Q: Are ESPN and MSNBC having an affair?
A: If you get your baseball coverage from ESPN, you may notice something strange near the top of the redesigned recap pages.
Presented by MSNBC.com? I've heard of hardball with Chris Matthews, but this is ridiculous.
Keep in mind, ESPN is owned by ABC (or they're both owned by Disney, whatever). MSNBC is the lovechild NBC had with Microsoft. Also, ESPN is "the worldwide leader in sports," whereas MSNBC can barely be trusted with the news.
This is like McDonalds saying their Playlands were "brought to you by the Olive Garden." Or like Ticketmaster saying their... oh wait, I forgot, Ticketmaster is an illegal monopoly. But why would ESPN look to MSNBC for help in presenting baseball coverage?
Well, they wouldn't, and they don't. The baseball recaps are handled, as always, by the Associated Press. The "presented by" peacock is just part of the kajillion dollars MSNBC is pouring into its new "Fuller Spectrum of News" campaign (see, "A Fuller Spectrum of News" is, like, a play on words, because the NBC logo has a lot of different colors, and because they were worried that if they came up with a tagline that was catchy or memorable, too many people would start watching MSNBC and it might go to Joe Scarborough's head or something).
So MSNBC isn't really "presenting" these recaps, so much as they're presenting ESPN with many, many dollars. I don't have a problem with it, per se — it just seems a little strange. When coverage is "presented by" a news organization, it usually implies they, like, did the actual covering themselves.
NONESSENTIAL POSTSCRIPT: From the aforelinked recap page, check out the video of Jason Michaels' sweet/terrifying catch to seal the game for the Tribe (it's about halfway through).
2 comments:
I don't know how interested in 'the facts' you are but I'm pretty sure this campaign is just for the website.
Also, espn does this 'presented by' all the time. I think that for the entire football season, the football page was 'presented by' GMC.
I do see how it's kinda weird that a general news website is being advertised on sports news website but whatever.
OMG i am like TOTALLY interested in the facts. not even just for a hook-up. i would totally commit.
"I don't know how interested in 'the facts' you are but I'm pretty sure this campaign is just for the website."
I was using shorthand there — i.e., MSNBC for msnbc.com, ESPN for espn.com — but you're right. I should have stated that more clearly. In my defense, I just wanted to make a Joe Scarborough joke.
"Also, espn does this 'presented by' all the time. I think that for the entire football season, the football page was 'presented by' GMC."
Yeah, that sounds right too. I can't remember if it were displayed the same way on the NFL recap pages, but I'll believe you if you say so.
Anyway, yeah, it's not that I have a problem with advertising. I mean, how could I, when I'm BLESSED WITH SUCH BEAUTIFUL SPONSORS AS THE California Wine Club — Delivering hand-selected, boutique wines each month? They could put Spider-Man ads on the bases themselves every day, for all I care. Really.
But to say, "Here is a story that qualifies as news, presented to you by a news Web site," in a scenario where the two things aren't at all related — well, it just strikes me as odd.
I guess it's more like if the steak section of the menu at the Olive Garden was "presented by Omaha Steaks," except the steaks still came from, you know, the local horse hospital.
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