In the summer between my 8th grade graduation and starting high school, I wrote my autobiography (the four square-kickball chapter is still legendary and I tell it often). During the writing of said biography, I came to a particularly tough chapter about losing my first girlfriend and the first girl I kissed to kid with a curl named Ernest Washington.
It was the first and last time I’ve ever had writer’s block. I don’t have many talents, but I do believe everyone, either via GOD or genetics, is blessed with at least one extraordinary gift. For some it is physical, some others it is mental and for me it was the gift of communication. Words flow out of my brain like waves of water. It has never been hard for me to come up with something to say in a creative manner.
When I do my podcast (subscribe here), I don’t have a script. I loosely have some topics in my brain, and I hit record. I can normally go an hour just talking, non-stop, no breaks, no second takes, no edits. I can write 50 posts a day, no problem. Once I wrote a 100 posts in a day. It is my one gift, and luckily it has allowed me to make a living doing something that I love to do.
The reason I mentioned all of this is because today the ESPN’s The Undefeated launch after 33, sometime drama-filled, months. Originally it was supposed to be headed by Jason Whitlock, but after Deadspin and other factors derailed it, it was repackaged with former Washington Post managing editor Kevin Merida as the man in charge.
People have asked me what I thought about this and similar to when trying to find the words for Ernest Washington I drew a blank momentarily. Unusual for me and I have written about the project in the past, but normally no matter the subject the angle (and it is normally an unusual angle), it hits me immediately. It didn’t this time.
I wasn’t sure why, so I spoke to my Beagle Ellie about it (don’t pretend you don’t talk to your dog). EL proceeded after a few minutes to leave me in mid sentence and go upstairs and take a nap, because she is a horrible Man’s Best Friend. I still love her so, but as she left, one major concern I had started to come to me.
What does The Undefeated mean for the landscape of not just journalism, but the changing tides on how online journalism deals with issues of social injustice and culture?
I tell people all the time. BSO isn’t a black site. It is an urban site, and urban culture runs the world. We are successful because we have uniquely positioned ourselves essentially on the block, while being able to expand out to suburbs. In layman terms, we have been able to bridge the gap from the hood to the boardroom.
ESPN is a BIG corporate entity. One of the things that I suggested to them was to bring in people who aren’t classically trained journalists, but have their ear to what people want to talk about. I know what I am talking about. I have done this for over a decade as a solo artist. To use a musical analogy, I sold tapes from the trunk, now I am huge independent. If BSO was a rapper I’d be Tech9. I know the underground and I understand the audience. Sometimes mainstream media have been in media so long, there is a disconnect between them and the audience. Not, saying they are uppity, but they don’t understand what makes these people tick or in this case click.
Now, they didn’t listen to me, because I am just little old Robert Littal and they are a BILLION dollar organization. With that being said there are elements of The Undefeated that shows at least they are aware that simply writing 10k word pieces isn’t a viable business model in 2016.
Because of Whitlock’s non-involvement, they have a lot people now willing to be involved in the project who weren’t willing before, I won’t say any names, but you should be able to figure it out yourself. While there are lot of critics of ESPN, one of the things you can’t critique them on is they have always had a higher amount of minorities and women on their platforms than any other sports news organization.
I have friends who work for the Undefeated and I have followed pretty much every reporter’s career who is currently working for them. I’ve read some of the intro stuff on the site today and it is good, specifically “The Uplift” section is very important, because at times we do focus on the negative a bit too much.
Anything that promotes minorities in an industry that is 90% white males, should be supported and applauded. Diversity is needed in all walks of life, but specifically sports media where the majority of the athletes who are being covered heavily are black.
This is not to discredit white reporters. It is about giving people a different perspective and outlet on the athletes they are watching and the stories they are seeing. My hope would be as The Undefeated grows and finds it legs, that it starts going outside of the box and really take a swing things that people are afraid to talk about. Essentially that is what sites like myself, the Shadow League and others have been able to do. Speak up when others can’t or are afraid to do so. All the stories and features on there are great. I will be a frequent reader, but they have an opportunity, if they want, to go beyond what is expected. I don’t want to be able to guess what I am going to see on there. I don’t want slight modifications of a VICE or Bleacher Report story. Their current main story is a brilliantly written piece about Marshawn Lynch. It is excellent, but I have seen similar well-written pieces on Marshawn Lynch that the media doesn’t want you to know about.
It is just day one, things evolved and this is not a critique just a hope for the future. Don’t give us Black ESPN, give us The Undefeated Raw and Uncut. ESPN has the biggest voice in sports, but there is going to come a time where a story or incident is going to take place where The Undefeated is going to be needed to tell the truth. I hope they don’t get writer’s block, and I don’t mean Ernest Washington’s type.