ESPN - NFL - Conflicts of Interest

Hypocrisy and serious conflicts of interest bind ESPN and the NFL. The story below examines the corporate motivations of ESPN when it 'covers' issues like wife beating, concussions, big money, etc.

In the same light, consider the influence of corporate motivations when you ask this about your investments: what and where are the conflicts of interests?

Hidden fees?  Compromised referrals?  Crony networks of advisers scratching each other's back at your expense?  What about the selection of investment choices that are offered to you?

What is clear to us is that almost all investors have no clue how much of their money is lost to costs.

When we show investors the actual cash they pay in fees today, and how much that builds over time, every single person is stunned at the large amounts of money that are lost to costs.

There is a better way to protect your investments from conflicts of interest and save more of your money from being lost to costs: own the lowest cost, most reliable index ETFs.  Then keep them for life.  PB
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From The Motley Fool online:

The engine that makes ESPN go

Every once in a while, the media's dirty little secret gets paraded about for all to see.

The latest example is ESPN's three-week suspension of Bill Simmons after the popular columnist accused NFL commissioner Roger Goodell of lying about being previously unaware of a video showing former-Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out Rice's now-wife in a hotel elevator...

So, here's the issue: Did ESPN suspend Simmons because of his obscenities-laced comments, or did the sports network do so because Simmons attacked the head of ESPN's most important business partner, the NFL?

Allegations concerning a conflict of interest between ESPN and the NFL are nothing new.  In 2012, the network teamed up with PBS's Frontline to produce an investigative piece about the league's handling of head injuries.

The tenor of the resulting two-part documentary, League of Denial, was that the NFL knew more about the permanent damage done to its players' brains than it had publicly acknowledged.

Somewhere along the way, however, ESPN withdrew its support from the project, explaining that it ended the partnership because of a misunderstanding over editorial control...

Taking all of this into consideration, there is little question that ESPN at least appears to have a conflict of interest between its relationship with the NFL...

Underlying it is a $15.2 billion deal giving ESPN the right to broadcast Monday Night Football games through the 2021 season.

...if ESPN were a stand-alone business, it would have a higher market capitalization than 408 of the components on the S&P 500, handily outpacing the likes of Fedex, Delta Air Lines, and Target.

And it's worth roughly twice that of CBS Corporation, which owns dozens of cable networks and local television and radio stations throughout the nation's largest media markets...
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Link: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/26/espn-the-nfl-and-conflicts-of-interest.aspx