First episode May 1st. Watched it today on the app. Pleasantly surprised no commercials. Panel sports discussion hosted by Bob Sirott. Guests were Kenny McReynolds, Peggy Kusinski, and Danny Parkins. 22 minute show minus the commercials. Little bit too generic. Kenny McReynolds is wonderful to see looking good after a lot of illness. Peggy seems to really like Parkins. Would like to see big sports fan Sirott a little more involved than just ask questions. Interesting seeing Parkins where he can't be arrogant, and without a dump button,
actually taking to people who aren't paid to agree with him, and prop him up.

I'll definitely watch again. Will be interesting who future guests are. I'm sure Julie is blackballed. I'm guessing Marquee also has restraints on certain topic discussion like the Score.

It be great if they have Murph on. He worked for Vine Line for many years and other cubs docs.

Pass.

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I've never understood the appeal of Bob Sirott.

_________________

he was the hot shot on channel 2 in the late 70's-early 80's. he was also a high profile DJ at wls. married sexy carrie cochran, (blonde - dorothy hamill hairstyle, nice eyes, great body) who was a weekend anchor. i just think that in 1981, bob sirott epitomized 'cool'..and i guess that aura is supposed to linger forever.

i'd also pass on that panel.

same

i think he looks like the greatest american hero

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

In the 90s he totally ripped off Letterman - even wore the same looking wardrobe as him.

A suit?

_________________
'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

would've been a good show 27 years ago...guessing a lot of prescription medicine ads

This week Spiegel (guest hosting), Bruce Levine, Russel Dorsey, Annie Costabile on the panel. Spiegel with a purple top buttoned shirt. Spiegel his usual annoying. Cubs shill Levine was hard ass about the Bears being tired of rebuilds. Actually after saying Peanut Tilmon was a "great guy" had the balls to say his speech to rookies was insignificant. Guess he only praises certain speeches. Disappointing no Cubs talk especially with two shills on the panel. Forced Sky talk now that Marquee is a partner. Far cry from the original Sports Reporters on TV with generic lifeless panels.

you thought it was hot didn't you

Marquee Sports Network’s new Sunday show “The Reporters” didn’t air a recorded segment in which the panel questioned Cubs president Jed Hoyer’s transparency regarding the team’s roster rebuild.

In response to questions about the incident, Marquee general manager Mike McCarthy said the show will now air live.

“A judgment was made on the fly that in retrospect was overly sensitive,” McCarthy said. “Going forward, the show will be live, and the reporters on it are completely unedited, as the intention really has been all along. Because the luxury of taping the show was in place, some people decided to get a little careful and avoid, among other things, repetition from other shows.

“It’ll be pretty hard to censor somebody that’s on live television. We’re going to remove that element to it because people make decisions that other people wouldn't make. But this is not like a Cubs management-Marquee upper management swath across the bow that no one’s ever critical of the Cubs because that’s not the case in this show’s brief history. And it won’t be going forward.”

On Sunday, the panel — which consisted of host Bob Sirott of WGN radio, David Haugh of The Score, Peggy Kusinski of ESPN 1000 and Maddie Lee of the Sun-Times — had begun to discuss the different approaches between former Cubs president Theo Epstein and Hoyer, who has been reticent to describe his plan as rebuilding.

After Kusinski and Haugh spoke, Lee said she was about to speak when a producer said they needed to restart the segment because of technical difficulties. But before they began, the panel was told to steer clear of talk about transparency.

“We all looked at each other very confused, like, is this happening?” Lee said. “I said it’s peak irony that they’re going to blame technical issues in restarting a segment about transparency.”

Sun-Times sports editor Chris De Luca told the staff Tuesday that the Sun-Times would no longer participate in the show.

In partnership with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Marquee launched in 2020 as the exclusive home of Cubs local game broadcasts. The network created “The Reporters” in the same vein as “The Sports Writers on TV,” which aired from 1985 to 2001. A panel of sports reporters sits around a card table beneath a pool-hall light and discusses the topics of the day

“The conversation wasn’t anything that I thought in the moment was controversial,” Lee said. “Transparency has been a common topic of conversation. I don’t blame the people working on it, they’re in a weird spot. They have that in the backs of their heads. This is the problem with team-owned stations. They were probably trying to avoid the specific criticism of how Jed was handling the messaging.”

Care to comment, Danny Parkins?

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Haugh talked about the incident this morning. He said the Score has free rein to discuss the Cubs, positive or negative. What a crock of bs. When Maddon, Ross, Heyward were on the Score it's obvious certain topics are off limits in their praise-fest interviews. Just last week Hanley said at the Score his Cubs views were highly regulated by Cubs brass input. Ironic nobody even cares about transparency nor clarity, but productivity, talent evaluation, spending, leading to a winning team.

From a ratings standpoint, wouldn't it be better to have people unleash a little venom? I have zero interest in watching anything on Marquee outside of the actual games (and even those are questionable these days), but if they had a Mike North or Chris Russo type, I might watch or listen.

_________________

Can't censor now of days. It always bites the censor in the ass. Like you say, might as well lean into it. Better off in the long run. If you don't like the thought expressed, express a better thought.

_________________
Wattabout Kodak Black?

Much ado about nothing. Have to be an idiot to think the Cubs were competing this year. Who cares what management says about it.

First live & uncensored show was 50% Score Cubs shills (Parkins & Levine). They certainly can't speak freely about the Cubs. Knucklehead Levine accused the Sun-Times of censorship not letting its people do the show. Levine also said the censoring incident was only a story because of a slow sports week saying coverage was over the top excessive. Got to believe they'll just load up on Score Cubs shills to back door censor it. Since Marquee partnered with the WNBA Sky all of a sudden Levine brings them up frequently.

JA Adande said homer Harry Carey wasn't known to be critical of the Cubs. Huh? Parkins kept saying you can't censor live television. But, his radio show is live, and Cubs censored.

The show went "cuttng edge controversial" discussing if the Cubs are in a transparent rebuild.

Really a trainwreck, and insulting to the old "Sportswriters" radio & tv shows handpicking yes-men guests and Score shills.

so, levine is ben bentley or bill gleason? these guys talk about womens' b-ball like bentley would throw in boxing tidbits from the 1940s. you needed him to take a bad drag off that cigar to change the subject.

P & S talked about "The Reporters" first live show.

Spiegel praised the choice of Parkins to host.
Spiegel praised Parkins' opening apology.
Spiegel praised Marquee for acknowledging the problem.
Parkins praised himself that he was proud of the show.
Parkins praised the media coverage criticisms.
P & S praised the opportunity this creates.
Parkins praised his fellow panelists.
Parkins praised the shows future commentary & panels.
Parkins praised the 10 mn. length of the opening apology.
Producer praised Parkins for crushing the fix.

1st live show zero newspaper reporters. 2nd show they had to get one from The St Louis Post Dispatch apparently not being able to get one from Chicago papers. First 2 live "The Reporters" shows 1 of 8 actual newspaper reporters on the panel (13%, from Chicago 0%, 50% Score guys). What are spread across the table? Yep, newspapers.

Looks like they did pull the the plug on the Cubs coffee mugs after Jeff Agrest wrote about it in the Sun-Times. "Besides, it’s hard to take the show seriously when there are coffee mugs with the Cubs’ logo on the table."

Score plays promos of great moments in Score history for the 30 year anniversary: and its from a Cubs regular season broadcast.

Nope, no content bias at all

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

They can boast that the show is live and unedited now, but all they have to do is fill it with known shills like Levine.

_________________

"The Reporters" live uncensored with newspapers strewn on the table. No newspaper reporters. 2 Score shills. After 3 live shows.

0 of 12 Chicago newspaper reporters (0%).
1 of 12 newspaper reporters (8.3%).
Score/wbbm shills 7 of 12 (58.3%).

Actually a very good panel on today's show. Bob Sirott, Kenny McReynolds, Lou Canellis, and Kevin Powell. What a difference without the Score trash. Any Score host on a sports talk panel poisons it's integrity.

On today were program directors Mitch Rosen from the Score and Danny Zederman ESPN 1000 talking about sportsradio. Mitch Rosen said the Score's calling card is interaction with fans taking phone calls all day. He must be hallucinating. Zederman emphasized "we do!" interact with the fans. Rosen talked about how the Ian Happ & David Ross regular visits are excellent content. With Larry's recent tribalism remarks DZ made a point to say the listeners were a tribe. Rosen repeatedly said how disappointing the Sox were and improved the Cubs are. Rosen was shifty, vague, and shady as expected.

Interaction with Fans taking phone calls all day. Wow....he's about 20 years off

_________________

Either cancelled or on hiatus. No show scheduled today and next Sunday. Getting flooded with Score trash after the Cubs censoring boycott couldn't of helped its ratings.

They probably take an average of 5 calls a day on the station.