A long-running controversy around ESPN, and around NFL insider Adam Schefter in particular, has been about proper attribution of other outlets’ reporting. ESPN’s website, Bottom Line ticker, and even SportsCenter have taken a lot of flak for stingy attribution in the past, but those areas seem to have gotten somewhat better in the last few years.
ESPN-branded social media accounts and individual ESPN personalities, including Schefter, continue to sometimes draw flak for how they attribute or not attribute others, though. And the latest case of that came with the way Schefter chose to tweet about an in-depth piece from independent NFL reporter Tyler Dunne Thursday on embattled Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott.
Update: It’s worth noting that Dunne responded to this Thursday night, thanked Schefter for tweeting the piece, and said he didn’t have a problem with how Schefter handled it.
Appreciate everyone looking out for Go Long! But would be remiss if I didn’t note that @AdamSchefter has been incredibly helpful sharing stories since I started this whole thing a while back. He’s a busy man. Zero hard feelings here.
— Tyler Dunne (@TyDunne) December 8, 2023
Our original piece continues below:
First, some context. Dunne’s past NFL work includes national NFL features for Bleacher Report from 2016-2020, including a deeply sourced 2019 piece on the Aaron Rodgers-Mike McCarthy relationship that drew Rodgers’ ire as a “smear attack.” (Rodgers was a media antagonist long before vaccine conversations.) He was one of many B/R employees laid off in the summer of 2020 around COVID-19 cuts, the winding down of B/R Mag, and their whole features division.
Dunne has since been running his independent Go Long publication on Substack. Subscriptions there range from $8 (monthly) to $50 (annual) to $150 (yearly VIP). Content includes longform features, columns, Q+As, discussion threads, podcasts, work from famed Packers’ writer Bob McGinn and long-time NFL exec Jim Monos, and even regular shows with Brett Favre.
On Thursday, Dunne published a massive feature that made a notable impact. Titled The McDermott Problem, it’s three parts and more than 20,000 words, based on “extended interviews with 25 coaches, players, personnel men and other team sources who’ve passed through One Bills Drive.” (Dunne does note that the Bills are one of the few NFL teams that have denied him credentials for in-person reporting from their facilities, but discusses that he’s gotten previous access to their players from other means.)
That piece overall got a lot of attention. But what stood out perhaps the most was an anecdote in the second part. Dunne wrote that he confirmed with seven sources that McDermott gave one speech at training camp in 2019 about communication problems, where he cited the 9/11 hijackers and how they used tactics to “come together.” And that led to McDermott addressing that with reporters Thursday, saying he “regretted mentioning 9/11” and “immediately apologized to the team.” So, this story was taking off in a major way at that point. And Schefter then sent out the key part of Dunne’s article and tagged him in a tweet, but didn’t link to his piece.
Here’s the instance that @TyDunne reported on that Bills’ HC Sean McDermott addressed this afternoon: pic.twitter.com/PeFDbPLRc7
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 7, 2023
That led to many people criticizing Schefter for not linking, especially when sharing the key part of a paywalled piece. Here’s some of that:
Give the man a link, https://t.co/v8x3pH3YIk
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) December 7, 2023
LINK TO HIM!!!!!! this reporter literally owns his own business my god https://t.co/RrtrYPnMo3 https://t.co/7wGoggjcvm
— Kalyn Kahler (@kalynkahler) December 7, 2023
Schefter is better than Shams because at least Schefter tags the original reporter in the tweet.
But Schefter still fails to link to the article.
Disappointing, but not surprising.
These major reporters could do so much more to help others than they do. https://t.co/6sfPu57mKy— Alex Rikleen (@Rikleen) December 7, 2023
Schefter did offer a link 17 minutes later:
Here is the work from @TyDunne on Bills’ HC Sean McDermott:https://t.co/oMNtqpzntu
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 7, 2023
As mentioned, attribution at ESPN, in general, used to be a much broader issue, especially when it came to linking to or referencing perceived competitors. But the company has evolved on that front in many areas, and while this still comes up at times, it does so less frequently than it used to. There are still some remaining issues on this front, though. It’s positive Schefter eventually shared the link as well as the key information from the story, but it’s unfortunate that he didn’t do so at first.
[Go Long, Adam Schefter on Twitter]
