NFL’s ESPN Stake and the Impact on Sports Reporting
Jason Cole and Dan Sileo examine how local media decline and the NFL's new deal with ESPN have affected event coverage, like Kyle Shanahan's accident.
Video Transcript
You know, the NFL owns 10% of ESPN now, and you're putting- Mm-hmm embargo stories on Kyle Shanahan.
When I first heard the information that he was in an accident, Jace, I didn't realize it was two or three weeks ago that this whole thing happened.
How do you make, and how do you take, and how this thing was reported, the head football coach was in a severe car accident?
Well, I mean, there's a debate whether it's severe.
Palo Alto police certainly don't consider it severe.
He had severe injuries, so I guess the injuries indicate something else.
Look, I blame this mostly on local media not being as on top of the game as they used to be.
Like, this wouldn't have gotten by, 20 years ago.
And that's not to say that good people aren't trying to report, but it's easier to hide things now.
And yeah, you have some cooperation from ESPN, but ultimately ESPN knows the story's coming out anyways, right?
So do they care whether it comes out on the day, you know, a day or two after, or do they com-- or if it comes out 10 days later?
They don't really care 'cause they don't really have much competition, because l- there's not much competition at the local level, and there are not reporters who are doggedly trying to find stuff out, and there just aren't that many newspapers.
I, y-- I worked in the Bay Area for a long time.
There used to be, what, five, six, seven, like nine newspapers in the Bay Area.
Now there's, like, essentially three.
And so there's just fewer bodies to cover these kinds of stories, and there Like, my office, when I c- when I was working there, was four blocks from the Palo Alto Police Station, okay?
So I knew the Palo Alto cops.
I knew the Redwood City cops.
I knew the Los Altos cops.
I knew those people.
We had connections.
We had multiple editors who knew the cops who worked in those towns.
The way things now are right now, you don't have people who know who the cops are or the, you know, the administrators are in these places.
So the death of local newspapers is the biggest reason why you don't see this.
And so, you know, again, places can get away with protecting a story or keeping it hushed up for a while.
It's e- again, it's eventually gonna come, come out, because there's nobody else who's gonna go after it.
It just doesn't exist.
And even when there were newspapers, you know, look, police stations can make stuff go away if they want.
They can hide stuff if they want to.
And let's just say there's a very famous quarterback who supposedly had something in the Bay Area go away, right?
When it comes to a traffic infraction.
So I'll just leave that at that, okay?
And that's the rumor.
That's why I won't give you anything, any more information than that.
But the story has been recounted so- some other places.
Well, I will put this out there, too.
There was a famous wide receiver that was in that market that also had a very unfortunate arrest that seemingly went away.
I won't name that very, very, very, very, very famous wide receiver that- Mm-hmm had a story go away, but it did.
So let me take you to a story we can- Yeah comment on.
Stuff, stuff-- Let's just say stuff happens.
Stuff happens, right?
Sorry.
Okay
