"With TNT's analytical, yet good-natured approach as an example... how could the Worldwide Leader have whiffed so badly? Does anyone find this crew insightful, entertaining or redeeming in any way? Who wants to tune into an NBA pregame show, expecting a verbal version of a lay-up line, only to see it devolve into a spirited game of "who's the bigger badass?"Kelly Dwyer, of SI.com, absolutely tearing apart ESPN's NBA studio coverage. He's right on the money, of course, and I can only imagine how badly ESPN will screw up "Monday Night Football" when they get it next year. I could barely sit through Sunday night's Eagles-Redskins game without screaming at the idiot announcers every five minutes.Intelligent political discourse was chased off the airwaves long ago in favor of pointed, and often pointless, bluster. It pains one to watch ESPN try to emulate these black-or-white, either/or arguments. Levity and perspective is in short supply on the ESPN set, falling to the Blue State/Red State arguments that have moved from cable news networks into the televised toy department.
My favorite part of Dwyer's critique is when he defends himself against the likely charge of corporate cronyism- SI and TNT are both under Time Warner/Turner- by referencing the long-forgotten mini-scandal of Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner giving a five-star review to Mick Jagger's mediocre 2001 solo album. So what if I'm one of two or three people reading who actually remembers that?
Posted by Stephen Silver at November 9, 2005 03:25 PM