Some are questioning ESPN’s coming deal with the National Football League and wondering if it will put a damper on the sports network’s journalistic integrity.
Concerns have arisen after this week’s announcement that the NFL is selling its NFL Network and other media assets to ESPN. The alarm bells blared after it was revealed that the NFL would receive a ten percent equity stake in the cable sports network.
This deal isn’t unusual as far as media mergers are concerned. However, what is unusual is that the NFL will now have ownership in an organization that is supposed to be engaging in journalistic reporting on the NFL. And some are wondering how that ownership stake will affect ESPN’s reporting and programming.
One who feels that this sets a bad precedent in sports journalism is former Marlins executive David Samson, host of the Nothing Personal with David Samson podcast, according to Awful Announcing.
“Do you think ESPN is going to spend hours of programming each day criticizing the NFL, bringing Jerry Jones to task?” Samson asked on his podcast this week. “Do you think that there’s a possibility that ESPN will do anything to upset its partner, the NFL? And you talk about a conflict of interest, why do you think Bob Iger had to talk about it yesterday? And he did. Listen to this statement by the CEO of Disney and realize what horse hockey it is.”
Disney chief Bob Iger had insisted that the new deal between Disney-owned ESPN and the NFL would not change “ESPN’s approach when it comes to journalism.”
But Samson is skeptical. As an example, he pointed to sports reporter Don Van Natta, who has a long history of hard-nosed reporting on the NFL. And Samson wondered, with the NFL now owning part of ESPN, would a tough reporter like Van Natta get his contract renewed, or would future Van Nattas even get hired in the first place?
The podcaster also said that someone like Van Natta has to be looking at this deal and wondering if his journalistic integrity will be curtailed by the new influence the NFL might have on ESPN.
Samson also wondered if other pro sports leagues will now have to worry that ESPN will devote more time to the NFL to make their new partners happy.
“You think that when MLB negotiates with ESPN, that it’s not a factor that the NFL will not get more minutes on whatever it is, SportsCenter, ancillary programming,” Samson wondered. “ESPN and NFL are now married officially in a way they never were before. That will bleed from coverage to the type of coverage to the tone of coverage to the amount of coverage. All of that it is going to be part and parcel to a deal when you’ve got the NFL and ESPN getting together.”
Samson concluded, positing that the NFL is trying to take a step above being a sports league and that Roger Goodell has dreams of competing with other media giants — and even Google and Apple — by moving into things outside football.
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