McMurphy worked for ESPN for five years before being let go by the net in a large round of layoffsESPN
The bombshell report that led to Ohio State placing football coach Urban Meyer on administrative leave last night was posted on Facebook as opposed to other traditional breaking news venues, as college football reporter Brett McMurphy, who broke the story, is prohibited from "publishing stories on his beat for a rival outlet” to ESPN.com, according to Marc Tracy of the N.Y. TIMES. McMurphy worked for ESPN for five years before being let go by the net “in a large round of layoffs in the spring of 2017.” A noncompete clause that exists in his ESPN deal has led him to “releasing reports via Twitter and Facebook.” He said that his ESPN contract “expires later this month, at which point he will join Stadium,” the online sports video network (N.Y. TIMES, 8/2).
TAKING THEIR TIME: AWFUL ANNOUNCING's Ben Koo noted McMurphy's post "went up not long after" 10:00am ET yesterday. However, ESPN "took around four hours before they had any coverage of the story on their website or on television." During the 2:00pm hour, ESPN "finally had their ducks in a row and began to cover the story." It was later expressed that ESPN was "holding a college football reporter seminar when this story broke." Some at ESPN believe McMurphy "planned the release of the story to fall in that gap, an accusation McMurphy takes great offense to." ESPN personnel were vocal on Twitter, noting that the story "required a lot of their own original reporting." When ESPN did finally publish a story, it was a "pretty simple aggregated rewrite that heavily leaned on McMurphy’s original report, with not much (if any) of their own reporting or commentary." Meanwhile, the Columbus Dispatch "didn’t publish anything on the topic" until around 3:30pm. (AWFULANNOUNCING.com, 8/1).
AS SEEN ON TV: McMurphy has been making the media rounds in the wake of his story, including several appearances on ESPN airwaves: the midnight "SportsCenter" with Scott Van Pelt and this morning's "Get Up." He also appeared on CNN, MSNBC, the syndicated "Inside Edition" and on the latest "Sports Media Podcast" with The Athletic's Richard Deitsch (THE DAILY). McMurphy himself tweeted, "Weird times: I was on @SportsCenter more today than my previous 5 years at ESPN." Fox News' Britt McHenry, who also was part of ESPN's April '17 layoffs, wrote, "Good on @espn for having @Brett_McMurphy on, even after they laid him off. He BROKE the biggest story of college football. He’s an exceptional journalist and kudos to @notthefakeSVP" (TWITTER.com, 8/2).
TWITTER REAX: Deitsch tweeted, "How on earth could ESPN have let this guy go if they care about college football reporting. ... McMurphy's reporting on Urban Meyer story will be a real test for ESPN and Fox Sports, which share the conference football media rights and employ a ton of college football commentators, many of whom are tight with Meyer." CollegeFootballNews.com's Pete Fiutak: "How ticked is ESPN today for its purge of @Brett_McMurphy and so many of the other talents? They LIVED on the Ohio State scandal seven years ago." Football blogger Brad Wells: "The story within the story is how utterly incompetent ESPN looks right now." Phoenix-based KNXV-ABC's Shane Dale: "McMurphy inspires the hell out of me. Laid off by ESPN, he does an exhausting amount of research on the Urban Meyer story all on his own, and breaks the story on his Facebook page. I love it." SiriusXM fantasy expert Joe Dolan: "McMurphy broke this story for no one. He wrote it on Facebook. ESPN sure does have a bunch of bozos yelling at each other though." Alabama-based WBRC-Fox' Rick Karle: "Here’s one for a veteran journalist who got the last laugh by breaking a monster story... on his Facebook page!" Tampa-based WTVT-Fox' Chris Cato: "Finally reading @Brett_McMurphy’s actual report -- instead of another report about his report."
