During the 4th quarter of last night's All Star Game, TNT analyst Reggie Miller referenced insights from Michael Jordan (I think he was celebrating a birthday this week or something) about LeBron James' game. Miller credited an article by Timothy Rapp on "The Bleacher Report." While that'd be an incredible scoop for a Bleacher Report writer to get an exclusive interview with Michael Jordan… it's sorta kinda definitely not true. The material Miller referenced was correctly quoted by the b/r author, but actually came from Wright Thompson's fantastic ESPN article that gained those rare insights from Jordan.
Hearing one of TNT's lead NBA analysts incorrectly credit "The Bleacher Report" for an ESPN exclusive is one of the great twists of fate in the history of journalism…
With Reggie Miller breaking the news of his apparent move to "The Bleacher Report" Thompson was apoplectically perplexed:
Seriously?
— Wright Thompson (@wrightthompson) February 18, 2013
Later in the evening, TNT righted the wrong as Ernie Johnson came on the air and corrected the embarrassing mistake by giving proper credit to Wright Thompson and ESPN.com. Credit Turner for making the correction on air when many would simply ignore it, correct it much, much later, or try to downplay what happened. It is ironic to see the shoe on the other foot where ESPN is concerned in a case like this…
https://youtube.com/watch?v=JSkTSYFmmCk
The error here was on Turner and the game broadcast and not Bleacher Report, although it certainly didn't help b/r's reputation with their critics. The b/r article from Timothy Rapp properly credited Wright Thompson. The issue is with the incorrect credit from Reggie Miller.
Could it be that a producer fed Miller the wrong information or Miller simply got confused with trying to properly source Jordan's comments? (After all, Reggie Miller did put the Memphis Grizzlies in the Eastern Conference last night. Even Phil Simms facepalmed after hearing that!) Did Reggie Miller simply Google "Michael Jordan on LeBron James" and that Bleacher Report article was the first link that appeared? (It's actually the second link in fairness.)
Or… did Turner make a mistake in aggressively trying to pump their shiny new sports outlet. Either Reggie Miller is an avid reader of "The Bleacher Report" or Turner is trying to wedge their new partnership into premier broadcasts. Turner just happened to make a glaring attribution error last night (which they corrected), but you should get used to people like Reggie Miller, Ernie Johnson, and others from Turner Sports talking Bleacher Report. It's here to stay and it's going to keep showing up all across Turner Broadcasting from CNN to the All Star Game and everywhere in between.
Hopefully Reggie drops the "The" next time though, it's just "Bleacher Report."
[Videos via The Big Lead & cjzero]
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