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In response to our earlier version of Media Notes 08.22.18, we have updated with new information/stories and commentary, revised at 9 a.m. 08.24.18:

We’ve been asked recently for an opinion about the progress of The Athletic, which has recently started up a Los Angeles beachhead and hired away some of the local sportswriters working in the newspaper game.
Would you like to work there? Perhaps. Have they contacted you? Naw, not really. Have you reached out to anyone? Well, who would that be?
There’s not really a fine line between a mob of people running at your business with fiery torches, and an Olympic athlete running through the streets carrying a flaming torch of hope and cooperation.
Maybe these particular tweets lately sum it up for us:

We got a notice recently that our $59.99 year-long subscription to The Athletic comes up Sept. 12.
We declined renewal.
Not even at $9.99 a month. It’s based on past consumption, future expected use and projected value of recent hirings. We can’t really justify the expense at the moment.
Not even for a media columnist who might normally get this comped by the publication, or have it re-embursed by the company we work for.
We actually bought into the concept. Now we’re opting out.
Then there’s this the tweet we have saved and wondered why it even came back at us in the first place. Last fall, we tweeted out our dismay over a sloppy rah-rah piece they purchased from freelancer Molly “The Best Team Money Can Buy” Knight during the Dodgers-Cubs playoffs. We could link it here, but … why?
That reply above came from a gent at the Chicago bureau named Jon Greenberg (and, yes, we’ve been hanging onto this screenshot for just the right occasion).
Thanks, Jon. We appreciate the nice snappy comeback. Almost felt we got topped by it for an instant.
Thing is, I was also a paying customer. I was part of your core audience, even if you think no one outside of Chicago cares about Chicago sports.

A updated drill down into this:
First, my media partner Steve Lowery and I get into this discussion on our GameTakes app podcast linked here.
Second, we came across this tweet/story that may be the positive outcome of The Athletic’s presence:

Third, check out this story produced by Deadspin.com about how the Washington Post talent has resisted overtures from The Athletic about setting up shop in their backyard. It contains this quote:
The Athletic is either a force that’s going to change sports media forever, or, perhaps more likely, a racket perpetuated by excitable venture capital dudes who are going after an artificially inflated valuation by paying top dollar for mediocre-to-good beat reporters whose followings are largely a function of their previously existing platforms, and by making attention-grabbing hires of sportswriting relics of the 1990

Finally, here’s the New York Times framing of this story from Friday’s post, which contains this insight:

We continue to monitor because we want to see how this affects the sports media landscape, locally and nationally, and if it changes readers’ habits.

 

ITEM 2:

At a political rally Tuesday afternoon, the current President of the United States decided it was as good a time as any to besmirch ESPN:
“It was just announced by ESPN that rather than defending our anthem — our beautiful, beautiful national anthem and defending our flag — they’ve decided that they just won’t broadcast when they play the national anthem,” Donald Trump said, sparking a chorus of boos from the audience.
“We don’t like that … The ESPN thing was terrible.”
Wednesday, Trump followed it up with an email petition encouraging a boycott of the all-sports network.
So, there’s that.
Then there are the facts about the story he seems to be referencing. One that has been initially reported one way and somehow twisted into a few different directions since then, as well documented here:

Here’s how the Washington Post correctly framed this story when the quote from new ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro was extracted out of a large media gathering at the network’s Bristol, Conn., studios on Aug. 17:

Pitaro also has told the league that ESPN does not plan to air the national anthem ahead of its Monday night telecasts. The policy is not a change from previous seasons, but the network articulated its plans directly to the league for the first time.
“They have not asked,” Pitaro said. “But we have proactively just as a courtesy and as good partners let them know what our plans are.”
Asked about Pitaro’s comments about the national anthem, Stephanie Druley, ESPN’s senior vice president for event and studio production, noted that the policy could be adjusted if news warranted, but said, “We’ve seen data — fans want the game. That’s where we will keep our focus.”

ESPN has not responded. Not that it has to. Probably best to leave it alone.
Try repeating what it has already said, and it’s likely to get mangled even more, look like a sad walkback, and get skewered for no reason again.
Seriously, what’s the proper way to report this story?
Start with accuracy.
Also during that ESPN group interview, Pitaro was asked what he thinks is the biggest misconception about the network:
“That we are a political organization. Because we are not. We are a sports media company. We are always going to cover the intersection between sports and politics, sports and culture … When the Eagles are disinvited to the White House, we are going to cover that. When someone takes a knee, if we think it’s newsworthy, we are going to cover it. Our partners across the industry understand that. But covering sports in an exemplary fashion is our focus, our priority. That’s not going to change.”
Pardon this interruption, but we may have not agreed with some policy at ESPN in the past, from this, that and the other things (fill in the blanks).
Yet, when your policy hasn’t changed from its original intent, and you only bring it up so that you’re clear on what you’re not trying to do, and that gets picked up as a story that picks and chooses which words to punctuate to the population, then it’s just a poor reflection on the inner-workings of the media.
As the New York Times points out, “ESPN and other networks that televise the N.F.L. have not generally shown the anthem, often airing commercials during that time instead.” Also: “The networks have sometimes shown the anthem live during their broadcasts. ESPN did so on ‘Monday Night Football’ three times last season.”
Probably because it was newsworthy that particular week.
It’s kind of simple to check. Verify. Check again. Verify again. Report. Check again.
Or, just say things and hope no one follows up on it.

ITEM 3: Continue reading “Media notes version 08.22.18 revised: The Athletic flex in L.A. has the potential to do some good business, but at what cost?” →

In 2007, the group creating the mission statement for what they would call the Saint Sebastian Sports Project had some very basic questions to deal with: How can we help level the playing field for all inner-city Catholic elementary schools in LA’s archdiocese? Who needs uniforms and equipment? Playing facilities? Improved coaching?
Four schools were identified to start the process. A few thousand dollars were raised and distributed.
A decade later, many of the same organizers for the Manhattan Beach-based nonprofit have seen nearly 50 schools benefit from nearly a half-million dollars donated for ongoing sports tournaments, outreach programs and coaching clinics.
And they continue to ask: If there are 100 schools out there who could use help, what is needed next to keep playing this forward?
Here is our story as published in mid-August by Angelus News.
Here are some other quotes we had about SSSP from the original story that was edited for space:
From Clare Gurbach: “We’re a very ambitious group and we have done this collectively with various skill sets from each board member. And as a result, we’ve been able to grow this very quickly with a great group of volunteers.”
From Marc Maye: “This is teaching me as much as it’s teaching the kids. They’ve helped me become the best version of myself, shaping and defining my true purpose. I’m extremely grateful for them.”
From Jamal Adams: “At the Catholic Youth Organization level, we talk about developing the mind, body and soul. The mind is the academics, and the soul is the church, but the body is connected to sports, which also makes us great citizens of the world. Saint Sebastian’s has gone from humble beginnings of trying to get uniforms for kids and stipends for coaches, to all they’ve done to this point. It’s a great story.”