Should failing network ESPN let Herbstreit go due to his obvious and unprofessional bias?

[itsofficial101]

Considering that a significant part of Herbstreit’s job requires him not to overtly display bias to or against any teams that he covers, should ESPN move on from this high priced hack? His arguments for Ohio St over Alabama this year are so over the top diametrically opposite of his arguments for Ohio St (yes, the Ohio St that was embarrassed 31-0 in the playoff last year) over Penn St last year that he may no longer be taken as serious or at minimum sure as hell is not a professional capable of doing his job without clear bias.

 

[palmettolion]

Nope. Howard Stern learned long ago that the people that hate him tune in/listen longer than those that actually like him. This has become a business model for most major news agencies and is why ESPN employs so many loud mouthed morons. People listen so they can run to their respective homes and shout from the mountain tops how horrible and wrong so and so is. The only way to win is to not play the game. You and many others are doing their work for them.

 

[LurkerLazarus]

Why not? It's too late now to change anything.

 

[psuro]

Considering that a significant part of Herbstreit’s job requires him not to overtly display bias to or against any teams that he covers, should ESPN move on from this high priced hack? His arguments for Ohio St over Alabama this year are so over the top diametrically opposite of his arguments for Ohio St (yes, the Ohio St that was embarrassed 31-0 in the playoff last year) over Penn St last year that he may no longer be taken as serious or at minimum sure as hell is not a professional capable of doing his job without clear bias.

Why would you say that is a significant part of his job? Do you have his job description somewhere?

He is paid to get people to tune in, using his forte - college football. If it bothers you that much, perhaps you should just change the channel. If you are looking to affect change, this would be a better way of doing it than anything else.

 

[gohigh79]

6th option: I would have answered this poll, but the options were too unnecessarily wordy and cut o

 

[cfbinsider]

Kirk Herbstreit gets paid to have an opinion. I'm sure Todd Blackledge at one point last year stated a pro-PSU line or two and you didn't bat an eye. Get over yourself.

 

[razpsu]

Bias? Opinionated ? That is all media all day long. That concept went out years ago. Heck when I want to hear some good trump bashing I just flip to cnn for a good laugh. Every time i turn that channel on the headline reads trump something and away we go. Neutral reporting of the news, any news went out years ago.

 

[itsofficial101]

Why would you say that is a significant part of his job? Do you have his job description somewhere?

He is paid to get people to tune in, using his forte - college football. If it bothers you that much, perhaps you should just change the channel. If you are looking to affect change, this would be a better way of doing it than anything else.

I only watch live sports on that channel and mostly Penn St. I did listen for a bit last night to the playoff show only because this ranking interested me but shut if off after hearing the biases before they even finished doing the rankings. I do act on my thoughts about ESPN.

Now turn about is fair play. Do you have his job description and can you confirm there is no language in there about the appearance of bias? I would venture that there is.

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

Don't worry - Herbie set to unleash 'Penn State has the best student section in the country!' to get Penn State fans off his back for another year.

 

[psuro]

Bias? Opinionated ? That is all media all day long. That concept went out years ago. Heck when I want to hear some good trump bashing I just flip to cnn for a good laugh. Every time i turn that channel on the headline reads trump something and away we go. Neutral reporting of the news, any news went out years ago.

Kind of like when I flip to Fox and they are practically performing fellatio on him.

 

[psuro]

I only watch live sports on that channel and mostly Penn St. I did listen for a bit last night to the playoff show only because this ranking interested me but shut if off after hearing the biases before they even finished doing the rankings. I do act on my thoughts about ESPN.

Now turn about is fair play. Do you have his job description and can you confirm there is no language in there about the appearance of bias? I would venture that there is.

Answering a question with a question is an avoidance tactic. I no more have a copy of his job description than you do. And you have no idea what to venture as to what's in it.

But, at least you followed your heart. Good job.

 

[BuckI4life]

Your answer choices are written so that only one appears “correct”. This poll is your way of making a point, not a genuine effort to know the opinions of others.

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

My hope for Saturday....

 

[rmem]

He doesn't do anything different than anyone else on ESPN, the committee themselves, and any fans you talk to. Everyone constructs an argument to support who they should think should be in. And it always gets contradictory, for one team you will argue they have 2 losses so end of discussion and for another, they are quick to have a "but" and don't even mention they have 2 losses until someone brings it up to them.

Simply put, 4 teams is not enough. They must have 8 but in typical fashion in this country, someone has to get supremely screwed for it to actually happen instead of seeing the obvious and fixing it ahead of time. There are too many teams to make it completely fair especially given you cannot play multitudes of games like basketball. 8 is as good as it gets, there will obviously still be fighting but with 8 you can be a very good team that happens to lose one game very late in the season but it's obvious you should still be in (cough) Alabama.

It will take a team like Alabama getting screwed to go to 8. So I root for that despite having nothing against Alabama. What happened to us last year was not enough but couple that with Alabama this year, something might get done.

And **** those cretins that are suggesting 6 teams. That is even dumber than 4.

 

[razpsu]

Kind of like when I flip to Fox and they are practically performing fellatio on him.

Hey that would be more sexual harassment

 

[LionDeNittany]

Considering that a significant part of Herbstreit’s job requires him not to overtly display bias to or against any teams that he covers, should ESPN move on from this high priced hack? His arguments for Ohio St over Alabama this year are so over the top diametrically opposite of his arguments for Ohio St (yes, the Ohio St that was embarrassed 31-0 in the playoff last year) over Penn St last year that he may no longer be taken as serious or at minimum sure as hell is not a professional capable of doing his job without clear bias.

The Big Ten getting a team into the playoff has a huge HUGE financial impact vs. the SEC getting two teams in the playoff.

Why wouldn't he shill?

It is good for ESPN, good for OSU and good for the Big Ten.

The SEC getting two teams in the playoff would hurt financially, especially if one is Alabama.

LdN

 

[dailybuck77]

As someone who was in Columbus when Herbstreit was playing quarterback and when he got his start in sportscasting, here is my take for what it is worth. He is not any more biased than any other sportscaster.

He is however, stupid. When OSU beat Arkansas in a bowl game about 7 years ago, [last game before tatoogate exploded] he DROPPED OSU in his rankings. In the 1990s when the Bengals were truly awful (like today's Browns), he would consistently state that he expected them to have a great year, and they would eventually have something like 3 wins and 11 losses.

If you listen to his "commentary" on games, it is all cliches. He is not very well liked in Columbus. (One time he commented that he didn't understand why any quarterback would sign up with OSU because Tressel's offense was so bad)

 

[I am Ironman]

If ESPN were to let him go he would end up on BTN which would be worse, I think.

 

[78SweetRevenge]

lol

 

[PittisLit5959]

Herbstreit is one of the best in the cfb business who has always had PSU's back. Only time he didnt was last year during the CFB selection but he is great at what he does.

 

[anon_1eeb2b426hv3y]

Kind of like when I flip to Fox and they are practically performing fellatio on him.

Eww.

Definitely don't want to see that...

New reason to never turn on Fox News.

 

[anon_1eeb2b426hv3y]

Herbstreit is one of the best in the cfb business who has always had PSU's back. Only time he didnt was last year during the CFB selection but he is great at what he does.

Yawn.

The bias is real and he's excellent at what he does. ESPN wasn't buying Woodward or Bernstein, or Brokaw, or Rather or Costas when they signed Kirk Herbstreit.

And he's one of the best analysts and TV personalities ESPN has on their CFB slate. If PSU is clearly better, he'd say so. To not would damage his credibility. If it's truly a toss-up, only a fool would sit in front of ESPN and expect him to speak PSU over OSU.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Bias? Opinionated ? That is all media all day long. That concept went out years ago. Heck when I want to hear some good trump bashing I just flip to cnn for a good laugh. Every time i turn that channel on the headline reads trump something and away we go. Neutral reporting of the news, any news went out years ago.

There has never been and never will be neutral news reporting. Reading newspaper articles from the early 1800's commenting on political issues shows remarkable bias. Fake news set up the crucifixion of Jesus. There has never been an era where an honest, factual and non-opinionated actual news was reported.

Herbie can toss a bone occasionally but he does naturally and typically fall into buckeye propaganda land when the chips are down. I haven't observed Blackledge do so but I haven't observed him very often so he may but has been professional when I did observe him perform on air.

Everyone has a bias toward something. We would have to have robots do the news to remove that and who programs the robots? Biased programmers. It never ends.