Forgive the interruption, but “around the horn” of ESPN was not a great spectacle. Was never.
While closing the shop Friday after almost a quarter of a century, the longtime host of ATH, Tony Reali, is there, there and anywhere, commemorating the end of the program. A comment has particularly stood out.
“I think the program’s bones are journalism,” said Reali in Dan Patrick Show. “When he disappears, there is no more.”
Really? It’s not “60 minutes”, Tony. Was never.
In addition, ESPN still runs sportscenter, the last time I checked, which has always contained more journalism than AT. I called Reali to clarify his comments.
During Patrick’s interview, Reali added Ath All-Stars Tim Cowlishaw of Dallas Morning News and Bill Plaschke from Los Angeles Times is both to games on Deadline and on the set.
“People who write a column for a newspaper are no longer on television,” said Reali Athletics During a half hour discussion.
In addition to the fact that there are fewer sports columnists in newspapers and ATH reduces those available, the program of his design concerned money and fame in exchange for sockets, and not reporting.
And, in any case, if it were journalism, it would never have lasted 23 years on television.
(A little time after our conversation, Reali sent me a text, thanking me for having haunted it and said that it is a “very fair observation” and he would not call our program journalism “. So, a few points for a sports columnist who still appears occasionally in a newspaper!)
Reali is a passionate guy and is naturally disappointed that the program is disconnected on Friday afternoon, but assimilating this game show – where the points are allocated for the catches – in a way with journalism is one of the problems that have developed in the media during the 23 years of ATH.
Ath, like most talk shows, was mainly filled with great opinions of people with little or no first-hand knowledge of what they are talking about.
The show had value because it has propelled many careers, including those of Reali, and its race should be considered a success. He was a powerful sleeve eater preceding his much more successful older brothers and sisters, “Sorry the interruption”, featuring experts of all time Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon.
The problem with all these general talk shows is that they play largely. On many of the questions of the day, the “experts” are looking for their opinions, read information and then present to them.
Although it is in vogue to jump on the idea that ATH has become “too awake” or too diverse, it is not correct. It has become a little too serious sometimes.
There are serious people in the program with serious reflections on serious subjects, but ESPN and ATH are not the place to go deep.
Politics, race and sex intersect with sports and should be discussed, but a game of games that distributes arbitrary points for arguments and turns people for sport has never felt just as a forum.
With Reali leading the show, he lost his way when he tried to be more than an escape from the world and wanted to strike the major cultural and sometimes political questions of the day. There are other channels for these subjects. Reali argued that it was a small handle of more than 50,000 subjects.
“You tell me in any show, is it the same thing as 23 years ago?” Reali said Athletics. “Absolutely not, and that shouldn’t be. It has evolved. He matured. If you say, mature means serious, then it is a word to describe it. I say that there was a reflection to `around the horn ”, it has become an empathy and a maturity which may not be the first of reality.
“The connotation which is serious is serious, which can be sincere. Is it more a sincere spectacle because the host has faltered this muscle in the past 10 years instead of the first 10 years? I must agree with this.”
The first versions of “Around The Horn” (2006) often presented newspaper columnists from the country’s distinct regions. (Images Lorenzo Bevilaqua / Espn)
ATH maintained very good grades. However, the fact that ESPN leaders have chosen to cancel it without replacement is quite revealing about how they looked at it.
Shannon Sharpe (before his ESPN interruption) as part of a potential project by Stephen A. Smith before the new Smith contract was envisaged at some point for the niche at 5 p.m. ESPN approached Kornheiser, 76, and Wilbon, 66, about the extension of PTI for another half an hour, which has never made sense given their age.
Peter Schrager is the flavor of the month and could be a possibility for the next ESPN incarnation at 5 p.m. or potentially a daily program at 2 p.m. which was bandaged.
When it was created, Reali is right that one of Ath’s ethos put the newspaper columnists on television.
The Woody Paige du Denver Post, Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Totes and the TJ Simers of Los Angeles Times were the members of the original distribution at the end of 2002.
During one of his first controversies, I made a story on the Simers launched the program by the executive vice-president of the time, Mark Shapiro. Simers said that the show was “inaccessible”, and that it was cashed, and Shapiro fired the program simers.
In this article, I spoke to Mariotti. He summed it up in a way that could earn him points.
“It’s not” Meet The Press “, said Mariotti. “It’s sport.”
(Top Photo: Kelly Anne Backus / Espn Images)
