Michael Bradley of Indiana University’s Sports Journalism Center took ESPN to task at sportsjournalism.org, but made himself look stupid when he accused ESPN of trying to make WWE look more legit.
A few Bradley excerpts: “A multi-tiered approach to coverage veered dangerously toward an alliance with a large entertainment company in order to tap into its vast collection of fans.” You got that right. It’s exactly what ESPN does with the NFL and NBA. Except with WWE, ESPN doesn’t have to pay for it.
“They provide journalism, which is supposed to be clear of any outside bias or partnership.” Supposed to be. But not often, not anymore.
“It’s fun to talk about Lesnar and his fellow ‘rasslers, but it’s not journalism. And nobody should pretend it is.” I’m not sure anyone did.
Everyone knows wrestling is fake. It’s not a matter of how ESPN covers WWE. The question is: Should ESPN be covering it at all?
Michelle Beadle won’t be.
ESPN’s Beadle “turned in her WWE fan card” on Twitter because of WWE’s support of chronic woman beater Floyd Mayweather Jr. Beadle, of course, got suckered into doing a WrestleMania infomercial on SportsCenter by way of “breaking the story” that Lesnar was going to remain with the company. Now WWE will have to find someone else to sniff those jocks.
Regarding tomorrow night’s “E:60,” do you think ESPN will mention wrestling’s body count? Me, neither.
Follow Mark on Twitter: @MarkMaddenX
