Sports Bias

Today I would like to discuss media bias in sports. As a die hard sports fan, and a broadcast journalism major, I feel that bias is a huge problem in the sports media. Upon graduating from college, I want to become a sports broadcaster. I have covered sporting events in the past couple of years, and have learned from some great professors and professional sports broadcasters. The number one rule that I have been taught repeatedly is to not have a bias when covering a game.

I was at a conference a few days ago in which ESPN.com's Senior writer Jayson Stark gave a speech. Stark also appears regularly on SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, and Mike in Mike in the Morning. He had a very interesting case in which he grew up in North East Philadelphia and now covers baseball for ESPN, including the Philadelphia Phillies extremely often. When asked if he was a Phillies fan, Stark said, "I am not a fan of any team." Now this is hard to believe that he is not a little bias towards the Phillies. He even said his entire family is full of Phillies fans. This is just an example of the reasoning biases exist in sports. Every single sports broadcaster or journalist grew up liking certain teams. They rooted for their teams all while growing up and then when they become professionals these feelings for the teams just go away? I don't think so.

Now I have read Stark's work. You would never know he grew up in Philly if you read one of his stories that features the Phillies. He is very good at not having a bias present in his work. Whether he actually has a bias towards the Phillies we will never know; however, there are many cases in which biases are present in the work of both journalists and especially sports broadcasters. If you are watching sporting events on a national broadcast, for example on ESPN, or any of the Big Three Networks, you are very unlikely to hear a commentator who is bias towards one particular team. However, while recently listening to an NCAA basketball game between Ohio and Georgetown on West Wood One, they had John Thompson, Sr., Georgetown's former coach, doing the color commentary. Besides being Georgetown's ex-coach, the current coach of Georgetown is his son, John Thompson, Jr. There is no way that West Wood One should have allowed Thompson, Sr. to cover the game. He clearly has a bias and wants Georgetown to win, so why would they have him cover the game? To me, it is just plain stupid and it hurt the integrity of the radio station. Also, I feel that the audience's opinion of the game was completely altered, since the color commentator had a clear bias toward one particular team.

The final topic I would like to talk about is local sports broadcasters. The guys you will hear on Comcast SportsNet, Fox Sports Net, SNY, or NESN. I go to school at Penn State and have the pleasure to watch FSN Pittsburgh, which covers both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Pirates. I tend to watch the Penguins games a lot, and what I have heard from the commentators is a ridiculous bias towards the Penguins. Yes, I understand that a majority of the viewers are Penguins fans, but not all of them are, including me. Also, in this day and age in sports, anyone from anywhere in the world can be viewing this game on FSN through outlets like the Internet, NHL Center Ice, or the NHL Network. All three of these will feature the same two FSN Pittsburgh broadcasters. People that are not Penguins fans will view these games, hear the biases, and I feel will not enjoy the games as much. You want a sports broadcaster to be impartial when telling the story of the game. This is not the case at FSN Pittsburgh.