Media
Smith and Brown’s Twitch/ESPN beef continued this week.
It was Stephen A. Smith was initially right to call out Jaylen Brown, but he went further. Jeff Chiu
Of all the disturbing elements in Jaylen Brown – Stephen A. Smith Heartbreak (I think that’s French for “a ridiculous he-said animosity that makes everyone who knows about it increasingly stupider,” but don’t hold me to that.) Two in particular are really…well, annoying me.
Well, third, if you include Smith’s entire style. But this has long gone unsaid, as other things should.
First, I suppose we should give Reader’s Digest a condensed rundown of this feud between the Celtics star and ESPN’s lead broadcaster.
Brown hopped on his Twitch stream the night the Celtics lost Game seven of the first round series To the 76ers, among other comments, he reiterated something he’s been saying since late December: that this is his favorite season.
Smith criticized him (correctly, I might add with some hesitation) for saying such a thing after a crushing loss and a 3-1 series defeat.
Their Twitch/ESPN duel over the matter – sigh – It continued until last week. last sunday night, Brown again called on Smith to retire (Not a bad idea) and accused him of being the “face of the fake news media” (he’s definitely up there on Mount Rushmore).
“man, [expletive] “Stephen A.,” Brown said. Stephen A, Stephen B, Stephen C. “My offer still stands. Do you want me to be quiet and get off the air? Well, I want you to be quiet and get off these networks. Because you’re not using your platform to do real journalism. You’re using your platform to do clickbait.”
The next morning on ESPN’s “First Take,” Smith quickly responded, adding what sounded pathetically like a threat.
“But, in the end, Jaylen Brown be careful what you wish for,” Smith said. “Do you really want me to start reporting at this level? The locker room, how the organization might think about you, how the city might feel about you, how Jayson Tatum might or might not feel about you. Sneaker deals, endorsement deals, the list goes on and on.”
Now, it’s absolutely ridiculous for Smith to suggest that he has some startling discoveries about Brown. How “may the city feel about you”? As a person registered as preferring a Trade Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo If possible, I can confirm what anyone here already knows: Boston loves Brown, partly as a player, but more so because of his connection to the city. Bad, wrong words.
But that’s not even one of the two elements in this story that bothers me the most. The first is that giving oxygen, ink, and bandwidth to this “runner” only benefits Smith. I understand Brown’s desire to throw some controversial rhetoric in Smith’s direction, and he certainly deserves it, but it’s entirely in his favor. He’s unfathomably well paid at ESPN, but his main currency is attention. Without the latter, the former could not have happened.
The other complaint? Brown calls Smith a journalist.
“This is not journalism,” Brown said Monday. “This is the one who gives his own opinion [formulating] About what I have to say, on his platform. That’s why, respectfully, a lot of people say:[expletive] Stephen A. Because that’s the kind of thing he does, and then he doesn’t recognize it.
He’s not wrong there. But Smith — and ESPN speakers, and sports radio hosts for that matter — are not journalists. They are artists. Facts are only important when they are relevant to their argument.
I know the lines are blurred, perhaps permanently and often by design, as many legitimate reporters feel they need to be content producers and brands to survive in this landscape. And I can’t imagine that there was ever a time during the last several decades when media culture in general was at a low point.
But to suggest that Smith is a journalist is a misreading of his role, and an insult to actual journalists who still do their work with integrity.
Welcome back
Medford native Lauren Walsh is joining the Boston 25 as a sports media journalist.
She is a Syracuse graduate and former NESN intern and spent the past three years at WSMV in Nashville.
“My younger Lauren couldn’t believe it,” she wrote while announcing the move on her social media channels, noting that she used to wear very limited “athletics” gear to Sox games when she was a kid because they didn’t sell team gear in the girls’ apparel section at the time.
Walsh previously worked at WXII in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, before heading to Nashville in August 2023. She also worked as a sports anchor/reporter in Burlington, Vermont, and Syracuse, New York.
She did not say when the start date would be.