Tagged: ‘Don Van Natta’

posted by on January 10, 2013 4:44 PM

Updated list of ESPN’s commitment to journalism

EDITOR’S NOTE: As the calendar turns to a new year, Front Row wanted to update an important post we orginally shared in April of 2012. UPDATED: June 13, 2013

Since that posting, ESPN’s commitment to journalism has continued to display itself across all platforms. Below is an updated list including some of the more recent examples added to what was originally published in April, 2012.

FrontRowDesign_Final

Outside The Lines:
• Major League Baseball seeking to suspend Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun and other players connected to Tony Bosch and his Miami-area clinic. MLB seeks to suspend A-Rod, Braun – T.J. Quinn, Pedro Gomez and Mike Fish

• Several research groups competed to study Junior Seau’s brain after he died. Did the NFL help pick the winner? – Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada

• First public airings of now-former Rutgers coach Mike Rice’s practice tapes. – Don Van Natta Jr. and John Barr

• NCAA President mark Emmert faces scrutiny over handling of Miami case – Tom Farrey

• A in-depth look at how Roger Goodell made the NFL bigger, richer, more powerful — and now more divided — than ever before. — Don Van Natta Jr.

• Behind the scenes of Auburn’s 2010 championship season which uncovered its hidden problem with synthetic marijuana, and the downfall of 4 players charged with armed robbery. – Shaun Assael

• As part of the ongoing collaboration with PBS’s Frontline, OTL looks at the Boston University study on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and how the research is being viewed by the medical community. — Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada

• Doctors discover Junior Seau’s brain had CTE – Steve Fainaru, Mark Fainaru-Wada and ABC’s Jim Avila

• Youth coaches face gambling charges (a follow-up to earlier reporting on gambling on youth sports in Florida) — Paula Lavigne

• NFL Fan Violence — John Barr

• Bounties in Pop Warner — Tom Farrey

• “Football at a Crossroads” series

• The Dallas Cowboys’ dip into the apparel business comes with allegations of sweatshop labor. — Mark Fainaru-Wada and Justine Gubar

• Mike Webster’s brain injury history. — Mark Fainaru-Wada

• Fight on State: In wake of scandal, power struggle spread from Penn State campus to state capital. — Don Van Natta

• UFC Fighter Pay: An investigation into fighter pay in the popular Ultimate Fighting Championship — John Barr

• Bobby Dodd: An investigation of the CEO and president of AAU Basketball, accused of molesting two former players from his youth basketball team in Memphis — Tom Farrey

• Cleve Bryant was fired for harassment after a university investigation determined he made repeated unwanted sexual advances toward a female administrative assistant over a two-year period. – Steve Delsohn

• Bernie Fine: ESPN broke the story that two former Syracuse ball boys were accusing assistant coach Bernie Fine of molesting them. — Mark Schwarz

• The money that moves college sports, in 2010, looked at several hot-button issues facing the NCAA. The topics included Rutgers and the athletic arms race; the role of TV money in college sports; controversy over the use of an athlete’s likeness; renewable scholarships; endowed scholarships and more. — Paula Lavigne

ESPN.com: continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, Journalism

posted by on July 22, 2012 11:45 PM

ESPN’s cross-platform coverage plans for Penn State sanctions presser; Tweetback: Statue & The Open

Sunday’s removal of the Joe Paterno statue at Penn State and the coinciding announcement of Monday’s NCAA press conference regarding possible sanctions has pushed the Penn State story to the forefront of sports news.

As such, ESPN will begin coverage of Monday’s NCAA press conference from Indianapolis with a special, live 8 a.m. ET SportsCenter, leading into Mark Emmert’s planned session with the media. ESPNU will present a “SportsCenterU Special” beginning at 8:30 a.m. Content will also be streamed on the WatchESPN app and ESPN3.com.

Reporters John Barr and Kelly Naqi are in State College, PA and Rece Davis and Joe Schad cover Emmert’s press conference from Indianapolis.

In addition, ESPN Radio programming will feature reporting and analysis during Mike and Mike in the Morning from Barr (7:00 a.m. ET), Schad (7:15), the Altoona Mirror’s Cory Giger (7:30), ESPN’s Matt Millen (8:00) and coverage of the NCAA News Conference at 9.

Colin Cowherd is scheduled to welcome former Penn State lineman, Brandon Noble (10:45 a.m.); ESPN’s Jay Bilas (11:15) and Giger (11:45) into The Herd.

Scott Van Pelt and Ryen Russillo are slated to have Ben Jones from statecollege.com (1:15 p.m.); LSU’s Les Miles (1:45, in studio*), Sports Illustrated’s Andy Staples (2:15) and Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer (2:45).

*On Monday, SEC Coaches begin Day 1 of a two-day “car wash” that will see each of the 14 SEC head football coaches visit the Bristol Campus. Scheduled groups are as follows: Monday: Auburn – Gene Chizik; LSU – Les Miles; Mississippi State – Dan Mullen; Missouri – Gary Pinkel; Tennessee – Derek Dooley; Texas A&M – Kevin Sumlin; Vanderbilt – James Franklin.
Tuesday: Alabama – Nick Saban; Arkansas – John L. Smith; Florida – Will Muschamp; Georgia – Mark Richt; Kentucky – Joker Phillips; Ole Miss – Hugh Freeze; South Carolina – Steve Spurrier.
Coaches will appear throughout the two days on TV, radio and across ESPN’s digital outlets.

• Jeremy Schaap is scheduled for a 4 p.m. phone interview with Michael Kay on ESPN 98.7 FM in New York.

• This weekend’s Tweetback can be found after the jump.

continue reading…

Filed in: Behind The Scenes, Weekend Tweetback

posted by on April 7, 2012 10:00 AM

Week in review

In the Both Sides Of The Ball video published this week, SportsCenter anchors Jay Harris and Mike Hill‘s claims of being two-sport athletes are met with skepticism by two-sport legend Bo Jackson.

The guys were unwilling to relent, leading to challenges of epic proportions.

Let’s review the Week On Front Row:

* ESPN feature producer Chris Bloxom traces the story of a Louisville Slugger’s beginnings as an ash tree in a Pennsylvania forest. We previewed the story earlier in the week and ran the full piece yesterday. Both received a lot of attention.

* In the Front & Center podcast, ESPN the Magazine senior writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Don Van Natta discusses his reporting of the Penn State child sex abuse case story, which evolved into a story that resulted in the firings of football coach Joe Paterno and the university’s president.

* On Wednesday, ESPN introduced the first-ever Spanish-language spot in the iconic This is SportsCenter franchise. New York Yankees second baseman obinson Cano was the main character of the spot. Handshakes depicts how Cano’s ritual greetings have consequences.

* Take a look into Front Row’s “photo booth” capturing some fun moments of the Women’s Final Four teams during their time in front of the camera. Learn what inspired this unique idea, which aired during our coverage.

Filed in: Week In Review

posted by on April 4, 2012 2:08 PM

Front & Center: Don Van Natta Jr. on Penn State football investigation

Don Van Natta

Click HERE to listen or visit iTunes to download the podcast and be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the Front & Center podcast.

How did the Penn State child sex abuse case evolve into a story that resulted in the firings of football coach Joe Paterno and school president Graham Spanier?

Wednesday morning on ESPN.com, ESPN the Magazine senior writer and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Don Van Natta, Jr.’s debut piece for the Magazine features an in-depth investigative piece that examines how the story transcends the sports world.

In the Front & Center podcast, Van Natta discusses his reporting of the story, which is airing on ESPN today and also runs in the current issue of ESPN The Magazine.

Prior to joining ESPN’s investigative reporting team in January 2012, the Miami-based Van Natta was a national correspondent for The New York Times. He contributed to two Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting teams at The Times. Prior to that, Van Natta also was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning effort at The Miami Herald.

Filed in: Front & Center, Podcast