Shaun White with Audrina Partridge

Stephen Colbert (sporting tight, winter-white pants) continues to melt the snow and ice with his hotness in Vancouver where he is taping The Colbert Report and covering the Winter Olympics.

Shaun White (Olympic gold medal winner in snowboarding) (@shaun_white) sent some shine Colbert’s way when he dropped by the show last night to discuss… well… his fierceness.

Colbert is adorable when he is drooling over a guest and White feeds into and plays off of Colbert’s boyish enthusiasm (with his tight, winter-white pants) and sarcasm perfectly.

White seems so completely comfortable in his own skin and so game to have a good time and laugh that you can’t help but want to grab a beer and talk with him (and he’s a bit snarky too – glad he’s on our team).  In case you doubt that White is as much of a free spirit as he appears to be, check out his canon ball after the video clip – F-I-E-R-C-E.

Shaun White - classic cannon ball

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Chris Henry (May 17, 1983 - December 17, 2009)

Fans of Bengals Chris Henry woke up this morning to learn of Henry’s unfortunate and untimely death due to injuries sustained in a car accident following a dispute with his fiance, Loleini Tonga.

Although, the 26 year old Wide Receiver had his share of troubles with the law, in the following interview with Cincinnati.com only two months ago he discusses his optimism over finally turning over a new leaf.  Says Henry at one point:

“I love my kids and I love my family.  That just helps [me] turn my life around in a good way.  I’m just thinking about my family’s future and my teams future.  What happened, happened.  I was punished for it.  I learned a lot from it and now I’m a better man.  It was rough but I just kept my faith in god and just kept working and stayed positive and stayed focus and I’m here today.”

Chris Henry is survived by his fiance and three children.

RIP.

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Tiger Woods, his wife Elin Nordegren and his alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel.

Legendary pro-golfer Tiger Woods had much to be thankful for over the Thanksgiving holiday the past several days — being beat down by his wife with his own golf clubs over a confrontation regarding an alleged mistress and being chased into a car accident by golf-club-wielding wife is not on the list.

And yet, life throws us these curve-balls as if to say, “Well?  Whatcha gonna do now?”  It’s up to us to either rise to (and hopefully above) the challenge or succumb to it through a series of subsequent actions steeped in fear and bad judgement.  The gossip blogs, news media and social media deemed unanimously that Tiger failed this test big time.

Woods’ marital woes and embarrasing altercation with his wife was fodder served right along side the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce.  It trended on Twitter for three days straight and the more Woods refused to speak about the accident and his injuries (not to mention the bogus story he and his wife initially offered) the more everyone talked and speculated.

Is it a PR FAIL?  Below, Ken Sunshine (founder of Sunshine, Sachs & Assoc., one of Hollywood’s top publicists to the stars) gives his feedback on the Woods debacle and offers him advice on how to save face from this point forward.  Needless to say, Sunshine gives Woods and his handlers a big, fat FAIL (from the initial response by Woods, to his bogus statements to police, to the bizarre press release 3-days after the accident). We can only hope Woods was watched this interview so that he can heed the advice and this scandal can (like his reputation as Mr. Clean) disappear.

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Larry King and son Chase

Talk show Don Larry King (@kingsthings) is keeping it all in the family.  King’s 10 year old son, Chance, is said to be on board to host a new FOX Sports show called Kid Pitch.

Kid Pitch will center around kids talking about baseball as well as interviews with major league baseball players.   Chance’s little brother (9-year old Cannon) will also be on the show.  It’s slated to begin production in February.  King’s reaction is what one would expect of a proud father.  King told Access Hollywood of his son’s career move:

“I couldn’t be more excited for Chance; he really knows and loves baseball, and will be one heck of an anchor.  Both boys are cute and huge sports fans – what more could you ask for?”

It’s good to be King (and King’s kin).

CBS Sports

Okay, so the 105th World Series has been dominating sports news this past week, but there’s a lot of other good stuff (and not so good stuff) happening in sports as well.

Boomer Esiason, Shannon Sharpe, Bill Cowher, and Dan Marino discuss the early round of games from week 8 with James Brown on the NFL Post Game Show.  Baseball be damned.

Ben Roethlisberger enjoying the high-life that being a top athlete brings. But is he guilty of rape?

ESPN (@espn) just celebrated their 30^th anniversary earlier this month.  Over that time they’ve grown from a small time, privately owned, 24 hour sports news network, to a Disney owned, sports media giant.  ESPN is THE voice in sports journalism today.  And, like anybody that’s on top of their game, they are willing to do anything to remain on top.

ESPN established their credibility as the smartest and most trusted voice in sports in the early 1990s.  They hired many of the top reporters in the country; including, Peter Gammons, Chris Mortensen, Ed Werder, Andrea Kramer, & Mel Kiper Jr.  Throughout the decade, ESPN continued with unprecedented growth, adding more stations, such as ESPN 2, more top notch reporters, and more contracts to broadcast the most popular sports in the country.

This led to what we have today.  Almost every die hard sports fan in the United States looks to ESPN to deliver the news to them.  What is wrong with a monopoly on sports media?  Nothing, that is as long as the powerful group is willing to keep their reporting honest and unbiased.  However, with ESPN that is no longer the case.  And because of that, their talk shows, mainly Pardon the Interruption have suffered.

Case in point, in July of this year Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, was sued by a woman working at a Harrah’s casino in Lake Tahoe, NV.  The woman claimed that Big Ben had raped her, while he was a guest at the hotel.  Shortly after the story broke, ESPN sent out a “do not report” memorandum to their employees.

ESPN claims that it’s not their policy to report on civil lawsuits.  It would be reasonable for them not to  want to be the type of network that gets into the personal business of sports personalities.  However, that simply isn’t true.  There are plenty of athletes (and links to their respective articles), in which they did just that.  These include; Michael Vick, Marvin Harrison, Joe Jurevicius, Shannon Brown & Kobe Bryant.  To put this into perspective, this is the equivalent (albeit on a much smaller scale) of CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News refusing to comment on a Barack Obama sex scandal because it doesn’t directly revolve around Presidential matters.  Clearly, this is not any issue.  Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions with an intern was covered and analyzed mercilessly by all three news networks.

So, why would ESPN refuse to report on Roethlisberger’s case?  Many people have concluded that this was done because ESPN didn’t break this story to the public first.  What?  Impossible!  Perhaps it’s not as unbelievable as you’d think.

ESPN boasts half a dozen 24 hour channels, a website, radio station, magazine, and who knows what else.  Why would they put a gag order on everybody on their staff, when they have so much programming that needs to be met?

Let’s now examine the effect that this has on their talk shows.  From 3:00-6:00 PM, ESPN’s weekday programming consists of Outside the Lines, College Football Live, NFL Live, Jim Rome is Burning, Around the Horn, and Pardon the Interruption (PTI).  Save for College Football Live, all of these shows would be perfect venues to discuss the Roethlisberger case.

Pardon the Interruption is the “main event” of these programs.  This program is famous for it’s analysis of current sporting events, as well as interviews with important sports personalities, revolving around current events.  What justice is ESPN doing to their blindly trusting viewers if they aren’t reporting on controversial (and, yes, even disturbing) stories happening in sports?  Instead, they spend most of those three hours reporting on the same insignificant things over and over, just replacing one talking head with another.  This is done primarily to promote ESPN even further.

ESPN has become notorious for using it’s sports journalism airtime to promote the sports that they broadcast on ESPN and ABC (ESPN’s sister network).  This is at it’s most apparent around the time that College Football plays their Bowl Championship Series games.  Jim Rome is Burning, Around the Horn, & PTI will spend huge chunks of airtime talking about some inane storyline about the Rose Bowl, since it is broadcast on ABC.  The Fiesta, Orange, & Sugar bowl will receive much less coverage.  This puts into the subconscious of the viewer that the Rose Bowl is the superior of the four bowl games, when in actuality all four bowl games are of equal importance.

As far as two days before the game is played, ESPN will have a timer constantly winding down to zero in the corner of the screen, so that there is a constant reminder for the viewer in the few moments that they are actually talking about something else.  This is then wrapped up with a huge pregame show right before the game is played.

Walt Disney and ESPN -- one big happy family.

On the other side of the coin, the NHL receives almost zero coverage on Around the Horn and PTI.  Especially during the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Do they bring it up?  Yes.  But, these are fleeting moments amongst a sea of NBA playoff analysis.  Sure, the NBA is much more popular than the NHL.  The NBA Final’s clinching game outdrew the NHL’s drew 16 million viewers to 7.5 million.  Understandably, the NBA should receive a lot more coverage than the NHL does.  But, the difference between the two is astronomical.

Why the comparison between these two sports?  The NBA & NHL play nearly identical schedules.  Each plays an 82 game season, and their seasons generally start and finish within a few weeks of each other.  ESPN spends a lot of time creating, exploiting, and building story lines in the NBA.  They merely take what they get from the NHL.

If you haven’t figured out for yourself already, ESPN & ABC broadcast regular season and playoff basketball.  The NHL is broadcast mainly on VS & NBC.

So, what are we left with?  We have ESPN, the most trusted and largest sports network in the world, telling us what sports and events are important, while brushing over the stories they imply are irrelevant but which, in reality, get to the heart of some of the most pressing issues in sports today (athlete misconduct, false allegations by opportunists, etc.).  Who can cheer for the star quarterback when he’s being accused of date rape?  ESPN glosses over the meat in favor of fluff to promote their programs to draw higher ratings.  This leads to more advertising dollars, which ultimately ends up with ESPN being more popular and wealthy than before.

While ESPN refused to cover Ben Roethlisberger rape allegations on any of their talk shows, Fox News Legal Analyst Arthur Aidala, Defense Attorney Mark Eigelarsh, and Fox correspondent Meghan Kelly had a heated and lengthy discussion about the charges and its implications on Fox News (video clip below).

It’s important to remember that although ESPN does have a journalism department, it is merely a cog in a much larger and overpowering machine.  ESPN is 80 % owned by ABC, Inc. (an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.Don’t let the bias and propaganda get to you.

Is it time for ESPN to step up their game?

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Lebron

Being a first-time guest on The View (@theviewtv) yesterday, LeBron James talked to a producer of the show after his sitting with Barbara Walters (@barbarajwalters) and the gang.  He humbly expresses gratitude for being interviewed and says of The View hosts:

“I had an unbelievable time with all the women up there.  They’re very inspirational.  I’m humbled to even be here.”

That’s all well and good and heartfelt, but the producer quickly snaps him into talk show submission by reminding him of what this is all really about:

“Let’s tell everyone to see your movie.  Let’s plug it!!”

That’s right.  This isn’t a campfire sing-along.  It’s a talk show.  What’s project are you promoting?  You can learn more about his new book and film in the clip.

Richard Jefferson and Kesha Nichols

By now, the scandal involving NBA baller Richard Jefferson who dumped his bride Kesha Ni’Cole Nichols (former Nets dancer) at the alter the night before they were due to be married.  Jefferson’s reversal was so sudden that friends and family still showed up to the $2 million ceremony that was supposed to take place the next day.  To make matters worse, it’s been reported that he sent her an email (ouch, being left at the alter is one thing, being dumped via email is therapy-inducing).

Needless to say, Jefferson has been dogged in the media and on blogs with charges of him being everything from a flat out coward to a closet homosexual (Jefferson has been dogged by rumors of being gay for a long time now).  The speculation has run ramped and done damage to the image of Jefferson (a man leaving a woman at the alter can’t possibly expect to look like anything more than a cad – or a closet homosexual).

Jefferson called in to The Howard Stern (@sternshow) to explain the facts of the situation and to defend his honor.

“I think you so did the right thing… there are so many guys who know that they’re marrying the wrong woman and it comes to them sometimes the day of the wedding… and the nicest thing you can do to that person is to say ‘Look, we’re not going to get married today’ even though it’s horrible.”

Howard Stern & Wife Beth Ostrosky

I agree with Stern.  Getting married when you don’t really believe you are ready to commit is a responsible though difficult decision to make.  However, there are sure signs (both within the relationship and within yourself) that you are not ready to get married long before the day of the wedding.  To fester in denial until the last moment is cowardly, irresponsible and extremely immature.

He defends his actions (and, of course, nothing is black and white so here is surely more to this story and, possibly, denial on both of their parts that led to this embarrassment).  But it sounds like these two people did the best thing walking away from each other.   Based on Jefferson’s interpretation of their relationship over the past three years that he shares generously with Stern, their entire relationship sounds like it was one big crapfest-mess.

My advice for Jefferson and Nichols:  get on with your lives separately, grow up, try committing to another human being after you mature quite a bit and learn who you are and what you want in life  (it is not written in stone that you must be married by the time you’re 30 years old – live your lives for goodness sakes).

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Twitter tag: Richard Jefferson

American Soccer Fan

Guess what?  We don’t suck at soccer?!!  We beat Spain but was then obliterated by Brazil.  Still, in his opening monologue on “The Colbert Report”, Colbert lists the reasons why maybe… just maybe… Americans are ready to claim our place on the mantel of world soccer.

To further the debate, in the second clip, Colbert welcomes American soccer studmeister Alexi Lalas to the show to discuss the very real possibility that America might actually win the world cup.

Yoo-hooo!  Bear man!!

Alexi Lalas

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Twitter tag: American Soccer

PTI's Kornheiser & Wilbon

Last week saw a lot of ups and downs (and wtf?’s) in sports.  As usual, on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption” (@espn / @ptishow) Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon (@mikewilbonsaid) nail it and knocks it out of the park with their rapid-fire breakdown of the most talked about moments in sports of the week.

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Twitter tag: ESPN PTI