Ombudsman moves on
Last week, Le Anne Schreiber ended her two-year, contracted tenure as ESPN's resident ombudsman. You may have missed her since you never really saw her article above the bottom of ESPN.com's homepage. She was charged with the task, by ESPN, to critique ESPN in their coverage. She took on thousands of e-mails from fans, in addition to her own consumption, trying to get a sample, see if there were any common themes, and then somehow form some semblance of an opinion and unbiased critique.
It's a unique, important, and mostly overlooked, angle - one from which this site is obviously trying to take the lead.
While it's hard for me to believe having an ombudsman around was anything more than ESPN paying lip service to all the critics out there ("Hey, we're trying to be better. We have an ombudsman."), Schreiber was always an enjoyable read and really insightful in her observations and suggestions.
In her final article, Schreiber attempts to impart some final words of wisdom on the sports juggernaut:
"Overcoverage of the
favored few teams and players not only kills joy through its sheer tedium, it
is also the root of fan grievances about bias, about cross-promotion, and about
corporate conflict of interest. I suspect the perceived arrogance of particular
ESPN personalities would become a small-potatoes complaint if it were not
magnified in fans' minds by the consequences of other forms of excess.
"So what's the one last message I want to leave ESPN? I guess it would have to be: Don't be so predictable. Subtext: Stop trying to make the publicity-rich ever richer. Spread the wealth around before fans turn on ESPN the way investors have turned on bankers."
Good stuff, LeAnn.
Be sure to read some of Schreiber's archived articles while waiting for her replacement, which will hopefully be jumping in soon. The "World-Wide Leader" should definitely not be left to their own devices for too long.
