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SPORTS MEDIA THREAD DEUX


Dolfan in NYC

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On 8/4/2016 at 5:00 PM, Jerome Miller said:

4,000 words on the December 1992 issue of "Source Magazine?"

That's supposed to be cutting edge journalism on the black experience in 21st century sports?

The Undefeated?

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7 hours ago, Brian Fowler said:

The Undefeated?

My bad, yes, The Undefeated.

My local ESPN Radio affiliate aired that "The Undefeated Radio Special" with Clinton Yates, Jill Hudson, and Justin Tinsley back on March 14th where they previewed the website, and I kinda figured they were gonna be in trouble from the get-go.  

Hudson and Yates sounded like they wanted to do stories in the style of NPR or This American Life, but focused specifically on black athletes, while Tinsley wanted to focus primarily on Historic Black College sports stories.

Those are two very specific, pointed, niche target audiences and I don't know if that will be enough to support the website in the long run.  If a year from now, Deadspin reports about major staff turnover, and suddenly The Undefeated starts doing more generic, broader appeal stories like "Carmelo Anthony's Favorite Sneaker Stores in Syracuse" or "An Oral History of Derek Carr and Amari Cooper's Friendship," I wouldn't be surprised.

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13 hours ago, Jerome Miller said:

My bad, yes, The Undefeated.

My local ESPN Radio affiliate aired that "The Undefeated Radio Special" with Clinton Yates, Jill Hudson, and Justin Tinsley back on March 14th where they previewed the website, and I kinda figured they were gonna be in trouble from the get-go.  

Hudson and Yates sounded like they wanted to do stories in the style of NPR or This American Life, but focused specifically on black athletes, while Tinsley wanted to focus primarily on Historic Black College sports stories.

Those are two very specific, pointed, niche target audiences and I don't know if that will be enough to support the website in the long run.  If a year from now, Deadspin reports about major staff turnover, and suddenly The Undefeated starts doing more generic, broader appeal stories like "Carmelo Anthony's Favorite Sneaker Stores in Syracuse" or "An Oral History of Derek Carr and Amari Cooper's Friendship," I wouldn't be surprised.

The problem with The Undefeated is that most sports stories in the Untied States are "Black" stories.  So ESPN.com gets all of the big sports stories on their front page, which leaves them with what?  I'd say 80-85% of all NFL/NBA stories involve black athletes, but how often is that story going to be put on The Undefeated as opposed to going straight to ESPN.com?  If the consensus black opinion (this doesn't exist, for the record) on these stories differ greatly shouldn't those opinions be put on ESPN.com instead of the "Colored's Only" section?  The Undefeated is a website that kind of has to specialize in stories that are fringe at best.  They aren't reporting on the NBA Finals, despite the fact that everyone of note in the Finals was either black or Kevin Love.  So they talk about sports at HBCUs, which is about as niche as it gets, or old Source Magazine issues.  They don't really have an opportunity to have a legitimate footprint in sports journalism, because their parent company already covers the vast majority of what they are supposed to do.  If you click on the Sports tab on The Undefeated, you'll see plenty of interesting stories, but not much about what is currently going on in any of the major sports leagues.  If they aren't going to tell the stories of the leagues we care about, why would I spend any time there?  Either they need to be able to report on the big sports leagues in a way that is different, but just as good as ESPN.com or they're always going to be reporting on things that very few people care about.  

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Todd Grisham made an ass of himself nicely today for scolding Ichiro for not learning English on twitter without realizing he does speak English, but prefers to use an interpreter to make sure he doesn't mess up what he says.

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2 hours ago, Ryan said:

Todd Grisham made an ass of himself nicely today for scolding Ichiro for not learning English on twitter without realizing he does speak English, but prefers to use an interpreter to make sure he doesn't mess up what he says.

Apparently Ichiro is fluent in English and Spanish.  Remember a couple weeks ago when Chapman was asked about how he felt about something, but apparently his translator who wasn't really a translator asked him something different, and everyone jumped on his back about how he answered the question?  Language is really subtle, and people are just waiting for you to fuck up so they can call you an asshole.  I don't fault anyone for only answering questions in the language they are most comfortable speaking.

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3 hours ago, Ryan said:

Todd Grisham made an ass of himself nicely today for scolding Ichiro for not learning English on twitter without realizing he does speak English, but prefers to use an interpreter to make sure he doesn't mess up what he says.

Eh,  that's not REALLY true anymore. Ichiro speaks English to the media all the time - off the record.  He is an interpreter to avoid having to answer questions when he doesn't want to. He also uses one to maintain an air of mystery to fans. And he doesn't want his interpreter to have to look for a job. 

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On Monday, August 08, 2016 at 4:00 PM, steve said:

I'm imagining Vince reading this tweet and firing Joey Styles immediately so he could try to rehire Grisham.

I'm imagining the translator guest-hosting RAW because Vince thinks he is Ichiro.

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1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

John Saunders has passed away at the age of 61

Anyone know cause of death?  The ESPN obit didn't mention cause, though I'm kinda thinking that is deliberate.

Was he still hosting Sports Reporters?  Seems like I saw him on-air not too long ago, though considering how seldom I watch Sports Reporters anymore, it could have been a year or more.

S

 

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This is going to sound strange, but my favorite John Saunders memory was his reaction to the Malice in the Palace.  Everyone else took the easy road and blamed the athletes, but he pointed the finger at the people in the crowd who pretty much caused the entire incident. I don't think the players should have gone into the stands, but I've always been of the opinion that the entire incident could have been avoided if the fans acted like they had some damn sense.  Seriously, throwing a drink on someone is an invitation to fight 100% of the time.  People should let cooler heads prevail, but when you throw a drink on someone you are asking them to punch you in the face.  Like it or not, that dude asked for that ass whooping.  He, WRONGLY, thought Ron Artest would decline to give it to him.  

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The opening of His & Hers today is absolutely soul crushing

It is two people who absolutely love John Saunders and are sadly have to try to process everything within two hours of learning of the passing of a friend and mentor.

(Note that the audio is slightly off from the visual)

EDIT - That being said - Hill's story at the very end of the segment about Saunders love of Jean Stapleton is fucking amazing

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