Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Sports bias

There's media bias in sports journalism, and lots of it. Just watch ESPN or read Sports Illustrated regularly and it becomes pretty obvious. Most recently, the huge attention given to the ruling by Judge Shira Scheindlin that Maurice Clarett could enter the NFL Draft and the NFL eligibility rules violated antitrust. ESPN loved it -- the corporate moneybags getting challenged and defeated by a black kid from a rust-belt town.

Problem was, Scheindlin's ruling lacked both legal grounding and common sense. Thus, the Second Circuit initially stayed her decision and prevented Clarett from entering the draft, then reversed her decision on Monday. The decision is theoretically available on the Second Circuit's website here but I could not pull it up when I tried earlier.

Did the reversal lead the news stories like Scheindlin's decision? No, it barely rated a mention and ESPN did not have wall-to-wall commentary, just this wire service article on its website.

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