The Worldwide Leader In Drivel

I teach my college students that there is precious little partisan political bias in network news, and anyone who says otherwise is just revealing their own personal partisan political bias. (I exempt Fox News, which is pretty overt in its bias, and therefore somewhat insulated from the criticism. I hear MSNBC tilts in the other direction, but I've never seen it.) Most reporters have professional pride and the ability to be fair, if not to cover all facets of every issue.

The major bias in news, I tell them, is in favor of news. Duh.

The major bias in non-news networks is for profit, and nowhere has that been more egregiously demonstrated than by ESPN in its lunatic ramblings about LeBron James.

I wondered how the network could become so unhinged that for three weeks it spent 60% of its radio programming -- I mean 60% of the 40% that's not commercials -- endlessly conjecturing about James's intentions. Considering that no "reporter" or "analyst" had a shred of information useful to the story, it seemed inconceivable that ESPN could dedicate such endless drivel to this non-story. I was especially amused by the "predictions" that were being dealt like poker cards, predictions based on wisps of air, as if parsing the intentions of the Soviet-era Kremlin. Only one person knew LeBron's heart and that person wasn't telling.

My musings came to a head on Tuesday, when ESPN radio's morning show literally chucked its coverage of baseball, World Cup and all else sporting to dedicate its airwaves to non-stop dead-horse beatings for the entire show. I understand the occasional Chris Berman and Dick Vitale, but had an entire network checked into Bellevue?

Then it all became clear. It turns out that James had convinced station brass to run a prime time one-hour extravaganza during which he would reveal his destination (and God knows what else for 60 whole minutes. Well, 32 minutes, after commercials.) In fact, ESPN hadn't been covering a story; it had been promoting an upcoming special on its own network.

Which makes me wonder, how much Connecticut spittle would have been projected over this issue had Fox Sports televised it instead. In other words, what was the real news value of LeBron's free agency. Maybe I'm just a hopeless Association-hater, but it's hard for me to imagine that even 25% of the actual airtime wasted would have been so dedicated, and I think something more like 8% is more accurate. It would be a shocking indictment of this infuriating network, if only it weren't shocking at all.

Word is that the proceeds from sponsorships for that hour were going to charity, but even if true, ESPN reaped copious benefit from LeBron's largess, pumping the airwaves with its station promos, reinforcing its brand, etc., etc. So it turns out that I was just a prop in the scenery during the three-week run-up, not a customer to be entertained. Good thing I began switching to public radio to hear actual news instead.

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