Enterprise Journalism Release – December 28 2010
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ESPN’s Emmy Award-winning enterprise journalism attacked issues, broke news, presented polls, and entertained with heartwarming stories throughout 2010. From exposing problems plaguing South Africa, FIFA World Cup host, and Bhopal, the site of the worst industrial tragedy in the world, to examining stadium food and energy drinks, ESPN presented investigative reporting and storytelling through many platforms including television, ESPN.com, ESPN Deportes, and ESPN the Magazine, and ESPN Radio.
Award-winning Outside the Lines, hosted by Bob Ley, and E:60, gave viewers insights into sports-related concussions and sexual addiction, newsmakers including Chris Henry, Rae Carruth, Natalie Randolph and Myron Rolle, and even why KISS went to high school.
From a year of topics, issues and personalities, here is a “Best of” compilation of ESPN’s 2010 journalistic presentations:
How safe to eat is the food sold at you favorite ballpark or stadium? ?Outside the Lines pulled health department inspection reports for concessions and restaurants at all 107 Major League Baseball, NBA, NHL, and NFL venues in the United States and Canada operating in 2009 and found that at 28 percent of the facilities, a majority of their food establishments had incurred what’s referred to as major or critical violations. Almost all major professional stadiums contract with private, third-party food service companies. When Outside the Lines requested to shoot video of a health department inspection, every stadium and company asked denied OTL’s request. Paula Lavigne reported.
One of the former top female soccer players in South Africa, Eudy Simelane, was raped and murdered. She was a lesbian and her story is part of an epidemic of rapes against openly gay women in the country. Jeremy Schaap traveled to the impoverished, crime-ridden townships of South Africa to report on the disturbing trend of ‘corrective rape’ in the country set to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He interviewed three South African women soccer players who say they were beaten and raped because they are gay. Their haunting stories — and an interview with Simelane’s mother – were the backbone of E:60’s report.
While South Africa awaited the pomp and prestige of hosting the FIFA World Cup and the estimated 500,000 soccer fans who would be entering the country, a third of all its workers were unemployed and nearly 70 percent of the country’s children lived in poverty. With the World Cup offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cash in, illegal prostitution in South Africa spiked, raising concerns about another issue: human trafficking. There was no law in South Africa specifically banning human trafficking, which raised concerns that more young people would be exploited in the sex trade during the month-long tournament. Outside the Lines was there when Cape Town police raided local brothels, and reporter John Barr went undercover using hidden cameras searching for evidence of human trafficking. Outside the Lines investigated the World Cup’s impact on the often hidden underworld of human trafficking in South Africa.
Note: This story contains images and subject matter which may be inappropriate for some viewersNote: This story contains images and subject matter which may be inappropriate for some viewers.
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Standout NFL wide receiver Marvin Harrison had a reputation for being quiet and unassuming. However, a 2008 Philadelphia shooting brought that reputation into question as detectives investigated accusations that Harrison sprayed gunfire, injuring two men and a child. E:60 spent nearly 18 months probing the case, uncovering confidential documents and other evidence never before seen by the public showing why the case has baffled law enforcement. E:60’s investigation also included the only television interview with Dwight Dixon, who alleged he was shot by Harrison in 2008. Five months after his interview with E:60, Dixon was murdered a few blocks from the original crime scene. Was Harrison the triggerman in the first shooting and was the former Colts wide receiver linked in any way to Dixon’s murder? ESPN the Magazine’s Shaun Assael reports
Swimming’s Dirty Little Secret (May)
One coach called it swimming’s “dirty little secret:” predatory coaches having sexual relationships with their under-aged athletes. The week USA Swimming’s board of directors approved a seven-step plan to increase its attention to the decades-long sexual abuse problem, reporter T. J. Quinn examined this issue through the eyes of the victims, some of whom were molested as early as age 11. He also visited a California prison and spoke with a former coach who is now serving a 40-year sentence after being convicted on 20 counts of molestation. Quinn also interviewed USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus.
Return to Iowa Post-Murder (April)
For two years, E:60 followed the story of Ed Thomas, the celebrated Iowa high school football coach who helped his town rebuild after a devastating tornado and was later murdered by one of his former players. Following Mark Becker’s conviction for the killing, reporter Steve Cyphers returned to Iowa for exclusive interviews with Jan Thomas, the widow of Ed Thomas, and members of the Becker family. The Thomas and Becker families, friends before the tragedy, helped each other with the healing process.
“State of Officiating” Series Debuts (August)
In its study of umpire calls made in 184 Major League Baseball games in a two week period between June 29 and July 11, Outside the Lines concluded MLB umpires missed 20% of the close calls they made. While the vast majority of calls in any baseball game are routine, Outside the Lines identified 230 close calls — an average of 1.3 per game — that were close enough to warrant a replay review. Of those, there were 47 missed calls. Each close call — safe or out, fair or foul — was analyzed at live speed and in slow motion, and of all those calls, 66% were clearly correct, 14% were inconclusive and therefore unlikely to have been overturned on replay review, and 20% showed the umpires got it wrong.
The heartbreaking and emotional story of the Haitian Women’s U17 soccer team was also a tale of courage and resolve. After their country was devastated by an earthquake that killed thousands, including their coach, team members regrouped to train and prepare for a tournament in Costa Rica that would qualify them for the U17 FIFA World Cup. Reporter Lisa Salters followed the team’s courageous effort that fell short when they were eliminated from contention, and the story continued with their return to their devastated homeland.
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Tiger Woods acknowledged he underwent therapy, reportedly treatment for sexual addiction. Among those who watched Woods’ televised statement was Mid-Continent University (Mayfield Ky.) basketball coach Winston Bennett. He played at Kentucky in the 1980s then in the NBA with the Cavaliers, and was on Rick Pitino’s staff at Kentucky and with the Boston Celtics. Bennett says he’s addicted to sex, and that his status as an athlete afforded him the opportunity to be with literally hundreds of women each year, even while married to his wife of more than 20 years. In exclusive interviews with Kelly Naqi, Bennett and his wife Peggy described the world of a sexual addict. Bennett told Naqi that if Woods is going through what he went through, Woods’ friends and family need to prepare for the likelihood of a relapse.
Correspondent Jeremy Schaap travelled to India to tell the story of “The Children of Bhopal,” the innocent victims of the worst industrial tragedy in the world. On December 2, 1984 a toxic gas leak at the Union Carbide facility killed about 15,000 people and injured several thousand more.
A Time and a Place: Santa Anita (March)
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Santa Anita Park, once home to thoroughbred legends like Seabiscuit, was transformed into an internment camp in 1942, when, in the midst of World War II, nearly 20,000 Japanese-Americans were held prisoner and deemed threats to American security. Tom Rinaldi chronicled the story of four internees, among those forced to live in the track’s stables, and their connection with jockey Corey Nakatani, the 2008 Santa Anita Derby winner.
‘Robben Island: A Greater Goal’ Examines Prison Soccer League (June)
More than 40 years ago on an island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, a group of teenagers were imprisoned. The teenagers were some of the best minds of their generation but enemies to the racist government of South Africa, and they dreamed of a new government built on the values of justice and fairness for all. Outside the Lines tells how the political prisoners of Robben Island learned by creating a soccer league how they could forge a free and peaceful South Africa. Chris Connelly journeyed to Cape Town and Robben Island to conduct interviews and gain first-hand perspective of the “Alcatraz of South Africa.”
The day of Haiti’s earthquake, two men went into a building and only one came out. Wright Thompson reports.
The story of a former Chilean soccer star’s survival in a collapsed mine, and the love of a town for a team. Wright Thompson reports.
