ESPN and the death of real sports journalism

It is over, my friends. Any hope that we might be able to continue following sports via an unbiased, independent, fair, and level-headed source has died on this Monday morning. Everything we know about the athletes we love and games we watch will be viewed through the lens of a media giant that has an agenda.

After officially announcing that ESPN will be bringing on Brian Windhorst, they announced that they will soon be launching "The Heat Index." This will be a special section on their website devoted entirely to the Miami Heat. Of course, every team has their own page on ESPN.com. But this is far and away over the top.

The Heat Index will include "coverage of every Heat game and practice" (PRACTICE?! How exactly do you cover a practice?), a "Triple-Double Tracker" to track LeBron's pace towards averaging a triple double for the season (Because that's not premature at all), and the "Chase for 72" (Again, it is not premature at all to presume that they will make a run at winning 72 just because they have never played a single game. Duh.).

This isn't journalism. It's not covering a team, or a player, or a league. This is entertainment. In the real world, hard journalism and actual reporting have given way to a ratings-focused frenzy driven by cable news networks like MSNBC and Fox News. Now it seems that the sports world is headed in that same direction. Rather than using its standing as the Worldwide Leader in Sports to cover events in a meaningful way, ESPN has chosen to glamorize marketable athletes better than LRMR could ever hope to. It began with The Decision, and appears to be coming full circle this morning.