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DEBuckeye

It ain't easy, bein' cheesy.
I don't know if this will matter much, if at all, but it made me feel better.

I sent the following letter to the contact person at almost every Buckeye alumni club in the country. Hopefully they will forward it to their members.

Good evening, Buckeyes-

By now, I'd guess that most of you have read or heard about the new articles released by ESPN regarding Maurice Clarett and The Ohio State University.

ESPN has been trying to find dirt for a sensational story such as this for almost 8 months now. They have sunk to new lows in reporting and have all but thrown their credibility out the window with this report, and the "credible" sources named.

There is no reason, other than selling magazines or boosting TV ratings, to go on such a witch hunt. I, for one, am extremely disappointed and somewhat angry. What can we do? We've got one of the largest, most loyal alumni groups in the country. Together we can hit ESPN back a bit by boycotting them. If you have a subscription to ESPN The Magazine, cancel it. If you visit their website, take the URL off of your favorites list and stop viewing. If you watch ESPN, or any of it's related channels, turn it off (unless, of course, they're the only ones showing the weekly Buckeye game....).

I would urge you, as leaders of your alumni clubs, to forward this to your members and recommend that they pitch in. We won't bring them down, but maybe we can make it hurt a little. Until ESPN stops this irresponsible, sensationalist "journalism", let's show them that we won't stand for it.
 
Boycott? Don't waste your time.

Besides, I enjoy ESPN's football telecasts and I won't cut off my nose to spite my face, and yes, I am a contributing alumnus to OSU.

Are the allegations true? Doubtful. Will ESPN treat the refutations with the same vigor? Not likely. Does that make them different than the rest of the media? Nope.

That's how the media works - didn't you see the coverage leading up to the elections? These days, it's about ratings, and sensationalism sells - blame the public for eating that stuff up.

The fact is, ESPN isn't the problem. Maurice Clarett is the problem. ESPN just happened to get his story first.
 
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Don't waste your time.

I concur. Today's journalism is all about getting your attention. All this negative energy is doing little more than letting ESPN know they have succeded in doing so. For every OSU fan who is ticked off there is a Michigan or Miami fan savoring every word - just as we would.
 
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Buckeyehead said:
Does that make them different than the rest of the media? Nope.

That's how the media works - didn't you see the coverage leading up to the elections? These days, it's about ratings, and sensationalism sells - blame the public for eating that stuff up.

The fact is, ESPN isn't the problem. Maurice Clarett is the problem. ESPN just happened to get his story first.

I guess I'm just having a hard time equating the ends of the sports media with the mainstream media. While, in my opinion, both should be reporting the truth, it is easier and more satisfying to the audience to report the truth in sports. For instance, you can show highlights of good things in sports, and it still sells.

I will call Bullshit on you saying that ESPN is not the problem. Clarett may also be the problem, but make no mistake that ESPN is also the problem, and may be the main problem. Clarett is a shy person, almost to the point of being backwards. I don't see him knocking on ESPN's door and saying "let me in." It happened the other way around.
 
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I have already taken them off of my favorites tab on my home page.
What else can I do???
icon10.gif
 
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I was enlightened to a world not dominated by ESPN a year ago when I finally came to my senses and saw what was going on. ESPN is no longer a network that shows sports, highlights and stats. That's all I want. They are moving further and further away from that much the same way that mtv and vh1 have moved away from actually showing music videos. Now there's more and more garbage programming on espn ... these "reality" sports shows? GARBAGE. That Playmakers show? GARBAGE. It's very possible that if you really make an effort to avoid watching ESPN or going to ESPN.com for casual browsing/viewing, you might just start to enjoy sports more because you aren't over-saturated. It happened to me.
 
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Um, I'm not sure if anyone else knows this or not, but it has been reported (at least by ESPN) that MoC approached them with this story. Twice. It's not ESPN, or ESPN the rag, that initiated all of this. You can place the blame 100% on MoC.
 
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FKAGobucks877 said:
Um, I'm not sure if anyone else knows this or not, but it has been reported (at least by ESPN) that MoC approached them with this story. Twice. It's not ESPN, or ESPN the rag, that initiated all of this. You can place the blame 100% on MoC.
But of course, anything that ESPN says must be true.. lol just raggin. I must say that ESPN lost a lot of credibility after posting that story without going any further than speaking with those 3 guys.
 
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Remember, this is not the 1st. expose by ESPN on a major Div. 1 campus.
Many members here remember the Bristol U crew going to UT, turning over every stone, etc???
Every year, an expose at mid season? Sounds like a "formula" to me. This to shall pass; give up gameday? Never! At least not until OSU markets directly to the sat. co.s!
 
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I must say that ESPN lost a lot of credibility after posting that story without going any further than speaking with those 3 guys.
That's the key point here. Regardless of who initiated it, espn's rag decided to gather up a few shocking allegations from people who they knew would tell a story that made OSU look bad, and then they printed it knowing very well that it would generate a big buzz and sell magazines and boost ratings. They are obviously not concerned with the truth, or even hearing from people who may know the truth.

We've already got media outlets for that kind of crap available to us- The National Enquirer, The Star, Access Hollywood, and the New York Times. We didn't need espn to add themselves to the list.
 
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