Today, the New York Daily News reported that Barack Obama had accepted an interview with ESPN, but that ESPN's higher management canceled the interview.
This story also appeared on the Ben Smith blog at Politico, but I wanted to highlight a couple of points that were missed at the blog.
Firstly, the interview was scheduled as a podcast with Bill Simmons, the "Boston Sports Guy" or just "Sports Guy". He's not known for hard-hitting analysis, mostly focusing on the lighter side of sports and pop-culture. Simmons' last podcast was an in-depth look at the "Real World 20th Anniversary Show" with one of his colleagues from college, as they discussed such issues as wondering why they were still watching the show.
This interview with Obama probably would have been fluff for the most part. Simmons' likely tack would have been to ask Obama mostly about basketball, favorite moments, teams, and players, as it has been established about how much of a basketball fan Obama is. Likely, Simmons would have also busted his chops (rather lightly) over his 37 bowling score too.
In summation, I doubt that Simmons would have been interested in giving Obama a twenty-minute platform for his policies and ideas. I wouldn't be surprised if Obama attempted to steer one or two questions that way, but that would probably be minimal.
I realize that a lot of this diary is speculation, and here's some more. This speculation was contained in the article linked above, but is worth recopying here:
It's of interest that ESPN president George Bodenheimer has supported Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential bid with a donation of $1,000.
The NY Daily News doesn't exactly state it, though I will... as the decision to cancel this interview came from above Simmons' head, is there a conflict of interest to killing twenty minutes of face time to a candidate that you're actively donating against?
There is something that can be done, if you feel up to doing it. There is an ESPN ombudsman, who has an online submission form that can be utilized. The link is here. Feel free to drop a line to ESPN to complain if you care enough about it.
Quite admittedly, I am a fan of Simmons' writing and even of his podcasts, as I enjoy humor quite a bit and wish that there were more outlets for it in this world. Therefore, I feel as if I'm not writing out of any bias for a candidate; if Simmons had Clinton or even McCain on, I'd be just as interested to hear that interview.