ESPN knew...

[normaliswear]

... exactly what it was doing. Run everything you have right away, the accusations, the tape, whatever else they're sitting on and the story you get last a day or two. Assistant coach at a big program gets fired. JB and the University express shock, horror, and sadness for the victims and everyone talks about being fooled for so long. A new assistant gets hired. Life goes on and all ESPN gets out of it from then on is the occasional trial progress update. Ahhh but let the story run in dribs and drabs and ESPN gets so much more. First you let the accusations come out and nothing more. Their stories are flawed but not so much as to be dismissed entirely so that breeds controversy and discussion. Maybe the school is dumb enough to try and cover it up like Penn St was and you have a great gotcha moment. Maybe the fiery Hall of Fame coach doesn't believe his close friend of four decades is a child molester with just the accusations out there and you can bait him into defending his friend. Then you let him stick his neck JUST far enough out to release the tape. Then boy oh boy is it juicy. Now you have said Hall of Fame coach as "embattled Coach Boeheim" for weeks or more. After that there are all kinds of stories to run no matter how it goes, and you don't really care which way it does because the story stays hot. Does the coach survive with the fans rallying around him and the program to have a final four type season? Maybe, great story. Does he go down and go down swinging? Maybe and that’s can't miss drama. Does he go down sad and hidden from public view? Could be, and you get to run all those cool "fall of a legend" type stories. Who cares? Its weeks and maybe months of hot programming and all it costs you is your journalistic integrity and maybe your soul as a human being. Why just report a story when you can manipulate and control the situation into a human drama?

 

[mantonio]

TABLOID journalism.

That is what ESPN has become...

 

[orangecuse]

It's been noted in another thread by someone with first hand knowledge that Jimmy & Bernie were not close friends...

 

[normaliswear]

Not sure I buy that really. Theres a lot of "first hand" BS out there. Seems odd to work with someone AND live across the street from someone that long without some feeling of connection. Even were that the case though, JB's is still going to feel some sort of kinship with a man who's sat next to him for decades and without better evidence than just the initial accusations anyone would respond by defending your long term associate.

 

[midloviking]

Just guessing here but I doubt Laura and Juli were BFF's. They really don't seem compatible. I know I drifted away from a couple of good friends because my wife really didn't like their wives.