I despise Will Leitch, and his simpering "I'm writing an article about how this person is loathsome, but jeepers maloney, I hope that doesn't make them dislike me!!!" shtick is in full effect in this Rovell piece.

That said...











...sound familiar?

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

I liked this better when I posted it as a link in today's B&B FUN thread.

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Bah!

That's what I get for not checking the board all day.

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

Seriously though, how can Dan like Rovell so much? I mean if you knew someone who shared the exact same beliefs as you wouldn't you hate that person? This could be my own insecurity coming through right now.

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I was going to post this, right down the "sound familiar" about cheerleading for giant corporations and prefacing with "Look, I hate Will Leitch, but..."

And which one of you guys posted the following as "Cowley":

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If you divide the total 2012 gate receipts for NFL games by the number of NFL owners, you get AWESOME.

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

His tweet about Hurricane Sandy is when I finally unfollowed him. I think he blocked me after I said Royal Douchebag followed by a RT. He's the worst.

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Team Cutler.

Darren Rovell's century of legendary tweets:

http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com ... ary-tweets

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Fire Phil Emery

He's on CJH now talking about SpotBilt and Michael Jordan. It's really interesting. The full story will be available on ESPN.com on Friday.

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Cool idea. He should do another one and make it funny.

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You know me like that.

Hater.

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Fire Phil Emery

The dude spent much of his career at CNBC covering sports-related business. So it is only natural that his knowledge base is more corporate focused. He understands the business side of sports and that's why ESPN hired him. If you're aware that this is his background, perhaps his tweets will make a little more sense. He's not a "feel good, human interest fluff piece" kind of reporter. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it's just not his background.

You're conflating "reporting on corporations" with "sympathizing with and advocating for corporations." You can focus on the business of sports without lionizing the people involved.

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This is like saying it's ok for Rick Reilly to produce nothing but soft-focus blowjob pieces because he's a feature writer who knows a lot of athletes.

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

Reporters look for a unique advantage... an angle. If a reporter has alot of player contacts, he/she uses them. It influences his writing. Darren's background at CNBC gives him unique access to the corporate side of sports. Of course his writing will reflect that. I think "lionizing" might be hyperbole. Anyone who follows him kinda knows what their going to get. Just like if your reading a David Haugh story, you know your going to get fluff. That's my personal opinion.

It may seem like I'm defending Rovell. I'm not defending... simply explaining him.

I don't know, sounds like you're just going to bat for a Northwestern guy. And I don't know how "knowing what you're going to get" mitigates the fact that he's putting out one wheelbarrow after another of insipid, speak-lies-to-powerless garbage.

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See... I figured you'd go there. But just expressing my opinion. Like I said, I don't particularly like his form of journalism, but I think if you know what he's all about, it is harmless. Frankly, I think there is interest for the business side of sports... and he fills that role.

Now that "speak-lies-to-powerless" line... not sure that really needs/deserves any response.

No one is even disputing that there's a place for sports-business reporting. Personally, I find sports business utterly fascinating, especially in the NHL, which regularly draws the worst of the worst to its ranks. I mean, you gotta see this Phoenix Coyotes thing. First they found Jerry Reinsdorf, and then they found three prospective owners who are even more awful human beings than he is. That's truly remarkable.

All that being said, while he does fill an important niche in sports media, he does it in a way that many of us find highly distasteful. I'll say it again: reporting on something does not mean you have to champion something, and there's no doubt that Rovell is a champion of moneyed interests. And it so happens that Rovell's approach to sports business, which is that wealthy people are always to be taken at face value and always beyond reproach, is really shitty for those of us who would like more a in-depth perspective than "god it makes my dick so hard just thinking of how much commerce the NFL generates."

Look at the claims of how the Blackhawks, despite winning a Stanley Cup and opening revenue streams left, right, up, and down, still allegedly "lose money," with little to no challenge of the facts: namely, that the Trib is a partner of the Blackhawks and Rocky Wirtz is an investor in the S-T, meaning these are going unchallenged. It would be nice for someone to step up and get it on the record that the claims of losing money have to do with creative accounting wherein parking and concession revenue predicated on Blackhawks games is not cited as the Blackhawks' revenue. Rovell wouldn't do this. He would just say that if you divide the NHL salary cap by the number of home games, there's no way owners can make money. He probably did say that somewhere in his twitter feed, which I don't feel like digging through.

It's all particularly annoying because Bernstein has started turning himself into this, with a totally understandable distaste for idiots who consciously reject rational thought evolving into wide-eyed wonder at the elite just for being the elite.


I think it does. Tell me how Rovell and Bernstein aren't interested in making more money for large corporations.

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I feel like you have some special angst reserved for large corporations, which may be valid, but I don't fully understand why Darren Rovell's reporting has to do with it. Unless he's uncovered some specific fraud, misleading accounts, or other devious plots, I'm not sure what you expect from him. Is it some version of "fair and balanced" which you seek? Business reporting generally is pretty mundane stuff. And let's be clear, I'm not sure Rovell's fortay is investigative journalism to uncover said devious plots.

I'm not saying you're wrong... you are probably right. But if you are aware of something Darren wrote to deliberately mislead his readers, then maybe you're on to something. Otherwise you sound like a whiny bitch complaining about the "faceless large corporations who steal the little man's check". And like I said before, I don't particularly like Darren Rovell's writing. I also don't particularly like Twitter.

Okay, look. I'm not asking for the rise of the proletariat here. I'm just trying to make it clear that many of the people and corporations behind professional sports are engaged in a lot of shady business, most obviously the stadium socialism schemes, and I think there's a clear moral imperative not to take their side so unflaggingly. Of course, Rovell works for ESPN, so what do I even expect.

I just wish people wouldn't be so superficial about all this. Like when Dan will go all googly-eyed over the NFL and be like "they make so much money!" without getting into why they make so much money, and the potential ramifications of making so much money, like the fact that they're going to gouge the cable industry to death, or that it takes massive taxpayer subsidies to keep the engine churning. Irish Boy talked about a lot of that here, that the NFL really has to worry about what happens when there's nowhere to go but down. There's never any interest in exploring this stuff any further than "behold! the exchange of money!", which I get in the sense that people won't really care about all this nutsy-boltsy stuff, but then, who the fuck cares about just singing the praises of big business without further consideration in the first place?

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fuckin obama

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

CH,
I think we agree more than we disagree on all this stuff. I agree that these organizations are utilizing misleading data to increase their take... but I don't have to tell you that its just as bad in other forms of business. Also, Rovell's twitter is like drinking from a firehose. Once in awhile he puts something interesting out. It's clearly a quality vs. quantity thing with him.

Why not?

I think CH was just using that as an example of something that is generally accepted rather than scrutinized.

The larger issue is the fetsihization of the very wealthy by guys like Rovell and bernstein. There is a theme- I started to call it "underlying", but it's really right there on the surface- that wealthy people are somehow better simply by virtue of their wealth.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Look at their bank accounts!!

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

too stinky

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They are better for more than just their wealth.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

My complaints about Rovell are even simpler. I love sports economics stuff. Hell, I wrote a book on it. He is just painfully insipid on the topic. His analysis rarely rises above just dividing numbers by other numbers.

He's also, by all accounts, a turd of a human being.

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Fire Phil Emery

THat's pretty incendiary... what'd he do to deserve that?

Did you see his 'mancave' tweet during Hurricane Sandy?

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Team Cutler.