Hashmarks not even hiding it

August 13th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

We get a little fatigued with ESPN criticism around these parts, even though we always find almost all of the popular qualms valid. It’s just that, well, the rock only goes so far up that hill before you need a rest, you know?

Which is why we’re going to offer a free piece of advice to Matt Mosley, purveyor of the rather mediocre (especially compared to its far more effective forefather, TrueHoop) Hashmarks. Matt, if you’re trying to build any blog cred at ESPN whatsoever, this is the type of full disclosure you might consider omitting from your posts:

Occasionally I receive reassuring memos from the home office that say things like, “It’s freakin’ 1:45 p.m. ET, and you haven’t mentioned the Broncos-49ers game tonight on our network!!!”

Mosley tongue-in-cheekly refers to the relative unimportance of preseason football later in the post, but man, Matt: this is not the way to make friends. Basically confirming, in writing, the suspicions that most — including your ombudsman — have that content on ESPN’s journalistic side is driven by ESPN’s promotional/entertainment enterprises … I mean, we all know this to be true, but at least we’ve been done the service of being lied to about it. Matt, at least pretend you have editorial independence. Please?