Did ESPN Screw Up?

[HALL85]

Are you saying that I think she's a hero? Didn't i actually write I don't think she deserves an award, part. a sports -related one (even if it is a fake made-up one)? Way to ignore that, how convenient. She is brave for doing this so late in her life, but at the same time it would have been alot more fair to his ex-wives and children if she had done this decades ago. So this whole thing is a bit of a mixed bag (ahem).

As far as a woman Jenner killed, this is the first I'm hearing about it. What happened now?

Jenner was texting while driving and caused an accident that killed a woman a few months ago. Seems like there might have been a payoff to prevent a civil case.

On another front, looks like he's going to cash in even more with a show next year that chronicals the transition. When told he won the award, his first tweet was "What shall I wear?".

I could care less what he is or wants to be, but this is all about bringing attention to himself and not the transgender cause.

 

[SHUMatt]

I never celebrated a person who remains the same sex for his/her entire life nor do I feel the need to celebrate someone for getting a sex change. If it makes Bruce feel better about himself then good for him. It doesn't make a difference to me either way. I guess it took some guts to do but it does not make him a hero. Lauren Hill, that is a hero. She should have gotten the award hands down over Bruce.

 

[Vegas pj]

Lauren Hill si, CJ nada. Simple.

 

[donnie_baseball]

exactly...I wonder if they think he is courageous and a hero. Any thoughts on that Bobbie???

Don't waste your time. Only a truly warped mind can twist objection to a silly award into "hatred," "bigotry," and "old white men."

I don't know what horrible things befell this presumably white, over-30 year old man, when he was a child.

 

[donnie_baseball]

I would watch a test pattern for two hours before I'd waste my time on the irrelevant ESPY's. It's an ESPN self-love fest. Matters not who they honor and who they don't.

...yet you agree, surreptitiously, with those who say that the outcry is motivated based on "hate?" We really need to throw that word around a lot less carelessly.

 

[donnie_baseball]

A great piece in the Sporting News by somebody I've gotten to know in Charlotte really nails this issue.

The guy who asks us not to "define" any of the above-named, but then with a broad brush says that anyone NOT in favor of Bruce Jenner winning hateful and intolerant? Yeah, not drinking that kool-aid.

 

[HALL85]

The guy who asks us not to "define" any of the above-named, but then with a broad brush says that anyone NOT in favor of Bruce Jenner winning hateful and intolerant? Yeah, not drinking that kool-aid.

Exactly!!! And by lumping Jenner, Hill and Galloway together, he loses all credibility. Jenner doesn't even belong in the same sentence.

 

[Seton75]

Are you saying that I think she's a hero? Didn't i actually write I don't think she deserves an award, part. a sports -related one (even if it is a fake made-up one)? Way to ignore that, how convenient. She is brave for doing this so late in her life, but at the same time it would have been alot more fair to his ex-wives and children if she had done this decades ago. So this whole thing is a bit of a mixed bag (ahem).

As far as a woman Jenner killed, this is the first I'm hearing about it. What happened now?

Jenner was in a car accident and a person died.

It is certainly not an easy thing to admit, that all your life you have felt like you were the other gender. It clearly takes courage to make the announcement, specially given that Jenner is famous. And Solo mentioning his earlier life as a pretend man shows why this is important, so others can have a role model to look to and be a crutch for their coming out heartaches.

This is much less rare than I had thought it was. I still go with Lauren Hill. But I don't belittle what Jenner went through either.

 

[HALL85]

Jenner was in a car accident and a person died.

Kind of minimizing what happened? He caused the accident and records show he was texting at the time of the accident.

 

[Pirate6711]

The guy who asks us not to "define" any of the above-named, but then with a broad brush says that anyone NOT in favor of Bruce Jenner winning hateful and intolerant? Yeah, not drinking that kool-aid.

The posts on Twitter and Facebook were overwhelmingly shots at Jenner's transgender status. That's what he was referring to with that.

 

[Pirate6711]

Exactly!!! And by lumping Jenner, Hill and Galloway together, he loses all credibility. Jenner doesn't even belong in the same sentence.

Did you read it? He said that what one person sees as courageous is not the same as the next. That's the point of the whole article. He included all three because those were the three everybody was talking about. Here's the key paragraph.

"How you interpret the importance of Jenner, Hill or Galloway will vary depending on your life experiences. Courage isn't an objective variable. This isn't someone chasing an all-time scoring record. If the LGBT community plays a significant role in your life, then it would be no great surprise why Jenner might be more meaningful to you than Hill or Galloway. The same could be said about those who have been impacted by the scourge of cancer or the devastation of war."

 

[Pirate6711]

My view is that I don't care who wins a meaningless award in the most worthless awards show that's only on TV because there are no sporting events that day. I have my own views on courage and I don't care if they or do not coincide with what some suits in Bristol and NYC choose. I shared Chris' article because it was the most balanced and level-headed approach that I read. The pro-Jenner and anti-Jenner articles/hot takes were taken to extremes and nauseating.

 

[PiratePride]

Seton75 said.....It clearly takes courage to make the announcement, specially given that Jenner is famous.

And therein lies the rub.... his notoriety made it all the more profitable to make the announcement. Sure there was some amount of courage to come out on the grand stage with national interviews and fashion shoots... but I question both Jenner's and ESPN's motivation.

I've never watched the ESPY's probably never will.

 

[chickenbox]

It's easy to tell the hubbub about this is about negative feelings towards Jenner and what s/he is doing rather than positive feelings about any of the other people who could have been given the award when you ask yourself when was the last time you or anyone else gave a shit about someone not winning an award at the espys

 

[jimmyd36]

As a big LGBT supporter when I first heard about the Jenner situation I personally thought it was "a great thing" but....I think given the "shameless self promotion" aspect of the Kardashian's, Jenner's upcoming reality show, and what now feels like a "money grab" tour I (personally) think it's fair for anyone to questions the motives of ESPN and Jenner here. I think getting angry at this situation has less to do with supporting or not supporting LGBT and more to do with a feeling that we are all part of a promotional tour where the primary focus is meant to generate $$ vs transgender acceptance. Selling your interviews for huge sums of money seems a bit less genuine to me and the anger at ESPN, when in the back of all of our minds, we are thinking "ratings" is driving this decision vs wanting to help the LGBT community seems to be a fair and reasonable assumption.

 

[Seton75]

I never celebrated a person who remains the same sex for his/her entire life nor do I feel the need to celebrate someone for getting a sex change. If it makes Bruce feel better about himself then good for him. It doesn't make a difference to me either way. I guess it took some guts to do but it does not make him a hero. Lauren Hill, that is a hero. She should have gotten the award hands down over Bruce.

Well

Kind of minimizing what happened? He caused the accident and records show he was texting at the time of the accident.

Well excuse me. I didn't know any details, only that someone died.

 

[HALL85]

Did you read it? He said that what one person sees as courageous is not the same as the next. That's the point of the whole article. He included all three because those were the three everybody was talking about. Here's the key paragraph.

"How you interpret the importance of Jenner, Hill or Galloway will vary depending on your life experiences. Courage isn't an objective variable. This isn't someone chasing an all-time scoring record. If the LGBT community plays a significant role in your life, then it would be no great surprise why Jenner might be more meaningful to you than Hill or Galloway. The same could be said about those who have been impacted by the scourge of cancer or the devastation of war."

Yes, I did read it...."Whatever your angle, there's no reason to try to diminish the importance of Jenner, Hill and Galloway to their respective supporters". I support Jenner for making a decision for his transition, but to lump him in with two people who showed incredible bravery while facing death is very different. If you can't see that, I can't help you.

 

[hallgrad80]

I am solidly in the camp of those who believe that both Hill and Galloway are deserving of the award but not Jenner. Any consideration of Jenner as a legitimate candidate disappeared when the list of what he intends to do to maximize his earning potential from his change with numbers running in excess of $100 million to as high as $500 million over a 10 year period became public.

 

[donnie_baseball]

It's easy to tell the hubbub about this is about negative feelings towards Jenner and what s/he is doing rather than positive feelings about any of the other people who could have been given the award when you ask yourself when was the last time you or anyone else gave a shit about someone not winning an award at the espys

My friend is part of the production staff of the ESPY's, and has been for some time, so I do pay attention, and have attended in the past. Of course you couldn't know that, but you don't know that it's "easy to tell," either. Lauren Hill hasn't been dead very long, but people have short memories. I think she was a no-brainer for this award, posthumously.

Before any of this Bruce Jenner dust-up, I had lost all respect for him, by his involvement with the Kardashian reality TV show. I couldn't believe that a guy whose name stood for excellence, like Babe Ruth, or Wayne Gretzky, when I was a kid, would allow himself to be involved in such a circus. His coming out as a transgender hasn't done anything to change my opinion. Well prior to that, there was plenty of obvious psychopathology in that family, and we can argue all day about whether this is part of all that.

 

[lr591902]

This is easy to fix. Just don't watch the ESPYs this year. Those of you who object to the choice for whatever reason just say no. #boycottESPYs

 

[Seton75]

Seton75 said.....It clearly takes courage to make the announcement, specially given that Jenner is famous.

And therein lies the rub.... his notoriety made it all the more profitable to make the announcement. Sure there was some amount of courage to come out on the grand stage with national interviews and fashion shoots... but I question both Jenner's and ESPN's motivation.

I've never watched the ESPY's probably never will.

I am sure most of us followed this and had positive feelings about Jenner, and were not saying man, how f'ed up is this. He was a sport legend and now to most he is a freak.

 

[Seton75]

This is easy to fix. Just don't watch the ESPYs this year. Those of you who object to the choice for whatever reason just say no. #boycottESPYs

I was not watching the ESPYs no matter what...not this year, last year or any year in the future.

 

[HALL85]

I'll add a different comparison on the subject...Derrick Gordon is incredibly courageous IMO because he came out with nothing really to gain personally by doing so. He's not going to play pro ball, he didn't get paid to do an interview, he didn't create a scene; he actually put himself in a position to have fewer options to transfer given the prejudices that do exist. And He did so selflessly. That's a kid I will always root for at SHU and in his life.

I know my opinion doesn't support the old white bigot narrative, but I was never one for labels anyway....

 

[RU82]

Bruce Jenner suffers from a known disorder for which there is no known cure. Given his notoriety, it certainly requires some degree of courage to hold himself up to ridicule. But holding 'Caitlyn' up as a cultural icon is almost as twisted as the disorder that torments him.

Like any person who suffers from a mental disorder Jenner deserves our compassion and as much understanding as we can muster. I hope the unprecedented visibility of his transition doesn't lead him to an even darker place than the one he came from. I have an uneasy feeling about that. His problems aren't going to simply disappear because he's taking on the role of a woman now.

 

[Piratz]

As a big LGBT supporter

I was thinking... Why are all of those lumped into one category? The L/G are very different than the B/T.

 

[Piratz]

I actually don't begrudge Jenner for squeezing every dollar out of this that he can. Why not? He's not Caitlyn now for the money, but if his message can help someone and he gets paid for it, why does that minimize any of it?

 

[hallgrad80]

There are stories circulating in the media that the ESPY award for Jenner was part of the deal for the Diane Sawyer interview on ABC , the parent company of ESPN. Fact or fiction who the hell knows but nothing involving ESPN would surprise me anymore

 

[Seton75]

I actually don't begrudge Jenner for squeezing every dollar out of this that he can. Why not? He's not Caitlyn now for the money, but if his message can help someone and he gets paid for it, why does that minimize any of it?

I haven't checked, but I wonder if those who say Hurley deserves to get his complain about Jenner getting his. I dislike the Kardassians as much as the next person, but if this is what the culture has come to, they are getting theirs too. We could all ignore them, but I guess most do not. Helluva business plan, tell your best looking daughter to make a sex tape with a rapper that miraculously gets leaked and use that momentum to grease the skids. One the other hand, my parents had the Gabor sisters who were just as talented and the culture survived.

Most of us are amazed at what Jenner has done and not in a positive way. Took lots of onions. And of course, Bruce could have stayed as Bruce and avoided all of this. Poor Lauren had no say in the issue.

 

[JRSlim2284]

3 things.

1. From what I've read, Caitlyn could care less about the Kardash aside from being a parent when needed.
2. Wasnt this a message board that when the Big East announced the deal with Fox, we touted it so much with several members expressing their dislike over ESPN?
3. Honestly, who really cares about the ESPYs? I mean, they've had some great moments but as an "award show" it's such a throwaway.

Bottom line, I've seen guys like Bomani Jones say as much and it echoes my sentiment: why are people so up in arms about an award and show that you don't really care about just because it's something you don't agree with? It's totally subjective

 

[SHUMike]

Bruce Jenner needs a psychiatrist not an award.

 

[ponyfoot19]

This isn't your local dinner in the high school honoring courage and athletic achievement. It will be seen on tv nationally, and I suspect, internationally. There is no proximate nexus between Jenner's 'courage' and athletic performance. They occurred in different centuries. Personally, I would give the award to the wounded warriors as a group. Whether its wheelchair basketball, baseball, marathons or Dancing With The Stars their courage and athletic participation are contemporaneous and a positive example. Lauren Hill would.ve been a fine choice too. Jenner is pandering to ratings, and I won't watch.

 

[Halldan1]

Bob Costas rips ESPN over Caitlyn Jenner getting Arthur Ashe award at ESPYs: A 'crass exploitation play'


Veteran sportscaster Bob Costas ripped ESPN and called giving Caitlyn Jenner — the former Olympic hero Bruce Jenner who underwent gender reassignment recently — the Arthur Ashe Courage Award a "crass exploitation play" on Dan Patrick's radio show Tuesday.

Costas was careful to try and not diminish Jenner's very public transition, instead opting to stomp all over the sports network.

"I wish Caitlyn all the happiness in the world and all the peace of mind in the world. However, it strikes me that awarding the Arthur Ashe award to Caitlyn Jenner is just a crass exploitation play. It’s a tabloid play," said Costas. "In the broad world of sports, I’m pretty sure they could have found — and this is not anything against Caitlyn Jenner — I’m pretty sure they could have found someone who was much closer to actively involved in sports, who would have been deserving of what that award represents. That’s not to say that it doesn’t take some measure of personal courage to do what Caitlyn Jenner has done, but I think that every year we look across the landscape of sports, and we find prominent people and kids in high school and amateur athletes who I think more closely fit the description of what they’re looking for or should be looking for there. And I think this is a play to pump up audience the way lots of things are put on television, to attract eyeballs, not because of the validity, but because of whatever the kind of gawker factor is."

Annie Leibovitz exclusively for Vanity Fair
Caitlyn Jenner (formerlyBruce Jenner) appears on the cover of Vanity Fair after gender transition.

"It felt a little too reality show, tabloid show, you know, all of a sudden let's just jump in with Caitlyn Jenner," Patrick said.

"It feels like, let's buy in to the 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' culture that has overtaken a good part of the cultural landscape," Costas said. "That's a train that's left the station and you and I can't slow it down no matter how we feel about it."

Patrick, a long time ESPN anchor before parting ways with the network, theorized that the ESPYs now seem to have some measure of legitimacy, because in his days there, no one cared about the show.

"Now we look at the ESPYs and say, 'Well, now it's got some legitimacy' or — I don't know, because I was there in the beginning when no one cared. We were paying people to show up at the ESPYs. You got an award if you showed up at the ESPYs."

James Devaney/GC Images
Bob Costas (c.) at a Brooklyn Nets game back in 2014.

Many have suggested (as Patrick mentions here) Lauren Hill, the college basketball player who died of cancer recently — but used the remaining time of her life to raise awareness and money to fight the disease — would have been a better choice.

Producers of the contrived awards show are happy with their choice and standing by it, according to a CBS report: "ESPY Awards show producer Maura Mandt says Jenner’s coming out 'can help to educate people on the challenges that the transgender community faces.'"

(Note: The Jenner discussion starts at about the 8:00 mark of the video)

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/m...rd-exploitation-play-costas-article-1.2252565