The Worldwide Leader, Another Step Toward Creating Their Own Brand of Reality...

No, not a new reality show.

They just fired the centerpiece of one of their old game shows, though that is only ancillary to the point I am trying to make here.

Deadspin reports today that ESPN, in probably another of their Disney-financial profit-over-all moves, has fired Howie Schwab.

(Also, Roger Jackson of ESPN The Magazine, who held the same post as Schwab (basically, information czar), has also been released by the network!)

For those of you asking "Who the Hell is Howie Schwab?":

Howie Schwab was no less than the Walking Encyclopedia of ESPN.

If you needed a fact for SportsCenter, Howie Schwab was The Man.

If you needed a stat for the sporting telecast you were heading up and needed to sound competent, he either had it in head or could get it for you.

He was so good, they made a game show around him.  While Stuart Scott is a surprisingly-competent game-show host, Howie Schwab MADE "Stump the Schwab".  Because not only did he believe the information was important, but he had a personality to go with it.

Dick Vitale, it was said, would ask Schwab to catch him up on games he'd fallen asleep during.

Why is this another low-water day in the continuing history of Bristol becoming the home of "Embrace Propaganda and Loud-Mouthed Foolishness"?

Well, look first at when the actual facts were important at ESPN, as Deadspin notes Mike Freeman writing about in his uncensored history of ESPN:

"[Then-incoming ESPN head John] Walsh also boosted the research department, which had consisted of one man, the tireless Howie Schwab, who suddenly had a dozen companions. Walsh hired additional producers and reporters, increasing the number of reporters on the scene instead of just picking up feeds and bolstering ESPN's stable of specific sport experts, almost all of them print reporters. … He felt fans could not get enough statistics and inside information about the major sports, so he proposed creating extensive separate shows for each of the sports."

So what went wrong, especially since Schwab had become the recognizable face of information and truth at ESPN?

Basically, the mindset at ESPN.  Another sourced-story to Deadspin, as Schwab would not talk to them:

"This happened in 2002. Mark Shapiro was ESPN's senior vice president for programming at the time, and Schwab was handling the BottomLine, ESPN's news ticker, another product of the network's fat mid-1990s. On this particular day, Schwab was watching TV at home and saw a mention of the Australian Open final run across the BottomLine—16th-seeded Thomas Johansson vs. ninth-seeded Marat Safin—only someone had removed the seeds from next to the names.

It turned out that a directive had come down from Mark Shapiro's office, on the belief that a 16-vs.-9 final wasn't exactly appointment television; why mention the seeds at all? Schwab complained, according to our source, and eventually he and Shapiro had it out.

Schwab thought it was inaccurate. Information is sacred, after all.

Shapiro supposedly hung up on him. Information is a commodity, too."

So the facts become omittable, right, Mr. Shapiro?

At that point, when do they become malleable??  As in, changed to suit your/ESPN's/the leagues' agendas?

On Monday, Howie was at the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame banquet to aid in inducting Dick Vitale.  With him, at the table, were two men about to fire him.

Two days later, Schwab wrote this on his Facebook:

"After 26 years at ESPN, I am extremely disappointed to say farewell. I have been proud of my association and my work during my tenure. I was a loyal employee, displayed respect for others, worked with numerous charities, represented the company well. I always did everything asked of me and more. What did I get in return today … word that I should get lost. The only thing that mattered was my salary, which in my view was the lone reason I lost my job."

Exactly, Howie.  Because no longer is your thirst for information needed at a network which would rather delve into the likes of Jerry Springer-ism and Morton Downey Jr.-ism than the news discussions which may have preceded them (or even the likes of Springer, when you'd get him outside his circus schtick in Chicago -- which see his time on Air America Radio).

This is the network which insists that Michael Jeffrey Jordan, the foolish and wretched ballhog whom, between him and David Stern, was the double-barreled shotgun which destroyed the sport of basketball in the United States, was the greatest athlete of the 20th century.

So what happens now when information becomes not as important as profit?

Never mind that LeBron James basically threw his home region into the NBA toilet to be the "next Jordan".

Forget that Venus Williams basically threatened the life of a US Open lineswoman to lose a US Open semifinal match -- she's US tennis, right now!!

Forget the hundreds and thousands of concussion lawsuits against the NFL, where more and more intelligent people believe the sport of football may not survive the current breed (and/or illegal enhancement) of athletes in this country!

(By the way, my first thought on hearing about Schwab's dismissal?  Bob Ley, you're next!)

Forget the increasing evidence against the likes of Pete Carroll that he's taken his USC indiscretions to the next level with the Seattle Seahawks!

And so forth...

and so on...

In fact, the way you watch sports may be no more than what ESPN and the leagues and the sponsors in Bristol want it to be.

No matter that that schlub over there just made that basket -- give the points to Mega-Corp Star over here.  He needs them for his scoring average!

(Think that's far-fetched?  Check out some of the tackle-crediting decisions in the NFL over the course of the last number of years!)

So, I guess this heavy-hearted statistician at heart is only left to end this rant like Stuart Scott would announce the scores during the game of "Stump the Schwab", on most days...

ESPN, "The Schwab is better than you!"