{"id":3361,"date":"2013-08-25T13:28:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-25T13:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2013-08-25T13:28:16","modified_gmt":"2013-08-25T13:28:16","slug":"sports-journalism-takes-a-big-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3361","title":{"rendered":"Sports journalism takes a big hit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>ESPN prides itself, we&#8217;re led to believe, on its courageous reporting on sports-related issues.<\/p>\n<p>Which brings up the question: Why did the nation&#8217;s No. 1 sports network bail on a PBS project that examines the outbreak of concussion-related trauma being suffered by professional football players?<\/p>\n<p>Was it pressure from the NFL, with which ESPN has a long-standing &#8212; and highly lucrative &#8212; financial partnership? It smells like it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"ESPN Quits Film Project on Concussions in N.F.L.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/svc\/oembed\/html\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2013%2F08%2F23%2Fsports%2Ffootball%2Fespn-exits-film-project-on-concussions.html#?secret=RnPsHDotNS\" data-secret=\"RnPsHDotNS\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Frontline is an award-winning documentary series broadcast by PBS. The program, based out of WBGH-TV in Boston, is set to air a two-part series called &#8220;League of Denial,&#8221; in which it looks at the concussion rate among NFL players and examines whether playing professional football has become hazardous to the health of its participants.<\/p>\n<p>The early indicators are that the concussions are becoming a grave concern.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN was supposed to be a partner in the project. It backed out this past week. ESPN said the NFL applied zero pressure to the network, even though there have been reports of a extremely testy meeting between ESPN and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. <\/p>\n<p>Two plus two still equals four, correct?<\/p>\n<p>OK, the news isn&#8217;t all bad.<\/p>\n<p>Frontline will present the broadcast, even without ESPN&#8217;s participation. It airs on Oct. 8 and 15, and will be shown in the Texas Panhandle on KACV-TV, the region&#8217;s public television station operating on the Amarillo College campus.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN does its share of in-depth sports journalism, particularly with its &#8220;Outside the Lines&#8221; specials. They produce occasionally riveting and, if you&#8217;ll pardon the pun, hard-hitting examinations of the lives of prominent athletes.<\/p>\n<p>As the network has shown, though, in cratering on the Frontline project, it is capable of missing a tackle or two.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN prides itself, we&#8217;re led to believe, on its courageous reporting on sports-related issues. Which brings up the question: Why did the nation&#8217;s No. 1 sports network bail on a PBS project that examines the outbreak of concussion-related trauma being suffered by professional football players? Was it pressure from the NFL, with which ESPN has &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=3361\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sports journalism takes a big hit<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[295,1101,1624,1827,2620,2753,3302,3532,3782,4890,5240],"class_list":["post-3361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-amarillo-college","tag-concussions","tag-espn","tag-frontline","tag-kacv-tv","tag-league-of-denial","tag-nfl","tag-pbs","tag-public-television","tag-traumatic-brain-injury","tag-wgbh-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}