Tomorrow night, HBO will present a special 90-minute edition of Costas Now, which will focus on sports and the media. HBO Sports President Russ Greenberg says “On April 29 we’re going to take stock of the sports media landscape.” The format will be a Town Hall style discussion. At the end of the ninety minute broadcast, the media is expected to blame bloggers, and then fans in general, for any problems identified by the panels. The show will air at 10:00pm (ET) tomorrow night, and will consist of the following five segments:
Segment One: Sports Talk Radio. Video package interviews: Chicago radio host Mike North, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti, WFAN radio hosts Mike & The Mad Dog. Live Panel: NY Giants defensive end Michael Strahan, best selling author and radio host Mitch Albom and WFAN radio host Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo.
Segment Two: The Internet and Impact of Bloggers. Video package interviews: deadspin.com editor Will Leitch, TV writer and media critic Michael Schur and Washington Post columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon. Live panel: Pulitzer Prize winning author Buzz Bissinger, Will Leitch and Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards.
Segment Three: Sports Television. Video package interviews: NBC Sports broadcaster Al Michaels, former ABC and NBC executive and producer Don Ohlmeyer, syndicated columnist Norman Chad. Live panel: Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Buck, ESPN broadcaster Mike Tirico and Sports Illustrated’s Dan Patrick.
Segment Four: Athletes and the Media: A Complicated Marriage. Video package interviews: Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, Former NBA star and Turner Sports analyst Charles Barkley, Chicago columnist Sam Smith and NBC Sports broadcaster Al Michaels. Live panel: NBC’s Tiki Barber, Sports Illustrated columnist Selena Roberts and former tennis star and current tennis analyst John McEnroe.
Segment Five: A Discussion on Race. Video package interviews: Washington Post columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon, former NFL star Kellen Winslow, Sr., espn.com editor-in-chief Rob King. Live Panel: former NFL star and current ESPN commentator Cris Carter and Kansas City Star columnist Jason Whitlock.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
I’m sure Costas is the PERFECT guy to host this. His recent comments about bloggers:
‘I understand with newspapers struggling and hoping to hold on to, or possibly expand their audiences, I understand why they do what they do,” Costas said. ‘But it’s one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother’s basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they’re a pathetic get-a-life loser, but now that pathetic get-a-life loser can piggyback onto someone who actually has some level of professional accountability and they can be comment No. 17 on Dan Le Batard’s column or Bernie Miklasz’ column in St. Louis. That, in most cases, grants a forum to somebody who has no particular insight or responsibility. Most of it is a combination of ignorance or invective.”
“It’s just a high-tech place for idiots to do what they used to do on bar stools or in school yards, if they were school yard bullies, or on men’s room walls in gas stations. That doesn’t mean that anyone with half a brain should respect it.”
I’m sure he’ll be fair. After all, Costas is ……a very small man.
LikeLike
To be fair, Costas stepped back a bit on Deadspin from those comments.
http://tinyurl.com/yujchw
Still, the comments were ignorant and arrogant. (If I had a third adjective to go with those two, I would be Jackie Stiles.) I cannot believe that journalists of all people want less debate and content. Smart people are able to understand what is crap and what is good. And most people realize having an editor and a major media company signing your checks is not the determinative factor regarding quality.
LikeLike
Costas was on ESPN radio today. The line was – paraphrased – “There’s so much hatred now with all these internet sites. They just say what they want, and there’s no fact-checking”.
Since when are sports reporters fact-checked? When they say “My sources in the league say that everyone hates Curt Schilling,” does an editor call the un-named sources to verify the claim? I call bullshit – sports reporters have to look up the see the belly of a used-car salesman.
LikeLike