“We are pursuing many options,” Russell said. “But in a sense, it’s kind of to prevent it from happening again. There’s a lot of college baseball players, college athletes, that are really trying to make a career out of [their sport]. To have anyone professionally get up there in front of millions of people and say something derogatory toward anyone is kind of a tough thing to do.”
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There should be accountability for sportscasters/reporters who flap their mouths without checking sources. Especially when kids are concerned. Frankly sensationalism and/or the desire to be “first” has eroded the integrity of some of these people. At least this guy apologized but you can certainly see how it was too little to late.
I hope he sues and gets a huge settlement. The media (not just sports) needs to be held accountable. Hopefully, insurance companies will start to reconsider issuing policies to some of these media giants. Maybe without the insurance safety net they would be a little more careful with the reporting.
The problem is media is now about being first for clicks (sells advertising) rather than fact checking and getting the story correct. Before the media hit the internet they had until the paper went to press about 2am to make calls and get the story correct. For ESPN they had until the next SportsCenter broadcast.
@PTWood posted:There should be accountability for sportscasters/reporters who flap their mouths without checking sources. Especially when kids are concerned. Frankly sensationalism and/or the desire to be “first” has eroded the integrity of some of these people. At least this guy apologized but you can certainly see how it was too little to late.
The fact that he apologized on air but did not reach out to the kid personally says volumes for me.
The extenuating factors is what I believe is leading to the problem also. He read it on a fake twitter account ran by a guy at the college he attended. He did not fact check it and it got him. I believe he and ESPN will settle out of court but it may be a hefty sum because of the source and the nature of it. If this goes to court, it could be millions. I believe if he had spoken from his heart and not just read a lawyer's writing it would have been better also. I'm not sure ESPN would have allowed him to call the family due to possible fallout. They would much rather have the pre-prepared speech written by one of their lawyers.
ESPN has degenerated into a bunch of shills pushing political propaganda. Their content is dictated by their parent company (Disney) who, as we have learned, is a very unhealthy company. To say the least. I hope Russell takes them to the cleaners.
Maybe ESPN will present the same defenses Fox does in Court when Hannity or Carlson (and Fox) are sued! “This is pure entertainment. Nothing is factual. No reasonable person would interpret these opinions as factual.”
They are engaging in “exaggeration and non-literal commentary.”
Very sad all the way around!
@infielddad posted:Maybe ESPN will present the same defenses Fox does in Court when Hannity or Carlson (and Fox) are sued! “This is pure entertainment. Nothing is factual. No reasonable person would interpret these opinions as factual.”
They are engaging in “exaggeration and non-literal commentary.”
Very sad all the way around!
And every other media outlet isn’t engaged in exactly the same thing?!? There are literally no trusted media sources. No matter what your political beliefs.
