For the last couple of years, ESPN.com has, at the bottom of its news stories, run a link to breaking news from ABC News, though only when there was major news to report- for instance, logging on to ESPN on a Sunday morning in December of ’03 was how I heard for the first time about Saddam Hussein being captured. Having that occasional link brought a certain gravitas to the Worldwide Leader’s site, even if it was a naked example of corporate synergy (as the two networks are both owned by Disney).
Well, the ABC link has now been added, breaking news or not, as a permanent feature- and what was the bit of “breaking news” linked for much of the day on Tuesday? That’s right, “Heartbroken Model Reflects on Tsunami.” Not only is it laughable that this is even a news story, but model Petra Nemcova has a long association with… Sports Illustrated, ESPN’s competitor. So much for “synergy.”
Posted by Stephen Silver at March 9, 2005 02:18 PM