Spaz

Well yes, the media is full of shit. But they have done a lot in the past 10 - 20 years or so that made the general public, not just the American public, automatically hate on a celebrity or athlete just because without really questioning why. I admired Kobe Bryant back in the day when he was a kid for the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 1990s. After the rape shit came out I lost all respect for him. But much of that was the media painting a broad brush to have people just go with whatever crap they were given. Kobe Bryant raped someone. But without America's obsession with celebrities and sports stars, the whole media coverage of Kobe wouldn't of stretched on for so long. I know this applies to a few other countries, not just the United States. But time and time again I can't help but think that America puts far too much emphasis and attention to those celebrities. Because we idolize a group of people who have more fame and more money than any of us on this website will probably ever have. The fact is, the media thrives on celebrity/athlete tragedies and fuck ups. They dragged on Barry Bonds alleged usage of steroids for what seemed like forever, and they did the same thing with Michael Vick after the shit he pulled. The media was on a frenzy when Lance Armstrong lied about his blood doping, which immediately resulted in his Tour de France titles being stripped, and rightfully so. Even Bill Cosby, who I once regarded as a great comedian and actor, destroyed all credibility and reputation he had with those sexual allegations. The media thrives and lives on this shit. Because without these celebrities, athletes and politicians doing their fuck ups, some of these media outlets would of died off a long time ago. ESPN now is focused squarely on talking heads bitching about whatever sports news story is juicy. Or masturbating over Lebron James because apparently anything he fucking does is news worthy. Give me a fucking break.

Now Kobe Bryant is dead... Some of the shit he did in the past off the court was bad, sure, but he was definitely a star player who I looked up to back in the 1990s. However his confrontations with Shaquille O'Neal made me lose a lot of respect for him, and of course the rape pretty much sealed the deal. Still, a real tragedy that he's gone.

This really started happening back in the mid 2000s. I definitely recall ESPN talking about Lance Armstrong (back before he was caught lying about blood doping in the Tour de France) in such a fashion that virtually nothing else was being covered. ESPN is basically a platform for favoritism. Michael Jordan was the face of the NBA in the 1990s. But back then ESPN didn't make front page coverage about him in such a glaring manner that they do with Lebron James, or Serena Williams, or Tom Brady or any superstar. When Barry Bonds was involved in the BALCO scandal a lot of footage was basically him and his chase to break Hank Aaron's home run record. By the time Michael Vick got into trouble it was all about him in the news footage. Same with Lance Armstrong with his blood doping. There's just no point to watch ESPN anymore. Their current commentators are a joke. Stuart Scott and Peter Gammons at least kept me watching. Chris Berman I always got joy from his commentary. Sad that Stuart passed away.

Me and my family got DIRECTV back in 1995 - 1996. Back then, ESPN was pretty much the go-to place when it came to sports. NFL coverage, Baseball coverage, NBA coverage, you name it. Chris Berman was a likeable personality who instilled charm in his television show. You didn't have the politics and the endless rambling of idiot talking heads like you do now. What mattered was the sports coverage. I watched many, many epic football rivalries and baseball rivalries on ESPN. Watching the Yankees play against the Red Sox was a treat, mainly because as a long time baseball fan, I live on the West Coast where it was difficult to watch any games in the East. I definitely started noticing ESPN taking a sharp nosedive sometime in the early 2000s. Talk shows like Around the Horn became more prominent. Chris Berman was being pushed to the side to make way for talking heads who were mostly there to be heard on national television. ESPN starting glamorizing award shows and they started focusing more on their publicity rather than their coverage. Around the Horn was becoming so prominent they even put a snippet of it in the 2005 movie 'Mr 3000', starring Bernie Mac. This was what ESPN wanted and that was where they were going. Certain athletes/celebrities like Barry Bonds, who was chasing Hank Aaron's home run record at the time, garnered more attention from ESPN than the actual sports coverage. They put an emphasis on Bonds to the point where he got his own reality show (Bonds on Bonds), which ended up being a disaster both for him and for the producers involved. I don't care what people said, that was NOT sports coverage, that was a steroid fueled drug user being humiliated on his own show while ESPN began raking in the money for attention. I still remember the Michael Vick fiasco back in 2007 lasting what seemed like forever on ESPN, the talking heads wouldn't stop talking about it. Today ESPN is pretty much obsolete. Everything they cover you can pretty much obtain ahead of time via the internet. Numerous apps on your smartphone make reading and watching sports coverage much quicker and easier than ESPN will ever be able to pull off. They exist nowadays solely to get profits from the few viewers who still tune in to their stations. ESPN, MTV, TLC, History Channel, Food Network, Weather Channel, all the big stations have long ago lost their original purpose and appeal. ESPN is literally a joke and a laughing stock. I don't see how anybody can take them seriously anymore. Especially with all the political crap that seems into their talk shows. Complete waste of time and energy.