It's official. ESPN.com is officially jeopardizing any journalistic integrity it has left. Apparently, Twitter has now become ESPN's official source for breaking news in the world of sports. Yes, I just wrote a form of the word "official" four times in four sentences.
Under the "Headlines" posted on the front page of ESPN.com, ESPN boasts: "Love tweets that McHale is out as Wolves coach". WHAT?!?! Let me get this straight. While almost 10% of Americans are currently unemployed, ESPN is paying somebody to monitor Twitter.com for breaking sports news?
FYI, the person mentioned as "Love" is Kevin Love, a backup Forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is not a journalist. He is not a representative of ESPN. He is not affiliated with the media whatesover. He is a professional basketball player. Nothing more.
In previous years, when the Male Soap Opera had yet to reach its current mania, the jabberjawing of a backup NBA Forward would be considered a "rumor" or "hot tip" on a possible lead story. Now, however, in the "me me me" world of Twitter, this sort of rumor has been promoted to the level of certifiable, reportable news.
Back in the day, this sort of news would not be reported unless it came straight from team management. Instead, ESPN has now elevated the "tweets" of Kevin Love, a benchwarming Forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves, to the level of the ultimate final word as to the hiring and firing of the team's head coaches. That's right. ESPN.com wants us to believe that the Timberwolves have made Twitter - and their backup Forward - their official medium for breaking news? Why else would ESPN post this rumor as an actual news story? I'm at a loss here.
Is Kevin Love right? Probably, I guess. Why else would he "tweet" this vital information? But that's not the point.
The point is any media source with any integrity would wait to break the story until it was officially announced by management. Apparently, in today's world, it's more important be first than to maintain integrity.
For the sake of all things holy. I hate Twitter. I have no disrespect to my readers who recreationally use Twitter for fun. But, I lose respect daily for those who rely on it to feed the beast. That includes you, ESPN.
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I have to agree with you that there is a 'me me me' element to twitter (and Facebook for that matter). Unless a person is really interesting, I don't care about their mundane updates. ESPN must be really desperate if they need to tout Twitter 'news' as the legititmate article.
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