Reporter Or Flack – You Make The Call

Helaine and I are watching tonight’s broadcast of the Pats/Giants game. Comcast has it on five channels, plus NFL Network (which I don’t buy).

Before the game began, an on-field ‘reporter’ ‘interviewed’ NFL commissioner Roger Gooddell. Well, at least that’s how it appeared. Certainly, that’s how it was intended to appear.

Don’t be fooled. It was not a reporter. It was not an interview.

Roger Gooddell was quizzed on NFL Network by an NFL Network employee. As NFL commissioner he controls NFL Network. He is the interviewer’s boss.

Which tough, embarrassing questions are you prepared to ask your boss on national television?

Gooddell answered with no follow-up.

This wasn’t an interview. It was a stealth press release. That wasn’t a reporter. Tonight, he was a PR flack.

That NBC and CBS allowed this to happen on their air is nearly as distasteful as NFL Network doing it.

4 thoughts on “Reporter Or Flack – You Make The Call”

  1. I’m not surprised at all to see that the NFL Network has turned this broadcast into a 3-plus-hour commercial for their product. This simulcast is a huge advertising bonanza for them.

  2. The NFL Network convince me. If the Cable company is going to use the excuse that people shouldn’t have to pay for channels they don’t want ( referring to the NFL Network). Why do they make us pay for channels we don’t watch. Like their commercial said , I rather have the NFL Network than QVC, and the 50 MTV’s that hog the lineup.

  3. From Time Magazine: “The cable guys have refused to meet the NFL’s asking price because other than the eight Thursday night games that the NFL Network broadcasts, the rest of the programming is second-string

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