ESPN eschews journalistic integrity for James
ESPN continues its unhealthy streak of LeBron James related escapades. First the network was criticized for essentially buying the James special now known as “The Decision.” Although some of the money from the special went to charitable organizations it still crossed the fabled notion of never paying for news.
ESPN also for some reason allowed James to bring his own interviewer, which defies any concept of journalistic integrity possible. Throughout that special and in the days leading up to it, ESPN also aggrandized James to a degree that clearly crossed the line for what is supposed to be a news organization.
While that may have just been a poor decision and an isolated incident, ESPN continued its coddling of James by removing an Arash Markazi-penned story that revolved around a night out in Las Vegas with James and his entourage.
The article, which can still be accessed through Google Archive, depicted James carelessly partying in Las Vegas and quite frankly little else. The piece was centred in Las Vegas hotspot Tao and could have been interpreted as painting James in a slightly less than favourable light.
James was described as seeming childish for pretending to dribble a basketball followed by mimicking jump shots while walking through a casino. Additionally James was depicted as being surrounded by five bodyguards who would only allow access to James with his permission from afar.
Perhaps the most negative thing about the story is that given the location and cameos of National Basketball Association players like New Orleans point guard Chris Paul, Boston forward Glen Davis and Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom it implies that James was out partying during practices being held by USA Basketball in Las Vegas in preparation for the FIBA World Championship this fall.
The story wasn’t particularly defamatory though, which made its almost immediate removal from the ESPN website all the more bizarre. ESPN’s spokesman Josh Krulewitz said the company was looking into the circumstances surrounding the publication of the story, but added, "The story should have never been published. The draft was inadvertently put on the server before going through the usual editorial process. We are in the midst of looking into the matter."
This explanation is a little off-putting as the story had to have gone through pretty much the entire editorial process to end up posted on the ESPN website.
More importantly, why should the story have never been published? Granted, the writing wasn’t the best, but it was still a news story relating to a professional athlete posted on a site dedicated to athletics. ESPN has no right to remove an article because it could lead to a player being perceived in a certain manner. As a news organization their duty is to present news to the public not spike stories that don’t agree with the outlook of a company that is clearly enamoured with James.
Additionally, none of what James does in the story should be taken as negative or shocking to begin with. Is it that unbelievable that someone who became a professional athlete as a teenager and has been referred to for years as “King” though he is only 25 is somewhat emotionally stunted? Sure James walks around fake dribbling and shooting because no one will tell him otherwise.
The security personnel problem also is not too malevolent. He is a young celebrity that everyone wants to see, he deserves his privacy and safety as well as means of enforcing it. James deserves to party just like any one else, and people who judge him for that are delusional.
The real problem is not with James, who behaves like anyone with such power and lack of boundaries would, but rather with ESPN. ESPN has taken it upon themselves to glorify James, and has no qualms about suppressing stories that they have deemed to be negative (regardless of whether they are or not).
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