Well, in the wake of the Steve Phillips affair and then Deadspin’s scorched earth policy on ESPN yesterday, there is plenty of fallout on the blogs today. Let’s refresh your memory or give you a quick primer in case you don’t know what I’m talking about.
Yesterday, news broke in the New York Post that ESPN’s Steve Phillips had an affair with a 22 year old production assistant over the summer. However, it didn’t stop there as Deadspin’s AJ Daulerio, angry at ESPN for not confirming the affair to him back in September decided to go all Kung Fu on the Alleged Worldwide Leader, outing two alleged affairs, one involving an ESPN Radio personality and another with an ESPN executive. While the Phillips story was widely reported, it was public as police reports were filed, the others until Deadspin got a hold of them, were private and not confirmed.
I stressed this yesterday and I’ll stress it again. The Phillips story became public when police reports were filed by Phillips, his wife and his teenaged son. The other stories were not public and in the case of the ESPN Radio personality, was being handled in-house. There was no need to know.
But because Daulerio chose to out them, they became public. It’s led to all types of reaction on the blogosphere. Christopher Byrne of the Eye on Sports Media wrote an open letter and denounced Deadspin for crossing the line. Chris also posts an article in which he says Deadspin threw the sports blogosphere under the bus.
Clay Travis, a former writer at Deadspin, looks at the legal ramifications of what Daulerio did and where it could lead.
Chris Littman writing in the Sporting News’ Sporting Blog says what Deadspin did was malicious.
Pat Gordon over at FanIQ is keeping a close eye on what’s happening.
Chris Mottram at SBNation recaps the situation between Deadspin and ESPN.
However, With Leather feels Daulerio is right in exposing what’s happening at ESPN.
Dan Levy of On The DL tweeted that Deadspin has clearly made the turn into the heel.
Over the last year, ESPN has made an outreach to blogs including Deadspin. The two sides had appeared to be getting along especially in the wake of a 2007 feud revolving around a Stuart Scott text message. Daulerio was invited to ESPN in August along with several other blogs (including Fang’s Bites) to its Media Workshop.
But that goodwill now appears to be out the window. As Chris Byrne mentioned, Daulerio has thrown the sports blogosphere under the bus. It’s been almost 24 hours since Daulerio went all postal on ESPN. There’s going to be fallout from this. ESPN most likely won’t take this sitting down whether it sues or blackballs Deadspin.
This also could cause ESPN to withdraw its goodwill to other blogs and end its attempt to cultivate bloggers. We’ll see. Daulerio may feel he’s leading reform at the Worldwide Headquarters of ESPN, but he may be leading Deadspin down a slippery slope using anonymous e-mails as sources for his stories.
During this week’s podcast that I co-host with Sports Media Journal’s Keith Thibault, I mentioned that if I received a tip on an alleged affair, I would have to look at it on a case-by-case basis, but again, I would not run with it based on an anonymous e-mail. While Daulerio did try to get confirmation from ESPN, running the story first in hopes of getting a response is like shooting first in hopes the police arrive to arrest you. It’s reckless and irresponsible and it affects people’s lives.
I do like Deadspin as it has changed the way we get our sports, but if this is the way it wants to do business, I want no part of it.
