ESPN Doctored Reactions to 4 Red Sox Homeruns v Yankees--NY Times 4/24

"It was the third inning when Manny Ramírez, J. D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek each hit bases-empty homers to put the Red Sox ahead, 4-3. Each one was accompanied by a colorful verbal send-off by ESPN’s Jon Miller.

• As ESPN rolled the replay of Drew’s drive, Miller said, “Theo Epstein was watching and was pretty impressed.” In a taped reaction shot, Epstein, the Red Sox’ general manager, appeared to say, “Oh my God.”

A few minutes later, as ESPN replayed Lowell’s shot, Miller said, “Manny Ramírez was watching it from the dugout.” Ramírez jumped off the bench, exultant, and hugged a teammate or a coach.

• Then the third inning ended, and ESPN offered a sequence of the four home runs, and this time, Epstein’s reaction no longer came after Drew’s home run, but after Varitek’s, the last in the record-tying run.

In the seventh, the sequence was shown again, and Ramírez’s reaction was shifted to look like he was celebrating Varitek’s shot, not Lowell’s. Epstein’s reaction shot followed, again making him look like he has been stunned by one home run when he was really amazed by another.

• In the sequence that ended the broadcast, ESPN shifted Epstein out of his original reality to look like he was reacting to Lowell’s home run, not Drew’s or Varitek’s.

Jed Drake, an ESPN senior vice president, said that once the reaction shots were shown in correct order, the judgment was that they were then available as “exclamation points on the overall sequence. There was no ulterior motive to say they were all tied to Varitek’s home run.”

• From NY Times article, "Replays of Red Sox Homer Feat Tell Different Story" by Richard Sandomir, 4/24/07.

Perhaps such disregard for sports fans contributed to ESPN's losing 31% of its prime time audience in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2006 (reported on this blog 4/10/07 via Mediaweek 4/3/07).

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