How about we start today’s newsletter with something not as serious as press freedom attacks and the latest shenanigans coming from the White House or wherever Elon Musk is working these days?
Let’s start with sports. Specifically, basketball.
The NBA Finals begin tonight with Oklahoma City taking on Indiana. (I’m picking OKC in five.) The games will be on ABC (with the ESPN folks running the broadcast). Just a couple of years ago, the broadcasters for the NBA Finals were among the best broadcasting teams in the history of sports. Yeah, you read that right. All of sports history.
The crew featured Mike Breen on play-by-play with analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson. That trio called 15 NBA Finals together. They were the perfect blend of entertainment, humor, serious analysis and emotion. They felt like three buddies watching a game together. They would argue, laugh, give more than enough food for thought and were usually as compelling to listen to as the game was to watch. Their broadcasting made bad games tolerable, good games enjoyable, and great games epic.
But then ESPN managed to muck it all up, as The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand recapped in his latest piece: “How ESPN messed up its NBA Finals TV trio, now weighs future of Doris Burke, Richard Jefferson.”
In a decision that still makes absolutely no sense, ESPN decided to get rid of Van Gundy and Jackson two summers ago. Maybe it was budget cuts. Maybe it was because the NBA put pressure on ESPN because it didn’t like Van Gundy complaining about the officiating. Maybe it was change for change’s sake.
Whatever it was, it was dumb.
Then ESPN got what it deserved, which is a revolving door of analysts.
They brought in longtime coach Doc Rivers to work alongside Breen and analyst Doris Burke, but Rivers still had the coaching itch. Halfway through the season, Rivers dropped the mic and took over as coach of the Milwaukee Bucks when the Bucks abruptly fired their coach.
In came JJ Redick to replace Rivers. Redick finished the season, but then he left to take over as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
So after having a reliable and elite lead announcing team for 15 years, ESPN’s new first-year crew is still searching for chemistry, and fans are pining for the good ol’ days of Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson.
The lead team is now Breen, Burke and former player Richard Jefferson. They will call their first finals as a group starting tonight. Individually, they are all good. Better than good. I’m a big fan of all three, especially Burke. But as a team? Well, that’s the debate.
Marchand wrote that even Breen seems to have a “hole” in his game over the past two seasons. (I say that’s understandable considering all the changes.)
Marchand wrote, “He has not made his analysts better, seemingly trying to carry more of the load, while failing to lift up his partners. While he still sounds good, he can come across like a star player wanting to run his usual half-court offense with players built to run. Breen is dominating the ball more compared to the Van Gundy and Jackson prime. It’s a team game, and Breen, Burke and Jefferson lack flow.”
Marchand reported that the future of the ESPN broadcasting depth chart remains up in the air. He wrote, “While ESPN intends on re-signing Jefferson, it has not yet locked him up with his contract expiring, according to sources briefed on the talks. Amazon Prime Video has expressed some interest in Jefferson, according to the same sources. Meanwhile, Burke’s spot is not guaranteed for next season, according to sources familiar with ESPN’s preliminary plans. While Breen, the Basketball Hall of Famer under a long-term deal, is not going anywhere, ESPN will evaluate its entire roster.”
He added, “ESPN will go into the NBA Finals with Breen, Burke and Jefferson. The trio is in its first season together, and it can take time. They are still figuring out when is the best time for each to shoot or pass or dribble. But the Finals are not the best time for learning.”
Here’s the problem: This group, while fine, is still fighting comparisons to the Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson team. When you’re compared against the best basketball broadcasting trio in history, you’re going to seem inadequate — even if you’re good. Making it worse is that ESPN didn’t have to be in this position. They are the ones who broke up the best basketball broadcasting team ever.
Again, I think all three of the current announcers — Breen, Burke and Jefferson — are good broadcasters. They just don’t have that chemistry yet. And maybe it’s unfair to critique them after just one season and before they have even called even one NBA Finals together.
Maybe ESPN will get lucky and they will turn into a great announcing team. Just like the one it used to have.
Stephen A. Smith is seemingly everywhere. He’s all over ESPN, including each weekday morning on his show, “First Take.”
Incredibly, he has now landed another job. Actually, two. He will host his own daily SiriusXM show on Mad Dog Sports Radio starting in September. It will air weekdays from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern. It will lead into the show hosted by former and longtime New York City radio host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. Smith is also going to host a weekly social commentary show on a nonsports SiriusXM channel.
OK, ready for the controversy?
In a statement announcing all of this, Smith said, “To say that I’m excited would be an understatement. I’ve been on Mad Dog before, had the time of my life. So I’m loving the fact that I get to reunite with my guy, Mad Dog, on his turf. That, in itself, is a beautiful thing. But to then add a weekly show where I have a potent platform to discuss riveting subjects in the world of Pop Culture, Politics and Social Commentary… let’s just say it doesn’t get any better than that. September can’t come soon enough. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in radio … especially going back and forth with the callers. Can’t wait to get re-started. Buckle Up! I’m coming!”
All sounds great.
But, wait. Is there a show now in that time slot on Mad Dog Sports Radio? Uh, yeah. It’s a show hosted by former ESPNer Michelle Beadle and Cody Decker, who found out they were being replaced by Smith when the announcement went out publicly. (They did know they were being replaced by someone.)
Still, it didn’t sit well with the two hosts, especially Beadle, who said on air, “Welcome to the ‘Lame Duck and Who Knew? Show’ here.”
Moments later, Beadle said, “Yeah, so the cat’s out of the bag. I guess we’re talking about it. We weren’t supposed to, just as a heads up. We were only given a few hours’ notice, but we weren’t told any details. We were promised that no details would be released. We didn’t even know who was taking our place in the lineup, just that it was going to be announced that a new show was being added.”
But the details did come out in The Hollywood Reporter.
“So it was a little embarrassing, I’m not going to lie,” Beadle said. “I’ve been in this business for 20-plus years, I’ve been treated poorly a couple times, this didn’t feel good, I’m not gonna lie.”
OK, I suppose we do have to get back to the more serious issues in media these days. And nothing is more serious than attacks on press freedoms since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
As I mentioned in Wednesday’s newsletter, be sure to check out the latest episode of “The Poynter Report Podcast,” which came out just this week. My colleague, Angela Fu, and I talk about the attacks on the press, what it all means and where we go from here. Fu is now reporting extensively for Poynter on press freedom issues.
Check out the video episode of the podcast on YouTube. Or you can listen on Apple or Spotify.
As my colleague, Angela Fu, reported this week, the White House formally asked Congress to revoke more than $1 billion in already approved funding set aside for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and PBS.
Fu wrote, “Congress now has 45 days to approve the rescissions package. If neither the House nor the Senate passes it by a majority vote, the government is required to spend the money as Congress had previously directed.”
But here’s the thing: Republicans have the majority in both the House and Senate and can approve the package without any help from Democrats. And NPR’s Deirdre Walsh and David Folkenflik report that it appears the voting could fall right down party lines.
The big hope the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (and NPR and PBS) have is that Republicans have issues with other parts of the package, which includes the revocation of $8.3 billion in foreign aid.
Walsh and Folkenflik wrote, “Most Hill Republicans expressed support for the package, but a few raised concerns about some of the cuts to State Department programs.”
Then again, they noted that House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “these are common sense cuts.” Johnson criticized NPR and PBS, adding, “there is no reason for any media organization to be singled out to receive federal funds. We’re in a different era now.”
Senior Republicans told NPR they believed the bill would pass.
Meanwhile, 29 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune saying, “This funding is essential to the functioning of the public media system and the communities they serve, and any cuts in funding would have detrimental effects on local stations, which rely on this funding to provide critical services to millions of Americans across the country.”
They added, “Public broadcasting is an essential service that should be protected, not decimated. For this reason, we request that you prioritize maintaining and continuing funding for CPB.”
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, shown here in November 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Hmm, didn’t see this coming. Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as the White House press secretary under President Joe Biden from 2022 until he left office, has a book coming out in the fall and says she has switched her party affiliation from Democrat to independent. In fact, the title of her book will be, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.”
In a statement on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre said, “Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States. At noon on that day, I became a private citizen who, like all Americans and many of our allies around the world, had to contend with what was to come next for our country. I determined that the danger we face as a country requires freeing ourselves of boxes. We need to be willing to exercise the ability to think creatively and plan strategically.”
Jean-Pierre also worked in the Barack Obama administration, serving as regional political director.
As far as her book, it will apparently get into her thoughts on Biden’s fitness before he dropped out of the presidential race. In an announcement, the book’s publisher, Legacy Lit, said Jean-Pierre will cover “the three weeks that led to Biden’s abandoning his bid for a second term and the betrayal by the Democratic Party that led to his decision. She presents clear arguments and provocative evidence as an insider about the importance of dismantling the torrent of disinformation and misinformation that has been rampant in recent elections and provides passionate insight for moving forward.”
Meanwhile, Politico’s Eli Stokols writes that the book announcement “has detonated long-simmering grievances among her former White House colleagues about Jean-Pierre’s pursuit of celebrity and personal media exposure while serving as then-President Joe Biden’s press secretary.”
One unnamed former White House official told Stokols, “Everyone thinks this is a grift.”
Stokols reported another staffer said, “She made a joke about being an independent last year and now it’s a book. All ideas are monetary — even the dumb ones.”
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