Media Monday - ESPN - Cowards

On Sunday ESPN released a statement related to an unfortunate headline used by a website contributor and a sportscaster related to New York Knicks' star Jeremy Lin's Chinese heritage.  In this statement, they put forward that they fired the writer and the sportscaster was suspended for 30 days.  In this, I think while heavy-handed, they choose to run their business as they wish.

What I felt was cowardly is that they usually allow public comments on their news stories.  On the exact same page the public can comment on: 1) Brian Cashman's personal issues; 2) a story on a boxer that was arrested for assault;  or even a report on how the former head of the Fiesta Bowl has settled with the State of Arizona for crimes related to a political donations scandal.   The public can comment on all of these issues but not about ESPN's mess-ups.    What a bunch of cowards.  Obviously in the world of ESPN, what is good for the goose, is not good for the gander.

What makes this even worse, is that ESPN's two main competitor's http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ and http://sports.yahoo.com/ reported on the story but also did not allow public comments when they normally allow public comments on the vast majority of their stories.

If you are going to allow the public to comment on controversial issues such as the Penn State scandal and the Duke lacrosse scandal (oops on that one right?) or about players divorce's or social lives, perhaps you should be prepared to take some of your own medicine when it comes time.

Hypocrisy thy name is media.