Dog bites man

 ... or, to put it another way: ESPN is now a partly owned subsidiary of the NASH-unal FOOT-ball League (as Howard Cosell used to enunciate it).

"Oh, no, Mr. Blob!" you're saying now, with a note of alarm. "Is this the death rattle for Real Journalism in America? Is this where we're headed, corporate oligarchies (or the federal government, a corporate oligarchy itself these days) gobbling up media entities in order to keep 'em quiet?"

Welll ...

Yes and no.

Yes, the current autocratic Regime is death on any number of democratic ideals, and among those is freedom of the press -- which it's openly trying to squash through co-option, coercion and outright blackmail. Want that Great Big Honkin' merger to go through? Get critics of the Regime off your payroll. Thaat's a good boy, CBS/Paramount.

But enough about Stephen Colbert.

This is about ESPN and the NFL, whose own  Great Big Honkin' deal this week gave ESPN ownership of the NFL Network and other NFL media assets. In exchange, the NFL gets a 10% equity stake in ESPN. Which means the NFL now partly owns one of the major media companies that cover it.

This makes you wonder if ESPN will now be just another mouthpiece for Roger Goodell 'n' them, kinda like Karoline Leavitt is the mouthpiece for the Regime. And with about as much credibility.

The Blob's admittedly snarky response: "So pretty much like before, right?"

Because, listen, ESPN's been an NFL toady for awhile now, and if you were under the impression otherwise, you never heard the two Mikes' smarmy interviews with Goodell on their now long-defunct drive-time radio show. They were basically infomercials for the league, those interviews; all that was missing was Joe Namath telling you to call the toll-free number on your screen for additional Medicare benefits.

Truth is, ESPN has for the most part stopped doing real journalism, or at least shoved it several rungs down the priority ladder. Now it's just Stephen A. Smith, when he's not teasing a run for the White House, yelling at whoever he yells at these days. It's Greeny doing whatever it is Greeny does.  

Outside the Lines, ESPN's excellent investigative platform?

Gone.

Around the Horn? 

Also gone -- perhaps because it featured too many icky real-life sports journalists.

And, OK, so maybe that's a little unfair. A little. But the truth is, ESPN now officially being partly owned by the NFL really is a dog-bites-man deal. If it calls into question what ESPN will do if it comes out Goodell is getting kickbacks from traumatic brain injury docs ("Keep those paying customers comin', Rog!") ... well, that horse fled the barn awhile ago. The Great Big Honkin' deal just makes the conflicts of interest easier to see now. 

Which makes it more likely than ever ESPN's audience will raise more than an eyebrow at anything the World Wide Leader reports, should bad news indeed come down the NFL pike. Every Great Big Honkin' deal has its price, after all, and credibility and trust are ESPN's in this one.

If that at all matters to them anymore.