I don’t think anyone is disagreeing with you Kevin, just that this conflict has been present for a long time.
On Sat, 28 Aug 2021 at 3:58 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote: > I don’t pretend to be a sports fan (aside from Le Tour de France, the rest > holds no interest to me), but I am a fan of what used to be known as > journalism. If a sports book is aligned with sports journalists, to the > point where the outcome of an event can lead to increased or lost revenue > for both, there is tremendous financial incentive for stories to surface > favoring one result, smearing individual players, accusations of > misconduct. > > Let’s say an ESPN segment producer sees a quarterback of a given football > team is accused of something on Twitter. On the even of a playoff game, > ESPN then covers the story, and people start calling for suspensions after > more allegations of impropriety surface. As a result, the quarterback is > removed, and his team favored to win now loses, which results in more money > for the sports book, which in turn means more money for ESPN. The story > might be legitimate, but the financial reward taints everyone involved. > > Now if the argument is that sports reporters aren’t really journalists, > then by all means, let the conflicts of interest fly. Or if the contention > is that ESPN itself isn’t a news gathering organization at its core, again, > have at it. But if a journalist is financially invested in the outcome of > something they are covering, it is a serious conflict of interest. > > On Sat, Aug 28, 2021 at 2:33 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Let’s not kid ourselves (or let the NFL and their TV partners kid us) >> gambling, legal and illegal, has always been a huge part of the engine >> driving big time sports TV ratings, and that goes about 10X more for the >> NFL. >> >> What has waxed and waned is the extent to which they are explicit about >> this. When I was a kid the pregame shows always had experts making picks >> against the spread, and during lopsided games the announcers would comment >> specifically that even though a FG would not impact the outcome, it could >> change the direction of millions of dollars in bet outcomes. Then they >> stopped being explicit, but still gave winks and nods in the gambling >> direction. >> >> The rise of fantasy football was touted by some as a way for the NFL to >> break its dependence on gambling while still driving interest in out of >> town and blowout games; whether they were ever serious about doing that, >> all it ever really did was give them cover to provide injury, weather and >> other information that gamblers wanted, pretending it was just for fantasy >> players. In the last few years all pretense is gone, with Raiders in Vegas >> and commercials fir gambling sites during games. >> >> One argument for making it explicit is that the NFL and TV partners have >> a huge interest in keeping things honest, and more sunlight helps them do >> this. But there have been scandals in the last, and there is way too much >> money on the table to entertain even a glimmer of a hope that there will >> not be scandals in the future. >> >> On Sat, 28 Aug 2021 at 1:31 PM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> On Fri, Aug 27, 2021 at 5:54 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> That ship sailed a long, long time ago… >>>> >>> >>> I read this and got confused. Do you mean ESPN's journalistic cred is >>> compromised? Or that taking gambling money affects them. For the gambling >>> money, once it was made legal it was clear that everybody was going to do >>> partnerships. One thing that surprised me was watching CBS Sports HQ on >>> Pluto a couple of months ago and seeing a show advising about how to bet on >>> the Olympics. But here we are. In their announcement of new amenities in >>> Heinz Field, the Steelers said there will be a new betting shop run by >>> their gambling partner so fans can place bets during games. >>> >>> There are parts of sports journalism, like injury reports, that have a >>> lot more value to gamblers than to casual fans. That has always been there >>> and will continue to be. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "TVorNotTV" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiGJXeK-09bVubRnxoT8Q1sbMiwmHOmHnEHZ2J7oOFCndw%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAJE-FiGJXeK-09bVubRnxoT8Q1sbMiwmHOmHnEHZ2J7oOFCndw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> -- >> Sent from Gmail Mobile >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "TVorNotTV" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> > To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2BR%2BgZRQL8njY%3DwSqf3ivx0wRG8SjmxDULqwJQX7egxVQ%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2BR%2BgZRQL8njY%3DwSqf3ivx0wRG8SjmxDULqwJQX7egxVQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4BwBPDH1oF7i1BmXfZm7KnvoCV3Th2baaiekM2d%3DrK5TA%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4BwBPDH1oF7i1BmXfZm7KnvoCV3Th2baaiekM2d%3DrK5TA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkY%2Bk9YmKCNhRDj3uAY5s6paggwtQBiNzBrEvuC_t%3DtW4uQ%40mail.gmail.com.
