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With a few simple words on his radio show last week, Colin Cowherd used his ESPN microphone to shut down TheBigLead.com for more than 48 hours. Cowherd urged his listeners all to go to the site at the same time, and that was enough traffic to knock the site offline. Now ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber says the Worldwide Leader has implemented a policy that ESPN's airwaves are not to be used to ruin anyone's business. I'm a little surprised that policy needs to be spelled out explicitly -- do they also have a specific policy against torturing farm animals on company time? -- but it's a good policy.
Still, there are some issues that are unresolved, starting with why Cowherd did this. Schreiber described Big Lead as "a sports blog that is sometimes unmercifully critical of ESPN," but I read Big Lead (who also blogs at FanHouse) and I've never thought his criticisms of ESPN are anything outside the norm in the sports blogosphere. (He did quote a former ESPN employee whose criticisms of ESPN were outside the norm, but if ESPN has a problem with that, its problem is with Jason Whitlock, not the site that interviewed him.)
And, unfortunately, there's one other issue we should note: Cowherd got what he wanted here. He showed that he's more powerful than a blogger. In Big Lead's first post after coming back online, he wrote, "we'll be spending the better part of today looking for a new host." So, congrats, Colin Cowherd. Your total number of listeners exceeds the volume of traffic that Big Lead's host can handle. I take it this makes you feel big. I think it makes you look small.
Previously at FanHouse:
Colin Cowherd has Listeners?
ESPN's New Ombudsman Another Tony Kornheiser Pal
Too Close to Tony Kornheiser? ESPN Ombudsman Responds
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