ESPN's Political Bias

The sport media landscape has seen a noticeable shift politically. I'm currently enrolled in a course titled "Writing About Sport." Professor Ron Denson, my classmates and I have discussed how sportswriting has increasingly become more liberal over the years.

After reading the FAIR article reviewing PBS NewsHour, I thought about ESPN and how the sports network has grown more and more progressive with its broadcasts, coinciding with the blossoming athlete activism movement. I don't watch SportsCenter as much as I used to, not because of ESPN's progressive standpoint, because I consider myself to be left-winger, but more of the fact that the network has become so entertainment and "hot take" driven when it comes to covering the world of sports. When I have, though, I took note of the praise the anchors would give to athletes such as Colin Kaepernick who are standing up and fighting for a cause they are passionate about.

ESPN is primarily liberal, and the sports network has not been afraid of expressing its political views in the recent past. Almost two years ago, the network awarded Caitlyn Jenner with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS. ESPN has also either fired or demoted analysts or anchors such as Sage Steele for expressing conservative views, even though it appears Steele will still have a prominent role moving forward. ESPN even issued a gag order on its entire staff during the presidential election according to the article linked above.

ESPN ombudsman Jim Brady has reported on this issue this past year. Brady concluded his column with a suggesting that ESPN must incorporate a politically diverse group of individuals on their sportscasts, which I agree with. I don't think ESPN should have extreme conservative-types such as the racist and sexist Curt Schilling on their networks, but certainly having analysts who identify as more right from the center would improve the network's credibility.

Since the election, ESPN has taken the steps to address this predicament by establishing new guidelines that emphasize the connection between sports and politics. The marriage between sports and politics seems inseparable in the day and age. In Brady's most recent column, he states ESPN is making the right move of remaining political and not relinquishing to apolitical. I also agree with Brady in this instance as well, so long as the network maintains impartiality.

We Must Hope Net Neutrality Remains a Mainstay

President Trump has made it evident that he is no supporter of net neutrality for several years now. In 2014, he tweeted how he feared net neutrality would "target conservative media" and compared net neutrality to the Fairness Doctrine, which was a perplexing comparison. After his election, Trump hired Jeffrey Eisenach onto his presidential transition team. Eisenach has been known for being a critic of the regulatory policies of the Federal Communications Commission.

A 2014 study by Ookla Speedtest showed that the United States had one of the slowest internet download speeds, ranking 31st in the world at the time. However, since the FCC issued new net neutrality rules in 2015 under the Obama administration, the United States' rank has improved over the recent years.

Ookla Speedtest published another study in 2016 following up on the United States' 2014 ranking. What the report showed was progress in the speed of the United States' internet. The U.S. internet increased its speed, and according to the study, fixed broadband customers saw the most significant bump with download speeds averaging over 50 Mbps (a 40% increase since July 2015), which was a first. Mobile internet customers received a 30% increase from the previous year with an average download speed of 19.27 Mbps. Although the U.S. is still in the lower ranks of internet speed worldwide (20th in fixed broadband and 42nd in mobile internet), the nation improved upon its previous rankings.

This study illustrates that the actions on net neutrality of the Obama administration and the FCC in the past couple of years were indeed working quite promisingly. Of course, the U.S. still has work to do in order to rise through the ranks even further. But it seems as if the nation has been taking the right steps towards so. Therefore, with the Trump administration appearing to be looking to cease net neutrality, we must pray that this does not come to fruition and the U.S. continues to expand the freedom of the internet.       

Indepedent Media Start-Up Checklist

Since I am still refining my pitch for an independent media project to be an outlet that reviews food served at baseball stadiums, let's use Adam Westbrook's checklist for starting a journalism start-up.

1. Is it a new idea? Yes, I would say so. As I discussed in my previous blog post, there are several other food-reviewing publications that have published articles reviewing food served in Major League Baseball ballparks along with food served at other locations. However, the start-up that I am planning on pitching would be solely dedicated to reviewing ballpark food.
2. Does it have a defined target audience? The defined target audience for my independent media pitch would be baseball fans (or any sport fan in general, as I may review food served at other sport venues while mainly focusing on the food served at baseball stadiums).
3. Does it provide niche (i.e. hyperlocal) content? In terms of hyperlocal, I would say no, mainly because the publication would be reviewing the food served at professional sport venues across the country. However, I still would consider my potential start-up to be niche because it would be mainly focusing on a specific aspect of the experience of being at a professional baseball game.
4. Does it satisfy a desire that is not being fulfilled by someone else? As I answered in Question #1, this outlet would certainly be primarily covering and a part of the game of baseball that no other publication is covering. However, I'm not sure if it would be necessarily be satisfying a "desire." Although, I don't think there is necessarily a great demand for such content, but I certainly believe there would be an audience that would find the content interesting and would have a desire to read the work being published.
5. Or does it do something better (faster, cheaper, more effectively) than someone else? Since this would be the first publication of its kind, I would assume the outlet would automatically be performing better.
6. Does it actually have income potential, or will it rely on funding? I think funding would be the better revenue stream for this independent media outlet. Particularly, if this publication were too become quite successful, I would use the money donated by the readers to fund either myself or the staff writers to travel abroad and review food served at sporting venues across the globe.
7. Does it use the power of crowd-sourcing/community? Yes, absolutely. I would certainly encourage community members to review food at either local or national sporting events on their own, whereupon I would publish their reviews on the publication's website.
8. Would it be fulfilling for journalists to work for? I think so. The writers would have the opportunity to write about another aspect of a sport that they have a strong, undeniable passion for.
9. Does it publish/exist on more than one platform? Yes. My plan would be to have a main website where all of the reviews are published. Once, and hopefully, the viewership grows to a significant amount, I would like to start a YouTube channel where one or multiple writers attend a ballpark (with the permission of the specific baseball organization) and film reviews as well as videos showing how the particular food being reviewed is made.
10. If it has content, is it sharable? Yes, I would allow the sharing of the material published by the outlet. This would be a great way to build up a readership.
11. Does it require a lot of money? I would say no. If I were to start the YouTube channel, then maybe, because I or the other writers would need to buy cameras of sound quality to film. 
12. Does it have boot-strapping potential? I think I could certainly build a solid foundation by myself reviewing ballpark food in the early stages. However, I think overtime it would be best to hire more writers for the purpose of provide more frequent and diverse content.
13. Does it scale? I believe it will scale because the won't be too many costs during the initial stages of the plan.
14. Does it fulfill a public service? I think it would fulfill more of a public interest than a public service.
15. Is it a legally sound idea? What about copyright? I see no potential legal issues with this start-up. Especially since this would be the first outlet of its nature.
16. Would it appeal to venture capitalists, angel investors? I think if I were to set the goal of eventually expanding the outlet's reach globally, then there would be some appeal from venture capitalists and/or angel investors.
17. And ... does it have a cool name? At the moment, I'm contemplating three names. I'm deciding between either "The Grand Salami," "Servin' Up Sliders" or "High Cheese."   

Independent Media Start-Up Idea

I thought Jeff Jarvis brought up a valuable point when he outlined the important factors to consider when pitching a business plan for a media start-up in that it's more than okay to for your potential media platform to be immersed in a competitive marketplace.

In class, we've talked about the significance of establishing a niche within one's blueprint for a media start-up. A media platform that gives a distinct voice to either a novel topic or an issue that isn't being discussed enough is absolutely a great idea, particularly for attracting a readership who also voices the same opinion and/or views that one's media platform is conveying.

My plan for my independent media pitch is to construct a plan for an independent sport publication. As I prepare for my pitch in the coming week or so, I've thought of two ideas for potential independent sports outlets.

My first potential pitch would be for an independent media outlet that reviews food served at Major League and Minor League baseball stadiums in the United States. As an avid baseball fan, I realize that one aspect of a ballpark experience that is unlike an experience at any other professional sporting event is the food. Baseball is synonymous with hotdogs, peanuts and Cracker Jacks. But in sports such as basketball and hockey, food and snacks aren't major staples within the fan experience. Football is known for its tailgating, so the outlet could review tailgating food, especially if there are well-known tailgaters that attend NFL games, along with MLB and MiLB.

In the meantime, however, the main focus would be on baseball, mainly because there are several ballparks that sell some outrageous food. I mean, the Seattle Mariners sell fried grasshoppers at Safeco Field. The Texas Rangers offer delicacies such as a two-foot long tamale, which was just added to the already artery-clogging menu at Globe Life Park for this season. The Milwaukee Brewers serve "Bratchos on a stick" at Miller Park, which consists of fried cheese, ground beef, crushed up Doritos, sour cream on a six-inch toothpick. There is an old adage of baseball that says anything can happen in the sport. Well, same goes for the types of food served at the ballparks. One can dream up just about any concoction of food and at least one of the thirty ballparks will more than likely cater it.

Returning to Jarvis' article, the one concern I have with pitching this independent media start-up is that it may be too niche. In other words, will there be enough competition for the type of content my potential outlet would be publishing? I certainly believe that the baseball community would find the content I would produce to be appealing. Yet, because the content is underscoring such a specific sector of the game, is the demand great enough? I've seen some popular websites such as eater.com publish content reviewing ballpark food in specific states such as New York along with a national review. Otherwise, there isn't a true major competitor in such a market. Which, of course, is great, because I would have the chance to set the market myself. At the same time, however, this could be a challenge. The key I think will be the type of content in which I publish and how I present it to my audience. That will be someting I will need to contemplate over the next couple of days.