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Arash Markazi, Author Of Slightly Debaucherous LeBron Piece, Will Not Be Suspended By ESPN

Arash Markazi, who penned the highly controversial “LeBron Enjoys Nakey Strippers Like The Rest Of Us” profile, will not be suspended by ESPN, Richard Sandomir of the New York Times reports.

Sandomir’s source was “a person briefed on the decision who was not authorized to speak publicly.”

If you’ll recall, the piece ran briefly on ESPN Los Angeles’ servers before it was spiked. ESPN then claimed that the piece “never should have been published,” citing numerous editorial red flags, before officially canning the article completely. Unfortunately for ESPN, Markazi’s profile of a “child wrapped in a 6-foot-8 250-pound frame” will live forever on image shack.

Meanwhile, Dan Le Batard says Markazi was wrong for publishing his “voyeuristic” piece, and that ESPN made the right decision in spiking it. However, he says their reasoning was outdated, and the whole “taking ourselves seriously as a journalistic entity” thing comes up only when it serves ESPN’s best interests:

Of course, journalists should identify themselves. That’s pretty basic. But ESPN didn’t apply that standard when publishing damaging photos of a drunk Josh Hamilton that weren’t taken by an identified journalist. And ESPN didn’t apply that standard when leading SportsCenter with video of a drunk Jerry Jones ripping Bill Parcells into a cellphone camera that didn’t belong to an identified journalist.

Le Batard also points to ESPN’s sheer size as a cause for their inability to “oversee this much product.” With so much output coming from so many mediums, messes like this will happen, he argues.

It’s a correct theory, but it doesn’t mean ESPN shouldn’t be scorched when something questionable like this happens. Yes, they are a huge company that cranks out tons of online, print and television pieces every day. But they’re hugeness is their doing; just this year they’ve rolled out ESPN New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and Dallas in an attempt to control sports regionally. If they want to continue to aggressively flower their monopoly, then the “we’re too big to police ourselves” argument doesn’t fly.