On The Media - Sports

NBC's Olympics Experiment (On The Media)

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:58 GMT

NBC News has called its Olympic coverage "the most ambitious single media project in history." But the real ambition is in how NBC plans to experiment with Olympics ratings in the hopes of changing the advertising business model on network TV. Grant Robertson of Toronto’s Globe and Mail explains.

Crying Foul (On The Media)

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:35 GMT

ESPN has grown into the biggest force in sports broadcasting. But John Ourand, a reporter with the Sports Business Journal, says other networks, the various sports leagues, and even advertisers believe that ESPN, in fact, does more harm than good.

Dem Bums (On The Media)

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:39 GMT

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the last game played by the Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Journalists Michael Shapiro, Neil J. Sullivan and Len Shapiro reflect on the days when Dem Bums left Brooklyn and headed west.

The Dope Beat (On The Media)

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:17 GMT

Almost every major sport is marred by scandal at the moment and many journalists are quick to discuss what the scandals' implications mean for the games. But Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist-turned-sportswriter, says more scrutiny should be paid to the allegations and those who make them.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct (On The Media)

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:17 GMT

The National Football League is defending and promoting its own media brand by issuing new rules that would seem to penalize reporters who are just doing their jobs. Running interference for the journalists is Gilbert Bailon, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

The Viral Sport (On The Media)

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:03 GMT

Surfing has films, skateboarding has VHS tapes, and parkour has the internet. After a few clips of David Belle leaping around the French suburbs made their way to the internet, a sport was accidentally born. New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson explains how parkour managed to be the first sport to go viral.

Our favorite Parkour clip.

Life Squared (On The Media)

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 17:04 GMT

The last weekend in March, at a Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut, the 29th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament was held. It was a record-breaking affair, with 500 contenders. We sent our producer Mike Vuolo to the event, because as a puzzle fanatic and a published puzzle constructor (a person who writes puzzles) he was desperate to go. He came back with this report.

Most Valuable Sayers (On The Media)

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:47 GMT

For 75 years, baseball's top honors - the Cy Young, Rookie-of-the-Year, and MVP - have been awarded by some of the game's foremost experts: newspaper sportswriters. But some editors are objecting to the practice, saying journalists should be covering the news, not creating it. Randy Harvey, sports editor at the Baltimore Sun, tells Brooke why his paper recently banned its staffers from voting on postseason awards.

Dropping the Ball (On The Media)

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 18:37 GMT

In her first tournament as a golf professional, 16-year-old sensation Michelle Wie finished fourth in the Samsung World Championship - that is, until a Sports Illustrated reporter turned her in to officials for breaking a rule. She was promptly disqualified. But didn't the reporter break the rules, too, by becoming a participant in a story he was meant to report? Bob speaks with Sports Illustrated editor Jim Herre about the rules in golf and journalism.

The Sporting Life (On The Media)

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:53 GMT

Over 25 years, fantasy sports have become a real-world pastime, affecting how millions of fans interact with actual sports played on actual fields. Once upon a time sports fans were devoted to ball clubs, or certain iconic stars. Fantasy owners, however, live or die by the fortunes of players who may or may not be on their favorite teams. Bob talks with Rotisserie Baseball founding father Daniel Okrent and fantasy-league commentator Matthew Berry.

That's Entertainment (On The Media)

Wed, 21 May 2008 21:25 GMT

Take the world's best amateur athletes, put them together for two weeks of healthy competition, throw in some good old-fashioned jingoism, and what do you get? A sporting event that many American sports fans couldn't care less about. Mike Pesca looks at how NBC is packaging the Olympics for an audience of non-sports fans, while other media outlets are left in the lurch.

Endgame (On The Media)

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:57 GMT

The horserace, political fumbles, the knockout blow. Once again, sports metaphors are a ubiquitous part of the presidential campaign. But this year, sports themselves are in the middle of the political playing field. And the images of the candidates on the water, on the mound or against any other sporting backdrop may have a real impact on the final score. OTM's John Solomon gives this play-by-play of the campaign's last lap.