Link to Article... Three words to start a personal revolution: I'm boycotting ESPN. (For as long as I can.) Starting with this morning's "SportsCenter" rerun and lasting until I suffer from a piercing bout of Dick Vitale-deprivation or the network publicly disavows the entire run of "Around the Horn," I'm boycotting ESPN, ESPN2 and any other part of the ESPN broadcast empire. (I feel better already.) I'm boycotting ESPN because it's the only game in sports-TV journalism and, like all monopolies, has gotten bloated and maddeningly self-absorbed. I'm boycotting ESPN because I want to know if I can. I'm boycotting ESPN because it has become as omnipresent and dangerous as Microsoft, and it takes a conscious effort to avoid the brand. Hey, we survived thousands of years before the ESPN era began in 1979 and Chris Berman started demanding that sports virgins be brought to his throne as tribute, right? So I have to do something to avoid the inexplicable new "Stump the Schwab" game show, which is either a hoax or proof that ESPN programming guru Mark Shapiro has replaced Marlon Brando as America's most powerful loon. The horror! Something became clear to me recently amid the dopey "Home Run Derby," the repulsive ESPYs, the rewrite-history-as-schlock ESPN25 broadcasts and the mindless shrieking and whining. (I was a member of the voting panel for ESPN25; I can't be the only voter horrified by the first few shows.) Somewhere in the past few days, it dawned on me that Bad ESPN had finally gobbled up Good ESPN. ESPN has always had a split personality: Good ESPN, with tremendous reporters, excellent game coverage and a sense of responsibility; and Bad ESPN, which believes that the only way to cut through the clutter is to SHOUT LOUDER AND LOUDER and produce dumber and dumber shows. Good ESPN is "Baseball Tonight," "Pardon the Interruption" and "Outside the Lines." It's Tom Jackson, Bob Ley, Harold Reynolds, Linda Cohn, Chris Mortensen and Dan Patrick. Bad ESPN is almost everything else, from Berman to the ESPYs to Stuart Scott to NFL analysts Sean Salisbury and John Clayton (two very nice guys off-air) yelling at each other like kindergartners. Bad ESPN created "Dream Job" and its winner, new "SportsCenter" anchor Mike Hall, whose attempts at humor and highlight narration make him sound like a 5-month-old cocker spaniel doing the sports report: lots of high-pitched squealing, some drooling, playful pats on the nose by those nearest to him. And he makes me think of that amplifier joke in "Spinal Tap." We know that Scott and Berman are all-time "10s" on the annoyance meter. Now Hall has come along and, hello, we find out ESPN can pump it up to "11" when it really needs to. Of course, remnants of Good ESPN survive. Only Wednesday, I was mesmerized by Ley's "SportsCenter" report on the doping charges leveled at Lance Armstrong. I'd estimate I watch about 75 to 90 minutes of ESPN programming a day, either as background noise or to catch up on things by tuning in to "SportsCenter." And Bad ESPN is everywhere. Over those 75 minutes, ESPN is a TV obstacle course: Whoops, watch out, blatant self-promotion, turn to CNN! Get back in time for the update on the Los Angeles Lakers' break-up. Oh no, it's an ESPYs replay, turn off the TV right now!!! ESPN had two main NBA analysts last season - thoughtful, knowledgeable veteran NBA reporter David Aldridge and the infamous Screamin' A. Smith. Guess which one they just let go? Hint: It wasn't the guy who actually makes sense and doesn't harm your ears. Look at what they're doing. What does that tell you about how ESPN sees its viewers? As children, you think? It's no secret that Disney-owned ESPN is trying to transform itself into a mega-entertainment studio to rival Pixar. But instead, it's mutating into a particularly smarmy dimension of hell to rival, well, hell. Eventually, there will be major ESPN backlash. I don't know if it's coming yet, but I know I want to be out there first, because I want to be on the side with a soul. So I'm boycotting. I toyed with the idea of drafting my sports-crazy nephew - smack dab in the middle of ESPN's 18-to-25 demographic target territory - to make this a contest. But I just want to test myself for now. It's not a crusade. I have no desire to become a martyr, squashed by the ESPN logo, though that might occur anyway. I admit, I chose to start the boycott now, partly because I knew it'd be a relatively easy time to go ESPN cold turkey. The Shaq-and-Kobe drama is done, the NFL isn't revving up until September, I can get my baseball fix from the Giants and A's local telecasts, and the Olympics, one of the few things not in the ESPN orbit, will soon blot out the landscape. But it still will be difficult to keep up the boycott. For instance: Where can I get gossip about the upcoming baseball trade deadline? Fox Net's "Best Damn Sports Show" is not an option, because that's like boycotting Shell by buying a Chevron station. I know eventually I will come back to ESPN. I need it, I hate it. I'm boycotting it, for as long as I can. You can support me. You can belittle me. But I'm boycotting ESPN. I'll let you know when I relapse.
Aldridge was solid. He had good news and good opinions and told them in an upfront honest way. He also was a very good contributor to ESPN.com. He will be missed by me.
i agree this is garbage, fire tolbert who is walton in the making then fire walton, but dont fire aldrige! and jim grey who should have been fired long ago for soliciting fines for players during half-time, ie sf3 and shaq, aldrige is a great sports guy, this is just nuts.
I've personally liked Chris Berman, though he can be a screaming fool. Sad to see DA go, he was the one voice of reason on the NBA shows that I didn't want to strangle all the time...only half the time. Hopefully he gets picked up by FSN...Max Kellerman is doing well over there, and I hope DA does well too.
DA thinks that Linda Cohn is "Good ESPN"??!! ROTFLMFAO!!! She is terrible and tries WAY too hard to be funny. However, everything else in that article is dead-on. ESPN has been getting increasingly more annoying for some time. I think it started with those commercials they did. The first couple were good but then they just went overboard with it. Then someone there thought "Hey, we could do this type of stuff all the time! It is not like sports fans could go somewhere else! They need ESPN!" Too bad that ESPN is pretty much a monopoly. Also being run by Disney is going to make it almost impossible for some other network to come along and give us what we want - sports news and information without being cute and annoying.
Boycotting ESPN ... for now By TIM KAWAKAMI San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) are u sure its not tim kawakami boycotting espn
Was it really Aldridge that got let go? Doesn't this mean... ... which equals Smith getting ditched? Of course, the context of the quote seems to put it as a "bad ESPN" move, which implies Aldridge.
a damn shame aldridge was a class act :| hope FSN picks him up as well too bad cnnsi isn't around anymore.
Stephen A. Smith is one of the more annoying personalities to hit TV/Radio in a looooong time. All he wants is to be Charles Barkley, but he's not as funny, not as knowledgeable (which is really saying something because Chuck ain't a genius) and much, MUCH FREAKING LOUDER. He's a caricature of all the things I hate about sports newscasters. The only good thing that ever came about because of his employment at ESPN is Scott Van Pelt's hilarious impersonations of him.
Can this really be true? Aldridge was without doubt my favorite NBA reporter. Even his opinions were great... rare was the occasion when I didn't agree with him. ESPN just got about ten times crappier in my eyes.
I think he's fine with people trying to be funny, as long as they're not SCREAMING and becoming blatant caricatures of themselves (Smith, Berman, and Scott). I've always liked Berman on NFL-Primetime, because his personality perfectly encompasses the crazy/dramatic day of Sunday NFL Football. However, he becomes annoying and UNWATCHABLE when covering sports like baseball, golf, tennis, and the Espys... where it becomes painfully obvious that he can't just be a calm announcer, and he must try to come up with a nick-name or scream something. It works only in football... nowhere else, Chris. I don't know how Stuart Scott has lasted this long. It was fun, when he first came up, and would shout things like "boo-yah" (before that word became played out), and "play-ah" (before that word became overused), and added a sense of "hippness" that Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann never brought. Now, however... that "hippness" is in overdrive, and it seems like it will NEVER be turned off... and its only getting worse. Why they choose HIM to host their side-shows is beyond me. As far as Smith is concerned... he's good for a few laughs during actual NBA coverage... but when they're turining to him for hard news, and reports from the scenes... its downright embarassing for the network. I do expect an in-house overhaul in the upcoming year or two... there's still far too much good at ESPN to let the bad take over. Trust me, they'll soon get it figured out (when yet another one of their own original programming shows goes down in flames) that less may, in fact, be more. Of course, this could just all be a by-product of one of the most deadest periods in sports... (no football, no pennant races yet, and no NBA.)
it does indeed suck. as for this thread, why would they let DA go? they couldn't have just decided, ok, he's no longer useful. was there a contract dispute, did DA do something, is ESPN actually just plain being stupid. i mean, DA is as bad as a lot of the guys when it comes to speculation, but as far as his takes on things and getting inside info he's about as good as espn has for basketball i would think. sucks if they let him go.
Great. So they keep white losers like Tolbert just so they can have a white face on the games (note to Tolbert: YOU....ARE....NOT....(INTENTIONALLY)....FUNNY. And they keep the loud black guy, sorry to say it, the bad-stereotype black guy, yells to make his arguments, gets the other people mad, starts a little back and forth (being from NY probably has a lot to do with it) but they get rid of the calm, measured, easy-on-the-ears, makes-sense David Aldridge....? No, I'm not believing this. This is a joke, right? David Aldridge is still with ESPN. Right? Hello? Bueller? BUELLER?
Yeah, Tolbert and Smith are both absolute imbeciles. I've always liked to see segments with Aldridge. He conducts himself as a professional, and is a hell of a lot smarter than those other two. Thank God for the radio.
