MLB Nba Media Watch

Pablo Picasso once said, "good artists copy; great artists steal." Well, ESPN the Magazine the Website employs some great freakin' artists. Their "Choose Your Own Adventure: Kobe Bryant" concept looks awfully damn familiar. I know, I know, we were admittedly inspired by the original Bantam Books series we read when we were kids, but that just means we're great artists, too! Fun!

Coming up with new ideas is hard. Like, really, really hard. Especially on a sunny Friday afternoon when you'd rather be outside lying under a tree next to one of those fake coyotes. So to help everyone out, we here at FanHouse thought we'd put together a handy little guide for the future:

Ah. It's great to have Charles Barkley back in full effect. Felt like he left for a little while. Then he comes back white hot, calling the Washington Wizards the "dumbest team in the history of civilzation". Now, he's on the Dan Patrick's radio show (audio below) and stating that not only was ESPN surprising Miguel Tejada with a copy of his birth certificate "bush league" (0:25 and 1:02) but that he would have "slapped the hell out of" (0:40) the reporter if he'd tried to pull that on Barkley.




Barkley's outspoken nature aside, I actually think that's a pretty reasonable reaction. I probably would not be particularly thrilled if anyone decided to pull a Chris Hansen on me re: my age. There are just more tactful ways of going about it, and "groundbreaking" news doesn't necessarily have to be shock journalism.

Via AA

Some good news for sports fans who have had to choose between Sirius or XM satellite radio service to get some live sports coverage. The US Justice Department has given its blessing to Sirius' proposed buyout of XM.

The Justice Department, in a statement explaining its decision, said the combination of the companies won't hurt competition because the companies are not competing today. Customers must buy equipment that is exclusive to either XM or Sirius, and subscribers rarely switch providers.

"People just don't do that," said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Barnett, in a conference call with reporters.

The most intense lobbying effort to block the sale was from land-based radio powers. The Justice Department, though, recognized that the competition by satellite radio wasn't against each other. The competition is with regular radio, the emerging HD Radio and internet/streaming radio.

This doesn't end potential government disruption. The Federal Communications Commission still has to grant approval. It does, however, clear a major hurdle and makes it more likely that the two will be merged.

This will be a boon for those who have been torn about which satellite service with which to sign. XM holds the rights to the PGA, MLB, NHL along with deals with the six BCS conferences. Sirius, however, has the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, the NCAA (including the NCAA Basketball Tournament) along with the rights to individual college sports teams like Ohio State, Alabama, UCLA, Pitt and Notre Dame.