Funny thing I saw on Sportscenter today. In their Sex and Sports series, Jeremy Schapp was interviewing how ESPN objectifies women yet at the same time sounds indignant about the various rape trials and all that. I'm not sure what they are talking about. ESPN origianally stood for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (now it doesn't stand for anything).

What does that mean? I think that ESPN does a great job of showing sports, however when Sporstcenter is involved there is a conflict of interest. I assume that there is a Chinese Wall between the news and the entertainment divisions, but sometimes I'm not so sure (Coors Light Silver Six Pack, Budweiser Hot Seat). Would the CBS nightly news (or even Fox News) have a sponsored opinion program? Maybe, but it would probably be less integrated.

The other point is that SportsCenter is used to promote ESPN's other programming. While that doesn't seem so bad, isn't that a major no-no in the journalism world? I understand that sports by definition is entertainment, but what about the presumption that SportsCenter is news (it certainly looks like it with all those desks and live onsite interviews)? Just a couple of questions.