Fab Five "documentary" slides down ESPN's slippery slope

With Japan in a full-blown nuclear crisis and the world anxiously watching events unfold, the No. 1 story on the New York Times’ most-emailed list Thursday was Grant Hill’s response to Jalen Rose and “The Fab Five” film by ESPN.

If you haven’t seen the film, or read the news, Hill, a former star basketball player at Duke in the early ‘90s, was responding to Rose’s statements in the film that Duke recruited only black players that Rose considered to be “Uncle Toms.” Rose, who is also black, was a star player for Michigan during the same era.

Hill’s response in the Times was everything we’ve come to expect from him through the years. It was smart, well written, passionate and unassailable. But my issue isn’t about Hill’s response or Rose’s original statement. It’s not even about race relations, still an uncomfortable topic in America more than two years after we elected our first black president.

No, my issue is with ESPN, and what passes today for its journalism. Eight months after giving us LeBron James’ “The Decision,” -- a made-for-TV spectacle bought and paid for by LeBron himself -- the “Fab Five” similarly blurs the line between real and imagined. 

ESPN spent a month hyping its “documentary” on the Fab Five. But when ESPN made Rose an executive producer for that “documentary,” it sacrificed its soul and the credibility of the film.

Few have called out ESPN for again bending the rules on the athletes and sports it purports to cover objectively. Jason Whitlock, a columnist for FOX Sports, was one of the few to do so.

“Give Rose credit. He talked a major television network and an alleged news organization into allowing him to write his own 90-minute history. We should all be so lucky,” said Whitlock in what was arguably the best column in a sea of columns on the rift.

ESPN has long been on a slippery slope between covering sports and shilling for those sports. “The Decision” and this week’s Fab Five “documentary” simply hasten that decline.

Unfortunately, the Nielsen ratings for the show were released Thursday and ESPN quickly announced the 2.1 rating made it the highest-rated “documentary” in ESPN’s history. To ESPN, that will be all the justification it needs for ditching its objectivity. But the viewing pubic is the poorer for it.

Grant Hill’s response to Jalen Rose {New York Times}
Fab Five film fantasy, not documentary {Jason Whitlock, FOX Sports}

Jets, Sainz situation represents progress, however unsatisfying

It’s not exactly news when some NFL players act like lowlifes. It’s certainly not news to any woman who works as a sports reporter, which includes my wife. Most are perfectly prepared to deal with frat boy behavior on the job. So when members of the New York Jets made inappropriate comments to Ines Sainz, a reporter for TV Azteca in Mexico, it became a news story largely because pictures of Sainz play well in today’s media environment. It’s no secret many foreign television networks hire women as eye candy, expect them to do less-than-serious stories while dressed, by professional journalism standards, provocatively. 

So the Jets situation made for an unsatisfying ethical tale.

On one level, it represented progress. The official response from the Jets and the NFL was swift and unequivocal: women reporters are to be treated professionally. The juvenile behavior is no longer winked at or embraced, as it was in 1990 when a group of New England Patriots harassed Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson. Patriots owner Victor Kiam led the charge, blaming her for his players’ actions while calling her a "classic bitch." The atmosphere was so toxic for Olson, she left to work in Australia for several years.

That stuff is pretty rare these days, especially in New York, which leads the universe in women reporters — including Olson, who lives in New York and writes for Fanhouse.com. Both NFL teams here have had multiple women beat writers and women are a daily presence covering games and practices. Those women, including my wife, Lynn Zinser, a reporter for the New York Times who covered the Giants for several seasons, do not get treated to catcalls and degrading behavior. Why? Because they act like professional journalists and players respond in kind.

USA Bid Committee having a ball keeping its fans engaged

The World Cup ended nearly a month ago. And FIFA won’t award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup host cities until December.

So if you’re the USA Bid Committee, hoping for one of those two coveted selections, how do you keep the casual and hard-core soccer fan excited and engaged in the interim?

Keeping fans involved is a big issue for a lot of sports that have gaps between big events or rallying points. Most Olympic sports fall in this category. The key is creating compelling content and a reason for people to engage on an ongoing basis. GoUSAbid.com has faced this challenge since the site was launched, and it has more than met the challenge every step of the way.

An opportunity to win an autographed soccer ball, signed by the U.S. men’s national team, is the latest lure. That’s what the folks at GoUSAbid.com are offering for the low, low price of inviting five friends to sign up and support the bid. Its goal is to get a million fans to back the effort. The autographed ball is the perfect short-term vehicle to help reach its goal, add to its database and extend the scope of its viral campaign.

It’s another smart effort by the committee, which is working on the behalf of the U.S. Soccer Federation in its effort to bring the World Cup back to the U.S. With more than 917,000 people having already signed the petition, breaking the million mark is a sure bet.

Is lack of a salary cap undermining interest in MLB?

There was an eye-opening Harris Poll released last week that said interest in Major League Baseball has slipped to 35 percent among adults who say they follow the game, down from last year’s 41 percent.

While it’s tempting to say it’s only one poll, or it’s only a one-year anomaly – because we’re in an era of short-attention-span theater, a recession or have so much fighting for our entertainment dollar – but what if it isn’t?

Is it possible that the lack of a salary cap is finally catching up to baseball? Many fans have long decried the lack of a cap, the disparity it engenders between big-market and small-market teams. The behemoths of the game, led by the Yankees, Red Sox, Philles and Mets, can hoard the best players because they can afford them.

It leaves large swaths of the league competitively irrelevant (did you know the Pirates have had 17 straight losing seasons?) and while some of those teams are simply poorly run, baseball’s lack of institutionalized parity plays a big role. The NFL is the best example of how the salary cap improves the health of a league overall. Small-market teams like Green Bay can be perennial contenders, something MLB's Pirates or Royals can never aspire to.

A good goal for FIFA: Use technology, get it right

So now the final stage is set: Spain vs. The Netherlands in what should be a glorious World Cup final, a fitting culmination to the 31-day tournament.

If only . . .

If only the players and the hundreds of millions of fans around the globe who will tune in to watch Sunday’s finale could count on the officials to call a competent game, a 50-50 proposition in a tournament marked by missed goals and handballs, phantom fouls and routinely botched offsides calls.

Of course, the officials are human and fallible. The real fault lies with FIFA, the sport’s governing body, and its president, Sepp Blatter, whose prehistoric mentality toward instant replay has helped create a digital-age mess. Fans worldwide watch the games with the benefit of modern technology – live streaming, slo-mo replays, a terrific on-screen offsides guide – and yet FIFA has refused to make such tools available to the referees, thus creating a huge gap between its technology-savvy fans and the game. The tournament’s -- and the sport’s -- credibility is suffering the consequences.

Technology is a wonderful thing. Video replay has been around since 1963 (yes, 1963).  Instant replay has been widely used in the NFL for the past 25 years. And the NBA, MLB and the NHL have all integrated replay in one form or another. Even a fairly simple technological advance – a microchip in the ball that could indicate when it crosses the goal line, an advance that would have signaled Frank Lampard’s infamous goal should have counted in the England-Germany game – has been spurned in favor of old-fashioned human error.

FIFA and Blatter have no excuse not to leverage all that replay has to offer for the World Cup. This is not some mom-and-pop operation. The tournament is a billion-dollar venture, and by failing to use replay to ensure the fairness and accuracy of officiating, FIFA undermines the very sport it’s charged to promote and grow.

3-D technology is great, but 'damn these glasses son'

Whenever I read something about the upcoming onslaught of 3-D entertainment, a scene from the movie “The Jerk,” a 1979 comedy starring Steve Martin, keeps coming to mind:

(Stan Fox’s eyeglasses keep slipping off his nose)
Stan Fox: Damn these glasses son.
Navin R. Johnson: Yes, sir (then he turns to the glasses). I damn thee.

That loosely sets the stage for the arc of the life of Navin R. Johnson (Steve Martin), who fixes the glasses with a simple invention, gets rich, then loses it all in the end because the glasses make their wearers cross-eyed (and if I spoiled the movie for you, well, you've had 31 years to watch it).

But every time I read a story about 3-D TVs and 3-D technology and 3-D movies and 3-D channels as the savior of the TV and movie industry, I can’t help but think of that movie, and what happened to all the people who wore those glasses.

Having to wear 3-D glasses already stands as one impediment to the growth of the 3-D industry. And the side effects of wearing them may stand as another.

Longtime passion leads to Olympic-sized opportunity

I love almost everything about the Olympics. I like the idea -- that every four years the world comes together as one to compete -- and the ideal behind it.

I like the five-ring circus, the spectacle of the unusual -- be it badminton, curling, or water polo -- as well as the bright lights that bathe swimming, speed skating and track & field.

There’s something enchanting, and entrancing, about the theater of the Olympic stage, that once-in-a-lifetime chance for so many athletes who train four years for an event for that might last all of 10 seconds.

I got my first up-close view of the Games when I was executive sports editor of the newspaper in Colorado Springs, home of the U.S. Olympic Committee and training center. I was fortunate enough to lead our paper’s coverage of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, which provided a lifetime of memories and friendships.

It was in Colorado where I met the group of people who are behind 776 Original Marketing, led by Jim Scherr, an Olympian and former chief executive of the USOC, and a handful of his USOC brain trust. 776 Original Marketing is a full-service sports marketing company, but many of its clients -- past, present and future -- have ties to the Olympic community.

Which is why I’m so excited to work with 776 to provide digital strategy for their clients (read the press release about our affiliation on my new website, www.geoffgrantconsulting.com).

Social media campaigns help hand Nike the World Cup crown

The World Cup won’t end for another 17 days. But we don’t need to wait that long to know the winner of the brand wars. It’s Nike, hands down.

Rival adidas is one of the official sponsors of the World Cup, but with Nike dominating TV, online and print media, adidas may as well be brand X.

When award-winning Wieden + Kennedy partners with Oscar-nominated director Alejandro G. Inarritu (21 Grams, Amores Perros and Babel leap to mind), it’s no surprise that the campaign they create would be memorable.

And Nike’s “Write The Future” commercial delivers on that promise. It’s a stirring three-minute paean to the sport and its stars, including Didier Drogba, Fabio Cannavaro, Franck Ribery, Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo (not to mention cameos by Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant and Homer Simpson).

But what truly elevates Nike’s brand is the use of social media surrounding the campaign. It has done a great job of engaging users in creative ways by incorporating Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, among other platforms.

Mobile digital television: Coming to a (small) screen near you

Mobile digital television as we’ll come to know it -- live broadcasts, designed for the smaller screen, and most important, free -- is step-by-step getting closer to becoming a reality.

There are a plethora of questions surrounding mobile digital TV. The biggest is simply whether it will succeed, the success of a free ad-based service depending entirely on widespread adoption -- the network TV model gone mobile. Another question is whether it will reshuffle the landscape of existing services, crippling subscription-based models (like Flo TV and Hulu, if it goes down that path, as rumored). 

Mobile digital TV is being promoted by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), a group of more than 900 local broadcast TV stations. It aims to create a mobile digital TV standard to allow and provide live and on-demand video broadcasts.

The technology would allow wireless devices to pick up over-the-air local TV broadcasts, even when users are on moving trains, cars and buses. Mobile digital TV already exists in test markets such as Chicago and Washington -- and is already popular in Japan and South Korea -- and may soon be coming to a city near you.

ESPN's deal with Xbox continues trend of new distribution methods

This week’s announcement that ESPN had partnered with Microsoft to bring live and on-demand sporting events to Microsoft’s Xbox continued the trend of alternative distribution methods for live sports video.

The distribution of sports content has gone from TV to online streaming on PCs and laptops to wireless devices like smartphones and tablets. Now it is aimed for gaming consoles and other set-top boxes, in one way bringing the cycle full circle back to watching on a TV.

Xbox will reportedly carry more than 3,500 live and on-demand sporting events, bypassing traditional cable providers in the process. The live events will come courtesy of ESPN3.com and will include MLB, NBA, tennis, golf, soccer, college football and college basketball. Noticeable by their absence are the NFL and NHL.

MLB.com announced a similar deal with Sony in April to bring MLB.tv to  PlayStation 3 game consoles and the baseball package is already available on set-top devices from Roku and Boxee.

Will U.S. fans shell out cash for World Cup mobile TV?

As the first round of the World Cup progresses, it's providing an interesting petri dish on how U.S. fans consume the game.

Aside from the mainstay of watching the tournament on ESPN (and ABC), there are three main planks of the network’s strategy that bear watching.

First and foremost is whether U.S. fans will pay to watch on their cell phones. ESPN is breaking ground by offering live match coverage on mobile.

But are fans here willing to pay the price? Are they that devoted to the game, or the fortunes of the U.S. squad?

GoUSABid lays foundation for U.S. Soccer and World Cup

While the eyes of the world will turn to South Africa this week for the start of the World Cup, the USA Bid Committee has been working hard to ensure the eyes of the world will be on the U.S. come 2018 or 2022.

For a study on a website and an initiative done well, simply take a look at GoUSAbid.com, created by the USA Bid Committee. It is a separate entity from the U.S. Soccer Federation but it is working on behalf of the USSF.

The goal of the committee is to get FIFA to award the World Cup to the U.S. in either 2018 or 2022 (FIFA will award both in one round of bidding, an unusually efficient approach). The goal of the site is get people actively involved, grow their fan base, increase their database of names and capitalize on the surge in interest that comes with a World Cup.

GoUSAbid.com is a well-designed, well-planned, well-executed effort. It has already prompted more than 450,000 people to sign a petition to bring the tournament back to the U.S. (which hosted the tournament in 1994), a decision FIFA will make in December.

Chicago Tribune's gaffe on Pronger compounded in digital time

In this digital age of instant everything -- with live news and video at our fingertips -- newspapers still have the luxury of time, time to get things right.

That isn’t always the case, though, and the Chicago Tribune’s special pullout poster Tuesday is living proof of that.

With the Stanley Cup finals being played between Chicago and Philadelphia, the Tribune printed a poster of Philadelphia’s Chris Pronger. In a dress. With a headline that says Pronger “looks like Tarzan, skates like Jane.” Seriously.

The poster is demeaning to women. There is no gray area here. This wasn’t a case of poorly chosen words tumbling from the mouth of a corporate executive -- like BP’s CEO and his now infamous “I'd like my life back” quote -- or a bad headline that lived briefly on the Internet.

Gizmodo says the Froyo is sweet. Should I buy one?

One of the best things about working in the digital space is having an excuse to go out and buy/try the newest thing on the market. It’s kind of like when you have children, which gives you the built-in excuse to watch fun kids' movies -- “Ice Age and Wall-E” anyone? -- or dress up in a silly costume  on Halloween.

That’s the way I feel after reading Gizmodo’s review of the Android 2.2 ‘Froyo.’ I don’t have a Froyo. But I’ll probably go get one soon so I can compare it with the iPhone.

Do I need two phones? No, not really, though I can make the argument I can use one for my business and one for personal use. I’ve got a good friend at ESPN who had to get a second phone for work. And she chose a second iPhone. Sigh.

So give Gizmodo’s review a good look (and sift through the comments, too). Tell me what you think. Should I get Froyo or not?

Android 2.2 'Froyo' review: It's sweet {Gizmodo}
Wall-E review {RogerEbert.com}
Ice Age review {RobertEbert.com}

Star Wars meets the World Cup: A fun idea to discuss

So much of today’s technology is created or adopted outside the U.S. that it gets overlooked by media here. Think 3D, virtual life, or of wireless and quick response codes, audio tweets, augmented reality and radio frequency identification.

Such was the case with last week’s bid by Japan to host the 2022 World Cup. Lost -- well, not exactly lost but certainly under-reported and under-tweeted --  was Japan’s plan to beam holographic broadcasts of the event around the globe. Think Princess Leia and Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi meet Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney.

For the small sum of $6 billion, Japan is suggesting that by 2022 it could project lifelike 3D images onto real pitches in real stadiums around the world and have fans watch players playing real games, holographically speaking.

That technology doesn’t yet exist. But it may within the next five or 10 years.

Of cricket, Google TV and altered playing fields

As the masses dissect Thursday's reveal of Google TV -- and Mark Cuban's blog has an interesting take on it -- the debate is on about how successful it will be. While not everything Google has touched turns to gold, it consistently has been ahead of the curve. Its recent foray into broadcasting live sports is the most recent example.

YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, just concluded broadcasting cricket around the globe to unparalleled success. YouTube carried the Indian Premier League's third season, broadcasting the league's 60 matches live. 

YouTube's IPL channel reportedly got 54 million video views. To put that into perspective, NBC got 45 million video streams for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. According to the New York Times, 40 percent of the IPL viewers came from outside of India.

It was the first time YouTube carried a major sporting event. It won't be the last. Google has already indicated it will pursue other sports to broadcast live, and other events such as concerts. India has a population of nearly 1.2 billion. Getting 54 million streams for the IPL was just a first step. Sports that attract global audiences -- think soccer, cycling and field hockey -- may be next up.

Can Smart TV change a culture of coach potatoes?

In its continuing bid for world domination, Google has set its sights on Internet TV. The company is expected to debut what it's calling Smart TV -- software for Internet-connected TVs -- at a conference on Thursday for software programmers in San Francisco.

Google is partnering with Sony, Intel and Logitech in an effort to create an interactive television experience for viewers.

"The revolution we're about to go through is the biggest single change in television since it went color," Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said.

There's no doubt that Internet TV seems like the next evolutionary step for mass consumption.

The question is, will it succeed?

New technology coming to social media near you

Two recent stories in Advertising Age underscore the power of Facebook, and how companies need to stay vigilant about adapting and exploiting emerging technologies via social media platforms.

The first story focused on how Facebook was nearing a launch date for its location-based functionality. The second reported how magazines would be able to sell subscriptions within Facebook’s news feed.


Location-based services (LBS) are a hot topic this year in social media, much as 3D is for the television industry. So when a behemoth like Facebook -- with its more than 450 million users -- announces adoption of LBS, companies need to take note. The same is true for the system Facebook will try to introduce offering users the ability to purchase subscriptions without leaving their site. The key phrase there being “without leaving their site.”

How companies can best leverage either technology is obviously dependent on what business they’re in, but it is important to be aware of emerging technologies and start thinking about what they could mean for your organization. Not long ago, LBS was one in a sea of new ideas, but it has grown quickly into something Facebook wants to leverage. There are others on the horizon, like QR codes and augmented reality, which could work their way toward mainstream use as well.

Magazines to sell subscriptions within Facebook’s news feed {Advertising Age}
Mags look to Facebook to hawk print subscriptions {Paid Content}
What will Facebook’s upcoming location-based service look like? {Mobile Beat}
Facebook poised to take geo-networking mainstream {Advertising Age}
How Facebook's geo-netoworking plans will change everything {Advertising Age}

MLS relaunch provides a cautionary tale

“Best-in-breed technology” and “industry best practices” seem like buzzwords until the launch of your website fails.

That’s when you realize that having the right people and the right companies behind your launch is so crucial. Any major undertaking -- be it a new site or a relaunch -- relies on people who understand the issues at hand and companies that provide proven solutions for features like content management systems, integration with third parties, and the all-important quality assurance and testing.

For a cautionary tale, look no further than Major League Soccer and its new site, MLSSoccer.com, which was supposed to launch triumphantly in late March.

The site suffered systemic failure on Day 1. More than three weeks later, problems still abound. The league has been addressing the fallout ever since.

Gannett takes calculated risk on content strategy

A story in the New York Times this morning noted how Gannett’s newspapers in New Jersey have been carrying stories about the New Jersey Devils, written by an employee of the Devils.

It’s a new twist on a not-so-old development of sports organizations taking non-traditional avenues to enhance coverage of their properties. In an era where traditional media struggle to cover everything it once did, teams and leagues are smart to seek out new strategies to replace the publicity. For most, it means making the wise choice to rejuvenate their own Web content.

The Bengals are believed to have been the trendsetter when they hired Geoff Hobson -- then the Bengals’ beat writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer -- to work for the team’s Web site in April 2000.

Today, a plethora of leagues and teams have followed a similar path, including the Devils, who have employed Eric Marin as the team’s staff writer since 2007.