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An Update To That ESPN “Sources” Controversy

So over the weekend, there was a bit of a brouhaha (that had been a while in the making) over ESPN and the way it credits (or doesn’t properly credit, to put a finer point on it) reporters from other news outlets who break stories before their reporters do. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports sparked the latest round of the controversy

Essentially, the complaint is that whenever a reporter not affiliated with ESPN breaks a story, ESPN will then run with the story, crediting “sources” instead of mentioning the reporter and outlet who broke the story by name. This may strike you as something the vast majority of people who consume sports media would never give a good goddamn about, and this is because that is exactly true. However, it is still an important issue regarding journalistic practices, and it seems that this time, ESPN heard the complaints swirling around media-circle-jerk-dom. Check out the screencap from today’s SportsCenter that sources* posted earlier today:

It should be noted that this is far from the first time ESPN has been called out over the “sources” business, but apparently this time enough people made enough noise that the WWL listened. And no matter how insular and meta-media an issue this is, it’s a positive development all the same. And not a moment too soon: sources told SportsGrid** that with this last-minute acknowledgment of Glazer, ESPN narrowly avoided going over the dreaded “sourcing cliff,” which would have put the nation at risk of tumbling into a source recession. So don’t let worrying over all this ruin your New Year’s celebration, everyone.

[Source#]

*Awful Announcing

**no they didn’t

#Awful Announcing

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