertaining to criticism and controversies regarding ESPN's majority owner
* East Coast bias
References
Further reading
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Criticism Of Espn
ESPN
Criticism of sports
Criticisms of companies, Espn
Mass media-related controversies in the United States