ESPN Bans Reporters From Twitter, Social Networks

Posted on August 10, 2009

The New York Times reports that ESPN has established guidelines that prohibit its reporters from tweeting about sports. Apparently, they will need a supervisor's approval before they can tweet or update their Facebook status about anything that has to do with sports.

The guidelines say that on-air talent, reporters and writers are prohibited from having sports-related blogs or Web sites and that they will need a supervisor's approval to discuss sports on any social networking sites. They will also be restricted from discussing internal policies or detailing how stories are "reported, written, edited or produced."
The guide that Bucher focused on reads, "The first and only priority is to serve ESPN-sanctioned efforts, including sports news, information and content." Violating the new guidelines could lead to suspension or dismissal.

These seems like a huge missed opportunity on ESPN's part. If ESPN's reporters have sports news or gossip to share it would make more sense if they were urged to share it before others do instead of being forbidden from tweeting it or delayed because they need a supervisor's permission.