Laurie Fine Launches Lawsuit, Pulling Back the Curtain on ESPN’s Crusade
D.A. | May 16, 2012 | Comments 8
Post-Standard/ Dennis Nett
Let’s just cut through the bullsh*t of the Bernie Fine saga. ESPN and Mark Schwarz were brazenly overzealous in trying to break the story, and there was something not quite right about the Fine’s relationship with Bobby Davis. Other than that, the whole thing became a rollicking theater of the absurd.
I hate to say it, but just look at Laurie Fine. Does that seem like a completely normal person to you? Who knows what to believe with “the tape.” Maybe it was doctored completely, maybe it opened a window to the twisted inner-workings of the Fine household. Either way, some of the accusers have been discredited, and it’s obvious the Fines had some weird skeletons in the closet.
But just being strange (in comparison to the warped “normal society” that we live in) is not enough to place the crosshairs on a family, a coach and a university like ESPN did. Here’s the deal: ESPN doesn’t break news anymore. Not real news where sports intersects with the realities of normal life. Sure, Adam Schefter breaks “Peyton Manning to the Broncos” news. Chris Broussard breaks “LeBron James has a headache” news. But ESPN leaves the real heavy lifting to Yahoo! Sports, the New York Times, HBO’s Real Sports and Sports Illustrated.
Why? Because ESPN has league rights to the NFL, MLB, NBA and college sports. It’s not in the business of crapping on its corporate partners (which is exactly what those entities are – they’re all sitting around the same board room table).
Yet, there’s this awkward investigative arm known as “Outside the Lines” which employs Schwarz and other reporters/journalists. Well, with the deepest pockets in media, how is it possible ESPN has been routinely beaten to Cam Newton, Michael Vick, Joe Paterno, Reggie Bush, Nerlens Noel, concussions, conference realignment and scores of other real sports scoops? Simple. They suck.
They don’t wanna know this stuff. They don’t really do any digging. They’re the store front window display, but inside the shop none of it’s for sale. So Lisa Salters and Jeremy Schaap “break news” on one-legged triathletes and charity work by Dikembe Mutombo. Then when some crap really hits the fan, they trot out venerable Bob Ley to engage a panel discussion with opinion makers.
So, the biggest sports media entity in the world was beaten to the biggest scandal in sports history by everyone including the Patriot News. And what happened? Suddenly, those old Bobby Davis tapes from 2003 started getting dusted off again. And Schwarz began acting as though Syracuse University was the modern edition of Sodom and Gomorrah. And ESPN ran itself dizzy trying to insist it had finally broken “real news.” Oh, and dramatically slow-played the tape for ratings purposes.
This is Schwarz’s smoking gun:
“I would have taken a run at it every month of my career between 2003 and 2011 if I could have been pulled off other events and other coverage. If someone said you can either do this story, or you can do 100 NBA championship events or 17 World Series, which would you do, I would do this story and let other people cover the World Series.”
Nice. Even though you assumed you were allowing a pedophile to ruin someone’s life for nearly a decade, you simply had to cover Spurs-Nets in the Finals because Ed Werder couldn’t do it. And this obviously became his personal crusade, especially once the Paterno news broke.
I’m pretty certain the Fine’s aren’t completely clean in all this. Everyone needs a shower every time Laurie Fine or Bobby Davis or Mike Lang try to explain what was going on. But ESPN’s obscenely irresponsible reporting on this is far more criminal. All because they’re trying to keep up with a charade.
Posted: D.A.
I wish Mrs Fine the very best with her lawsuit. I feel this is only the beginning though. After all is said and done with Bernie’s mess and nothing wrong can be found and is declared innocent of all charges is when the real fun begins. I see Mr. Fine bringing lawsuits against Syracuse University for wrongful termination of employment and against the great group of a**holes that work on ESPN.
Speaking of sucking, maybe you should work on getting your facts right. It’s Mark Schwarz. You have it Mark Schwartz as of 4:44pm EDT. Get it together.
Josh, thanks for catching that. If you’d like to apply for an editor’s position at the Fizz, I’ll keep you in mind. I assume you agree 100% with everything else I wrote.
Isnt josh a uk fan?
Great story D.A. If Josh is a UK fan, someone else must have typed his post for him because a UK fan can’t type three sentences without a minimum of three grammatical errors. Probably due to the fact their double wide isn’t air conditioned. I think you hit the points dead on accurate. ESPN is more about sports coverage than it is about investigating stories and doing honest to goodness journalism. Your Laurie Fine comment coincided with my thought about how whacked out she looks. Bottom line: the Fines are a strange couple and their relationship with Bobby Davis is strange too. However, I find it highly ironic that Mike Lang asked Bernie two years ago about his children serving as ball boys. The WWL didn’t find out about that, or did they conveniently decide to omit that fact (my suspicion) as it would cast doubt on the story. Interesting side note: Apparently Tomaselli contacted Colin Cowherd repeatedly to do an on air interview and Cowherd declined because he’s been suspicious of the veracity of the accusers since the beginning. At least he’s smarter than Schwarz, but then again, almost anybody is. Last point is that Ron is right. If it comes out that this is all a farce, SU better get ready to cut Fine a huge check to settle the wrongful discharge suit he will file. Then he’s going after Schwarz and ESPN. If that happens, its doomsday for ALL of OTL, even Bob Ley, who will be put on the Sports Reporters and SportsCenter.
OK, two days with this shrew on your site is enough. Now bury the story deep so we never have to look at her again!
Thanks!
Ha! …I just came to this article to make that same comment, or something to that effect. Thanks for getting it done first, David!
Also, if I might make a request, let’s talk recruiting/football.
Funderburke, anyone? How ’bout Provo?
Lacrosse is over and everyone’s sick of the Fine story, so it’s time for football.