LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - ESPN was founded by Bill Rasmussen in 1978 with $9,000 on his credit card. Today, it includes six U.S. networks, 46 international ones, a radio network, Web sites, a magazine, even a chain of restaurants. It is a value greater than the entire NFL, or more than the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball combined.
The object of "those Guys have all the Fun: in the world of ESPN" by Tom Shales, Pulitzer Prize-winning former critical Washington Post TV and James Miller, a former journalist and the Executive of cable, is the "mystery of ESPN rise to stratospheric heights of subterranean depths."
The authors response - pulling all seven times key in the history of the network - is less convincing that just enjoy the history. And oh what a story: greater than nature, salacious gossip, backstabbing and corporate personalities intrigues the canvas of the rise of the cable as an economic and cultural strength.
The authors use the same formula of oral history they used effectively in their bestseller "" Live From New York: a history not censored of Saturday Night Live. "" Except for transitions between sections italicized, the story is told through the block of one of the 550 interviewees - quotes ranging from cameramen to Obama President. It is much more difficult to get rid it seems, probably harder than anything in writing the damn thing yourself.
Quotations flow seamlessly and voices are fresh and dynamic, but there are times you wish the authors would referee competing stories directly, and the book could use a stronger organizational hand: seven lessons get buried in sections, making them seem a little later. Again, the formula of oral history certainly makes more fun book to read (and ideal for the beach) because it is easy to jump.
Familiar figures are outlined with brio. Keith Olbermann is hailed as the anchor of SportsCenter bright and described as "dark" and "a tortured genius." (His familiar, MSNBC?) Chris Berman appears as a pompous blowhard, yelling at Tony Kornheiser and dressing down junior employees. Star rising Bill Simmons is by rebel turns (criticize his corporate bosses), faithful (defend Kornheiser for Monday Night Football) and sparkling (refusing all advice editorial on its column).
But ESPN could be a hard working place. Many of the on-air talent complain bitterly that the owners reject their contribution to the success of the network. an exec said an anchor, "In a perfect world, we would have SportsCenter with robots."
Direct, women employees say that ESPN is struggling to meet rampant sexual harassment. Many employees African-American think it manages race badly, with journalist Jason Whitlock ranging up to now say, "it's almost like you must be a cartoon to be black and have success at ESPN.".
Live executions are also stained as on-air talent. Stuart Gerhl, first President of ESPN, was an alcoholic who treated the network emerging as his personal toy. Editor John Walsh had such poor vision was his face on the screen to see the photo of press. Mark Shapiro, head of polarization of programming from 2002 to 2005, alternatively is leased for famous SportsCentury documentaries and scoffed hiring Rush Limbaugh. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner boasts that he started to ESPN: The Magazine for crushing Time Warner to Sports Illustrated after Ted Turner, majority shareholder of TW, said: "I will bury you." ESPN is - s. I know cable; you guys know cable! ?
"Embedded in Fun" is the story of the transition from a world dominated by the network to a cable-dominated. More than any other cable network, ESPN has honed the formula to combine double-revenue (subscription and advertising costs) cable with programming marquee to reap huge profits. But, as noted by the Turner, owners of ESPN did not always see what they had. Until 1987, the cities of Cap/magasiné ABC Fox ESPN. Not until that ESPN used the acquisition of a full season of games of the NFL in 1998 to retrieve annual subscriber-rate of 20 per cent of the increases were legends business Eisner and Warren Buffett (a long-time Disney investor, current owner of ESPN) fully seize the immense profitability ESPN. Eisner called the deal "the most important thing done in broadcasting since Bill Paley has stolen the NBC stars all the".
Although only the hits relate to seven lessons, network failures are every bit as interesting. The way that ravaged ESPN ABC Sports - who created the MNF, "wide world of Sports" and Olympics coverage as we know it - is presented as a tragedy. And as network President George Bodenheimer said on ESPN unfortunate incursion in a mobile phone brand, "ESPN is not bulletproof, and the day that we start thinking that we will be a bad day."
"Fun" is an important achievement. The breadth and depth of the interviews makes not only the definitive account of ESPN first three decades, but one of the best books yet on how cable shaped American culture.
(Edited by Chris Michaud)
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