The media on the media.

I think that this column is pretty funny, and I find it therapeutic. I also think that it is completely asinine, since it appeared on ESPN.com. If ESPN wants to actually improve the content of sports reporting (they don't, but bear with me), then the logical solution is exactly the same as for any media outlet in real news that decries the overly cliched, tired storylines we all see every single day. Stop broadcasting it 24 hours a day. ESPNews is probably the most significant driving force behind the phenomenon Hruby describes, since they have to talk about sports every minute of every day.

Sportscenter is enough of a stretch, especially during NFL season when the days with games are outnumbered 5-2 by the days on which professional football is not played. A mandatory hour of programming, on a national level, about the days events in sports is just going to run out of interesting material most days. Throw in the league-specific shows (Baseball Tonight, etc), and you have a situation in which a schmo like Chris Berman enjoys gainful employment because he can rattle off cliches for an hour and portray what in the corporate world would be called a decent work ethic as a symbol of an athlete's iconic status . Sports, like every other media genre, simply cannot provide enough content to fill the available airtime. Let's turn to Digger Phelps for analysis...