A number of high profile signings and trades have left social media abuzz over the past week. However, there have been a few mishaps along the way. With a plethora of journalists, analysts, media personalities, and sports reporters getting duped by fake Twitter posts. Which, in turn, led to many people posting the false news as deals that are actually taking place. It seems as if the vision toward the future of trusted sports reporting has become a bit blurry.
Olivier Vernon’s “Jacksonville” Deal
The beginning of the new NFL year started with the opening of the free agency market on Wednesday morning. It took just minutes for the confirmed deals to come pouring in. The top players at each position typically sign with their new teams first, which allows teams to value position groups and free agents appropriately. Around mid-morning, rumors began to fill social media about a monster deal being finalized by the Jacksonville Jaguars to acquire defensive lineman Olivier Vernon. Vernon, who had a breakout season in 2015 for the Miami Dolphins, knew he was about to get paid handsomely after the Dolphins removed the transition tag from him earlier in the week. However, people were skeptical of the tweet that started building steam on social media. The original report, that was circulating on Twitter, had even misspelled Olivier’s first name (the post stated ‘Oliver Vernon’ instead). ESPN 2 aired the false report and the analysts even began discussing the aftermath of the signing. Of course, it didn’t take long for ESPN to redact the “breaking news” and Adam Schefter to apologize on air for the mistake. Another big hoax went down on Friday revealing that the New York Jets had traded defensive lineman, Muhammad Wilkerson, to the Chicago Bears for tight end Martellus Bennett and a second round pick. Whoops! The trade was never actually in place and both teams denied the report as soon as news on the supposed deal “broke” from NJ.com.
As ESPN moves along with their static sports empire, the company’s business model is currently in jeopardy. With the rise of Netflix, Hulu and other alternatives to traditional cable/satellite television providers, network programming has suffered a tremendous drop in ratings. ESPN is just one of the networks still standing strong because of its historic following among important demographics. Allowing more reporters and analysts to get hired on to the company while other sports reporting networks have had to make cut backs. But time may be running out. A poll created by BTIG Research, was published in January on Fortune.com. The results of the poll showed that 85% of people polled would not pay $20 a month for ESPN’s very own standalone streaming service, another 9% “aren’t sure” if they would pay the $20, and only 6% would in fact pay the price for ESPN’s latest innovation. People are of the opinion that everything is accessible today via smart phone, tablet, or computer; and that there is simply no need to pay premium prices for highlight shows that you can find on dependable sports reporting outlets everywhere.
The bottom line is sports reporters tend to categorize themselves as a very particular breed. Almost all of them feel a tremendous sense of responsibility for what they write and who they converse with online. It’s very important for a reader’s trust to be well in tact with the reporter. When highly respected journalists start to get reckless with their reporting, journalism itself, begins to enter a grey area. Nothing can be trusted at that point. So, if a big sports reporting corporation like ESPN represents itself, and publicizes its’ brand as the highest quality sports resource known to man 24/7…shouldn’t we expect more? If we are going to be asked to pay top dollar for easily (in most cases free) accessible material, shouldn’t we then be able to trust the news reports that are presented as fact? These are questions a lot of readers and viewers will be asking themselves as the dynamic in the “a la carte” age of technology has shifted once again.
