By Taylor Nigrelli
Sports Assignment Editor
ESPN took another major step away from the direction of journalistic integrity Thursday, March 14.
According to Deadspin, they suspended columnist Bill Simmons from Twitter for three days after he tweeted criticism of the network’s afternoon debate show, “First Take.”
Simmons serves as editor-in-chief of the ESPN-sponsored website, Grantland, host of the B.S. Report podcast and producer of the network’s “30 for 30” documentary series. In his tweet, he called a segment of the show “awful” and “embarrassing to everyone involved.”
The segment Simmons referred to involved All-Pro Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman telling host Skip Bayless he was “better at life” than Bayless, seemingly without prompt. He went on to call him “ignorant,” “pompous” and “egotistical.” This went on for more than three minutes without ever getting into serious discussion about sports.
A three-minute segment gone awry isn’t a major issue, just as the three-day Twitter suspension was hardly noticeable on its own.
The issue is the larger message ESPN sent by reprimanding Simmons while letting “First Take” completely off the hook despite the lack of intelligence, reason and journalistic integrity the program displays.
This is hardly the first time nonsense has ruled in the First Take studio. Aside from the usual mindless debates that make up much of the show, there have been plenty of instances where the show has made it clear they will seek attention and viewership at all costs.
After last year’s AFC Championship, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs was a guest on the show and called Bayless a “douchebag.” So, obviously, Suggs returned to the show after this year’s Super Bowl, where he avoided talking about the game and instead told Bayless that he “has graduated from douchebag to dirtbag.” This is just one of many examples of ESPN choosing to value cheap entertainment over any type of intelligent or thought-provoking programming.
By suspending Simmons, even just from Twitter for a few days, the company made it clear they don’t plan on changing anytime soon. It doesn’t matter that Simmons has excelled in every aspect of sports media or simply suggested the network show some discretion with what they put on the air. ESPN will continue to allow totally unqualified attention-grabbers like Bayless to spew verbal garbage until a major change occurs.
However, there is hope on the horizon. ESPN has become so powerful because of a lack of real competition. This will all change in August when Fox Sports 1 will be launched to more than 90 million homes in America. For the first time in its 34 years of existence, ESPN will have to compete with another 24-hour sports network.
But competition alone will not be enough to force ESPN to change. America’s sports fans have to show they won’t have their intelligence insulted. By causing #FreeSimmons to trend on Twitter in the hours after his punishment was announced, the Twitterverse showed some resistance to ESPN’s power. This must continue in a stronger form for ESPN to listen.
Instead of hate-watching “First Take,” we must pretend it doesn’t exist. Instead of criticizing Skip Bayless on social media forums, we can’t give him the time of day. Instead of looking to ESPN.com for major sports stories, we should look to one of the many other quality online sports news outlets such as Yahoo and Fox.
Then, instead of tuning in for hours of nonsensical debate, we’ll be treated to quality coverage of the sports we treasure so much.
