In one of the silliest stories to break during this strange summer, a story about Twitter surfaced on… where else? Twitter!
During the dinner hour on the East Coast, ESPN NBA writer Ric Bucher tweeted about an internal company memo which banned ESPN employees from using Twitter unless it was for ESPN purposes.
In two separate Tweets, they said as follows:
The hammer just came down, tweeps: ESPN memo prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN. Kinda figured this was coming. Not sure what this means but
My guess is I can still tweet about my vacation/car shopping, etc. Which I will do, if I can. But the informal NBA talk is prob in jeopardy.
This, of course set Twitter afire amongst the ESPN watchers and bloggers. Since the story broke, bloggers including yours truly have been tweeting back and forth about this.
I took the opportunity to write several Tweets about fictitious ESPN policies:
Coming up next, ESPN stops all employees from using e-mail and the telephone unless it serves ESPN.
ESPN tells employees they cannot use the Internet except for ESPN.com.
ESPN says employees can eat lunch, but only in cafeteria. They can’t order out or leave the premises.
ESPN says bathrooms breaks are at 10, 1, & 4 for men, 9, noon and 3 for women.
As you can tell, I was having some fun with the story.
But I did hear from an ESPN spokesman who gave me the following statement:
“We have been active in the social media space for awhile. As our mission is to serve sports fans, we will continue to be active. We are now merely getting smarter about it by providing guidelines to commentators and reporters.”
Here is the entire memo sent to ESPN employees in full:
ESPN’S ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING
ESPN regards social networks such as message boards, conversation pages and other forms of social networking such as Facebook and Twitter as important new forms of content. As such, we expect to hold all talent who participate in social networking to the same standards we hold for interaction with our audiences across TV, radio and our digital platforms. This applies to all ESPN Talent, anchors, play by play, hosts, analysts, commentators, reporters and writers who participate in any form of personal social networking that contain sports related content.
ESPN Digital Media is currently building and testing modules designed to publish Twitter and Facebook entries simultaneously on ESPN.com, SportsCenter.com, Page 2, ESPN Profile pages and other similar pages across our web site and mobile platforms. The plan is to fully deploy these modules this fall.
Specific Guidelines
- Personal websites and blogs that contain sports content are not permitted
- Prior to engaging in any form of social networking dealing with sports, you must receive permission from the supervisor as appointed by your department head
- ESPN.COM may choose to post sports related social media content
- If ESPN.com opts not to post sports related social media content created by ESPN talent, you are not permitted to report, speculate, discuss or give any opinions on sports related topics or personalities on your personal platforms
- The first and only priority is to serve ESPN sanctioned efforts, including sports news, information and content
- Assume at all times you are representing ESPN
- If you wouldn’t say it on the air or write it in your column, don’t tweet it
- Exercise discretion, thoughtfulness and respect for your colleagues, business associates and our fans
- Avoid discussing internal policies or detailing how a story or feature was reported, written, edited or produced and discussing stories or features in progress, those that haven’t been posted or produced, interviews you’ve conducted, or any future coverage plans.
- Steer clear of engaging in dialogue that defends your work against those who challenge it and do not engage in media criticism or disparage colleagues or competitors
- Be mindful that all posted content is subject to review in accordance with ESPN’s employee policies and editorial guidelines
- Confidential or proprietary company information or similar information of third parties who have shared such information with ESPN, should not be shared
Any violation of these guidelines could result in a range of consequences, including but not limited to suspension or dismissal.
I was originally thinking that this policy might get reversed with some media backlash, but after hearing from several sources in the know, this policy was coming for quite some time and for all intents and purposes this will be law from here on out.
Although one ESPN employee did tweet around 9:30 tonight:
So I’m tweeting now and no one has dropped out of the ceiling on a wire to arrest me. Don’t worry, Twitter, we ESPN’ers are still here…
The new world of Twitter certainly has caused sports leagues to react on how to use the social network and certainly this is the first major media outlet to create a guideline on Twitter.
Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk tries to make sense of ESPN’s new policy.
A.J. Daulerio of Deadspin echoes what I’ve been told about the policy.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times says ESPN wants their talent and writers who tweet to have their statements on ESPN and Twitter simultaneously.
I’ve been told by the great Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated that SI’s editors encourage their writers to use Twitter.
But we’ll see if other media outlets follow suit.
UPDATE, 10:48 p.m.: Ray Calder of HockeyObserver.com reminded me on Twitter that ESPN’s Linda Cohn has her own social network. Will she be forced to take it down or will ESPN give her permission to keep it?
She’s also been Tweeting rather freely and often tonight. I don’t think she’s gotten the memo yet.
