The authors of "Those Guys Have All the Fun", shine a light on the behind the scenes stories of ESPN personalities and management that is much more than gossip.
Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller co-authored the 2002 tell-all tome about Saturday Night Live with the subtitle "An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live." It has been called one of the best books about workplace issues by none other than Fortune magazine. In some ways the authors have done the same thing with their quote-filled, 770 page book about the self-titled "World Wide Leader in Sports."
Shales is a Pulitzer Prize winner and wrote a must-read television column at the Washington Post for decades. Miller went from being a speech writer for a U.S. Senator to a career in television as a writer and executive, who helped launch and produce "Anderson Cooper 360."
The contents of the ESPN book have been kept under wraps in a manner that may not rival, but comes pretty close to the secrecy surrounding the raid in Abbottabad that finished off Osama bin Laden. USA Today reports that the publisher, Little Brown, has not distributed copies for reviewers and limited the co-authors to one bound version each, prior to its publication date of May 24.
Today the world has been given a look at an authorized excerpt published in the June issue of GQ. It's all about Keith Olbermann. "Those Guys Have All the Fun" is an oral history and there are plenty of folks who wanted to talk on the record, including those still employed by the Bristol, Connecticut based network. No one has ever been shy about speaking of Olbermann, his infamous temper and disdain for those less gifted who surround him, including Keith himself
The GQ excerpt delves into the early days of KO's arrival from CNN and how he and his on-air partner Dan Patrick changed the way sports news wrap-up shows sounded. It serves as a reminder that entertainment companies can be as dysfunctional as any other corporate environment. What makes it different is that the general public finds it endlessly fascinating.
ESPN has revolutionized how Americans consume and learn about sports and sports news. Its ever expanding number of channels and its encroaching monopoly on broadcasting playoffs, tournaments and international sporting events has transformed its television anchors, analysts and reporters into stars in their own right. When those that report the news become the news, a certain journalistic principle is violated.
It hasn't stopped the sports broadcast behemoth from encouraging the cult of personality surrounding its on-air employees and that has brought its own problems. Their peccadilloes have recently begun to be chronicled in gossip websites. The authors reportedly reveal a host of situations that never came to light and make the company sound like a big frat house that regularly held keggers and invited women into the lair.
Deadspin.com has been following the progress of the pre-publication process including obtaining what it claims are portions that were excised from the final product. Business Insider just called the book the "most closely guarded secret in publishing." The hype has been enormous without any need of Little Brown spending a dime on marketing.
Orders are being taken online at all major sites that sell books. Expect "These Guys Have All the Fun" to titillate. Whether it educates is yet to be seen.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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