PressEthic

George Solomon, ESPN’s ombudsman, wrote:

Standing at the kitchen counter Monday morning, drinking a cup of coffee, I was startled to hear a tease for an upcoming news conference involving the Boston Red Sox. My first thought was that Red Sox management had made peace with whiz kid Theo Epstein and that Boston's former GM would be returning to The Nation.

That is, until I read the crawl on the bottom of the screen ("Simulated news conference") and saw ESPN's Steve Phillips, a former general manager for the New York Mets, at the lectern, acting the part of Red Sox GM. I also thought I saw ESPN reporters Buster Olney and Jeremy Schaap, among others, asking questions. And before breakfast?

I'd been had. And so were many other viewers who, like me, simply could not understand why ESPN, a news-gathering organization of stature, would simulate a news conference.

Here is the lede of an AP story on CNN.com:

An on-screen NBC News identifier for a fictional debate on "The West Wing" and a "news conference" by a fake Boston Red Sox executive on ESPN show how fuzzy the lines between news and entertainment have become.

A simulated news conference on ESPN shows “how fuzzy the lines between news and entertainment have become”? The title of the article asks the question, "'West Wing' and ESPN: Did they go too far?" Whoa, let's take it easy.

I understand that ESPN’s ombudsman and others were a little upset because they were duped by the simulated news conference, but let’s not take it too seriously. ESPN spends hours of programming time speculating on the trades that might occur in all of the professional sports. Sports analysts pick winners for just about every game and constantly predict where players will end up.

So, the problem is the change of format. Instead of having a few sports analysts sit around a table and discuss possible trades, ESPN decided to change things up a bit. ESPN’s ombudsman included this quote from Vince Doria, ESPN’s news director, in his article:

"We wanted to present the traditional offseason hot stove speculation in a platform that would deliver the same information in a more entertaining way," Doria said. "We hoped that might get our viewers' attention, as opposed to the conventional piece or discussion."

In response to Doria’s comment, Solomon wrote:

I know, I'm past the age of the target audience. And I also know my limited sense of humor disappears quickly when the news-gathering process is spoofed, even when the goal is to entertain. I also know that ESPN attempted to make its intent clear.

In this instance, though, I missed the joke and ESPN missed its mark.

ESPN “missed its mark”? Actually, I agree with Doria. ESPN’s usual format for presenting this information is rather boring, and it got my attention in the new format. In fact, I think it got the attention of the ombudsman too. I’d say that ESPN hit its mark.

By the way, ESPN ran something like “This is a simulated news conference” along the bottom of the screen during each segment.