What's the stink with ESPN?
I'll briefly break the rule on discussing "____gate" to make this clear.
Last year in September spygate erupted. It was a big story, perhaps overblown, but our coaches had dome things wrong, admitted it, and were severely punished. Biggest fine ever, loss of 1st round pick. Yowsa. End of story, you think?
Then a guy named Fish at ESPN and Tomase at the Boston Herald, days before before the Super Bowl, invented a new controversy we call "liegate" or "fabrigate". This controversy was based upon their feeling that the actions that brought about the punishment in spygate were only the tip of the iceberg, there was much more, including the taping of the Rams walkthrough before the Super Bowl.
This was made up crap. Even the Herald admitted that, eventually, and apologized. Many didn't accept their apology, since the made up story was so damaging and was timed to possibly affect Super Bowl preparations.
ESPN never apologized for giving so much airtime to a made up story. They never gave any clear indication that they regretted anything, that they shouldn't have relied on shaky info. To make things worse, they even very much underplayed the story that came out later, that "fabrigate" was a total crock of crap, and ESPN tools like Mark Schlereth basically said that he didn't believe anything the commissioner determined. He didn't even believe the fired 4th string video guy after he came forward and explained how the sideline tapes were used.
ESPN has no accountability. If they are wrong about something, they deny it and move onto the next story if it is sufficiently sensational. They hire blowhard hypocrites like Mark Schlereth, who can say anything and have no consequences for misstatements.
They overcover or make up damning stories about teams they dislike or that gives them ratings points to bash, like the Patriots. When a favored son team, like the Colts, does something (Case in point, a profane playoff postgame tirade by perennial pro bowler Dwight Freeney accusing corrupt officiating)it never gets reported at all. The Freeney incident got mentioned NOWHERE until the NFL fined him a week later, and was never replayed (even bleeped out) on ESPN. Would that be the case if it were a Patriot player? It would have led off Sports Center for a week.
So, you need to know that ESPN is your enemy, that spygate was real, unfortunate, regrettable, well-punished, probably well overblown, and behind us. You need to know that liegate or fabrigate was something totally different and the mere existence of such a made up crock of bull is unforgivable.
