So if you’re an intern pursuing a job at a national level in sports media, what does it take to make it to the top?
Well if you’re paying attention to recent ESPN “professionals” in the field then you may be mislead to believe it’s okay to call a fellow female broadcaster an “asshole”, plagiarize an L.A. sports columnist or celebrate the firing of an NFL coach with a high-five and childish reaction like Adam Shefter did with the Mangini news. . . . and these are the “pros”?
ESPN has been in the face-saving mode lately after all those incidents followed others like the arrest of another analyst, Jay Mariotti, and alleged sexual rendezvous between other employees and interns.
It sounds like a mess because it is and it deserves our Bitch Slap of the Week.
The first thing people in the sports world do to “confirm” news as “legit” is go to ESPN. Once ESPN makes the proclamation that an NFL coach got fired or a trade did come down, the rest of the world goes to town on their Twitter accounts and blogs repeating the information.
Imagine if another network admitted to blatant plagiarizing, were arrested for and accused of beating their girlfriends and were rolling around naked with their interns ignoring the fact they had wives at home. People would never consider them a “legit” source of info and class organization. People would ignore their existence but it’s ESPN so many people brush these things under the rug.
SLAP! Brush the sound of that Bitch-Slap under the rug. A well deserved Bitch Slap to the so-called “Leader in Sports”.
Used with permission of the author.
Jay Donetelli is a Tampa-based freelance sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. With an opinion sharper than an Ovechkin skate blade with the sting of an Ali jab, Donetelli has a loyal cult of readers who have found a way to love him.
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