Journalism Professor: ESPN's Ethics Stink

Joe Cutbirth, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of British Columbia, writes in the Huffington Post that ESPN "owes its viewers, [Texas] Tech and frankly the journalism profession a look at its own ethical guidelines" after analyst Craig James filed a complaint against Mike Leach that resulted in the firing of the coach.

James has been called "a Little League dad" by Leach, who said James tried to leverage his position as an ESPN analyst to get more playing time for his son, Adam.

Cutbirth writes: "Everyone in journalism knows that credibility is a perception. That is why political reporters don't report on races involving their family members and why business reporters don't report on companies in which they own stock. ESPN could have avoided this whole situation by reassigning Craig James the minute his son signed with Texas Tech.

"The announcement that James would not be covering the Alamo Bowl — like that is some big step by ESPN — is so ridiculous it's offensive. It was absurd for him ever to have been near that game, Big 12 football and/or Tech athletics in the first place.

"Craig James has every right to be a pestering football dad, as obnoxious as that may be. However, if he wants to exercise that right, he owes it to his network and the reputations of other reporters who work there to move into a job that doesn't have these ethical temptations or create the appearance of impropriety.

"News organizations routinely reassign reporters to avoid even slight impressions of conflict over work their family members do in government, business — even sports. Why was Craig James any different?"

Comments

[Will Collier]

This certainly isn't the first time ESPN has ignored ethics in the name of boosting an on-air employee. When South Carolina was put on NCAA probation a few years back, the network gave Lou Holtz several minutes of uninterrupted airtime to read a statement denying that he'd broken the rules--and what was worse, they did absolutely no follow-up. No questions, no reporting, no fact-check, just Lou spluttering out his self-serving statement. The broadcast just moved on from there. It was outrageous and pathetic.

[T-Bone]

What this professor fails to understand is that the E in ESPN stands for Entertainment. ESPN is not a credible news source and does not carry themselves as one. They try to act like one every once in a while but at the end of the day, they are here for entertainment purposes.

[Rob]

T-Bone, The sad thing is you're probably right. The biggest thing I noticed over the weekend besides the whole Craig James deal is the assigning of Kirk Herbstreit to the Rose Bowl despite him being a big Ohio State homer. In my job I've seen people moved from stories because of their connection to certain places or people. ESPN has failed in that account because it provides the ratings.

[Josh]

Maybe someone should mention that Craig James is a complete asshole?

[DK]

Remember when everyone was gushing about Bob Griese calling the Rose Bowl when his son played for UM? Now all of a sudden some egghead sees it as an ethics issue

What else is Craig James going to do? Talk about tennis? Who are they going to get to replace him? Lou Holtz? One of the Bowdens? Half of these guys have kids in one sport or another (and it's not limited to ESPN.) James is going to pay a huge credibility price for this situation. As much as I can't stand him, he's not stupid so you have to know he knew the issues when he made the accusations. I don't think depriving him of a livelihood because his kid plays college football would have changed anything.

[Nick]

or maybe someone should mention that Craig James directly led to SMU's death penalty.

[Matt]

DK, I do remember when Bob Griese called the 1998 Rose Bowl and kept lobbying the whole game for Michigan to win the NC.

Of course, it just made Bob look like a chump, especially when Michigan won in such a craptacular, cheap, referee-assisted fashion against the #8 team. Of course, Nebraska destroying a #3, Peyton Manning-led Tennessee also helped generate the split.

And ESPN does assert itself as a Sports News outlet--even one of its channels is supposedly news-only, despite the overabundance of editorial and bias exhibited by the presenters.

However, there's a bigger problem than just ESPN's journalistic ethics (or lack thereof)--the lack of ethics by the media as a whole anymore (I won't name names as I don't want this becoming political).

Hell, part of the reason print media suffers isn't because of the internet circumventing their business model, but because the internet has exposed the print media and those that write for it as what they are, and it's hard to accept information from a source that has checked its ethics at the door.

[Sweetmommy]

One of the better stories I've read on this subject! Keep it up!

[Brian McCormack]

Too many sports fans take ESPN as the gospel and rarely question the slanted agenda driven content presented on a daily basis. During the Alamo Bowl the actions of Leech were questioned extensively while Craig James was left out of the discussion.

ESPN is not more than Disney Sports so one should expect little and get less.

[Reverend Paul Revere]

DK, I don't think anyone is saying James shouldn't be allowed to call football games. That is his job. But he shouldn't be allowed to call Texas Tech games when his son goes there, just like Griese shouldn't have called that Rose Bowl game, Herby probably shouldn't call Ohio State games (though I actually think he is objective), Blackledge shouldn't call Penn State games (think he's pretty objective too), etc. It's a journalism ethics problem.

That doesn't mean those guys shouldn't call college football games. They just shouldn't call games that give the appearance of a clear conflict of interest. It's journalism 101, frankly.

Clearly, the E is the most important component to ESPN. They've clearly proven that.

[mosdog]

the hiffingtoncompost is not a legitimate source for information and journalistic "ethics" what a pile fo shit. ESPN etichs of having commentators not journos on is not unethical Craig James, and everybody else is a commentator only Joe Schad and say Craig Mortensen are the reporter/jouros like Ed Werdel etc. They aren't commentators dufuses thre is a differnse that said. Fuck adrian and all of you retarded scum.

[mosdog]

You morons are too creppy to understand what journalism is and how it is different from fucking commentating let me tell you Lou Holtz didn't do anything wrong and givign him uninterrupted air time is well within their right. You creepy assholes pretending to understand what ethics are to begin is hysterical. Whats unethical is elftist liars like yourself and huffington imbecile lying about Rush Limbaugh fabricating quotes. As a media org you bring both sides on in the case of Rush they didn't in the case of Leach it was. Twice they brought him on and his lawyer your silly notion that equal time needs to be given is absurd considering the story was constantly being reported on. Only a real biased telling of events as done with Rush and by the big media concerning politics is present in the way ESPN reports things. That phony ethics nut knows nothing about ethics and is another absurd fascist leftnut whose notion of "Ethics" is totalitarian hackery and claiming fairness balance where it does't exist, whinign about where it does because the other side is heard and bitching that commentators are chosne by popularity.

[mosdog]

Leftist websites are not credible news sources. However ESPN is depsite the fact I hate them. When it comes to real news injuries scnadals and certain aspects of sports they are news with left-wing bullshit added on top of it. The compost is not a legitimate site its Soros' Hollywood bullshit fest on the web ignored by the intelligent and worshipped by the dumb.