Oh, ESPN...

Hey, it's been a while since I took a shot at my old favorite punching bag (no, I don't mean Krugman), so let's have at it, shall we?

Erin Andrews, who signed an endorsement deal with Reebok last month, is not the only ESPN personality or member of its “College GameDay” team to have a contract with a major shoe company. 

Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso have deals with Nike that Corso described as a joint arrangement that largely involves speaking engagements for the athletic shoe and apparel company. 

After an inquiry to ESPN about the announcers’ Nike contracts, Josh Krulewitz, an ESPN spokesman, said that Fowler, the host of “GameDay,” is “ending his minor association” with Nike “to avoid any potential perception issues.” Fowler was not made available for an interview. 

In defending the announcers, Krulewitz said: “By any objective measure, Chris, Kirk and Lee’s on-air work is unassailable. Their content has not been compromised by this relationship.” 

Corso, Fowler and Herbstreit’s deals with Nike were never announced or disclosed to viewers. “We were unaware of these deals,” Krulewitz said...

ESPN and Nike are major forces in college sports. ESPN has numerous contracts to carry games and Nike has sponsorship agreements with dozens of universities, to which it supplies shoes and apparel. So it is not a surprise that Nike has aligned itself with announcers from a marquee program like “GameDay.”...

Still, Nike’s tie to the “GameDay” announcers creates potential conflicts of interest, said Bob Steele, the director of the Prindle Institute for Ethics and a journalism professor at DePauw University. “It’s not just what’s said or written but what stories are covered and the frame for the story,” he said. “It’s the questions that are asked and not asked in an interview, and who gets interviewed.” 

He added, “You do have to wonder why a sports journalist, or any journalist, would wander in this kind of ethical minefield without recognizing the consequences.”

I'll give Fowler--who, incidentally, seems like the most level-headed and intelligent member of the bunch--credit for terminating his relationship, though he never should have had it to begin with, at least not without disclosing it to his viewers.

But at ESPN, it's pretty clear that journalistic integrity takes a significant back seat to promoting the network's programming schedule. Journalism, then, is merely a vehicle by which to advertise and increase the value of the rest of the company's assets--and increasingly, I'm afraid that's what journalism has become across the board.

[New York Times]  
(h/t reader Ted)