The Marginal Product of Sports Columnists is Zero

Pardon the Quite Frankly

Even though, I'm a sports fan, I'm not a fan of these shows. I could just give a ranking of how each show should be in the pecking order of obnoxiousness, but that would be meaningless.

For the most part, the author of this article has it right, although he misses on some points.

First off, I'd like to see this "study" that the grad student at Missou put out. Right now, the author of this article just points to two quotations out of study by the doctoral student. And they don't say anything more than "It's all TV's fault."

The author of the article is somewhat right in saying that TV is responsible for the downfall of the sports columist. However, the ultimate responsiblity falls with the viewer and reader themselves.

If I don't want to read the garbage put out by Bill Plaschke, TJ Simers, Steven Smith, Skip Bayless, Scoop Jackson, or Jay Mariotti, then I don't read them. In fact, the article itself points out that there are many different sources for information about sports. In fact, you can get your information without having to deal with the (mostly wrong) opinions of columnists.

In fact, I never bothered to watch Around the Horn, Quite Frankly, Rome is Burning (Jim Rome is one of the fathers of trash sports talk), or Cold Pizza. In fact, I've stopped watching Pardon the Interruption, mostly because Mike Wilbon no longer feigns interest in baseball. So much for a "sports" show.

So what's the point of all this? The fact of the matter is that people can complain all they want about the downfall of sports journalism, but the fact of the matter is that people pay attention to more outrageous statements than bland (but correct) statements. If anything, the internet would serve as an instant fact checking organization. However, the end result is that we've encounted the point where the marginal product of sports opinions is nearing zero. Nobody follows up on predictions and what these reporters say because what they say is nearly useless. The fact of the matter is that if what they said was so important or newsworthy, then people would check on what they have to say and call them out for their stupidity. But people don't because people don't care about accuracy in the media anymore, they want entertainment. And that's what ESPN delivers.

However, this is separate from actual reporting that is done by ESPN by SportsCenter. The author of this article wants to lump SportsCenter in with the rest of the stuff that ESPN produces, when in fact SC is probably the most accurate and (excluding Stuart Scott) least bombastic of ESPNs news products. Of course, if you want straight up news, then there's always ESPNews. Or just looking the information up yourself. On that thing called the internet.

And just two little comments: TJ Simers has a major case of sour grapes. He gets fired for saying that he hates the show that he appears on, and then bashes it when he's fired. Yeah, that sounds about right for TJ Simers. And the second comment is how the author remarks that Tony Cornheiser wants a critic fired. Anyone who has followed PTI knows that Cornheiser isn't known for being thick skinned. This is more or less par for the course for Kornheiser.