ESPN executive Walsh to discuss sports journalism’s challenges

By ZACH HOSKINS
School of Journalism and Mass Communication

CHAPEL HILL -- Should ESPN have fired Rush Limbaugh after his controversial remarks about quarterback Donovan McNabb? What is the relationship between sports news and sports as entertainment?

ESPN executive John Walsh grapples with such questions every day, and next month he will share his insights at a free, public talk at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Walsh, senior vice president and executive editor of ESPN Inc. and the ESPN Internet Group, will discuss "The Challenges Facing Sports Journalism in the Modern Era" at 5:15 p.m. Nov. 4 in Carroll Hall auditorium. The lecture is the latest in the Reed Sarratt Distinguished Lecture Series presented by the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"He’s one of the major figures in the field," said Sports Communication Professor John Sweeney, chairman of the lecture series. "You really can’t find someone who’s more influential in the way modern sports are presented in the media."

Walsh, 58, has been executive editor of ESPN since December 1990, overseeing all studio and informational programming. He has been involved in the development of a variety of projects, including the ESPYs, the network’s annual awards program.

Walsh oversaw the launch of ESPN The Magazine and ESPN Radio and was instrumental in developing the news and information elements of ESPN 2. In January 2000, he assumed responsibility for all creative development and editorial direction for ESPN.com, NFL.com, ABCSports.com and Soccernet.

Before becoming executive editor, Walsh was managing editor of ESPN for nearly three years. He was responsible for the editorial content of all informational programming, including SportsCenter, ESPN’s flagship sports news program.

Under Walsh, ESPN’s news and information programming has won 25 CableACE awards and 28 Emmys. Those included eight awards for the network’s Outside the Lines series, which examines sports issues beyond the playing field.

Begun in 1987, the Sarratt series brings some of the best and brightest minds in journalism to the school each year to discuss matters of importance, concern, philosophy and principle.

The series honors the late Reed Sarratt, a Charlotte native and 1937 Carolina graduate. Sarratt directed the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation for many years and later directed the association itself. He was inducted into the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame in 1985. Sarratt died in 1986.

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Contact: John Sweeney, (919) 962-4074, jsweeney@email.unc.edu.
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu