ESPN President John Skipper acknowledged problems with the network’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Jets’ second third-string quarterback, claiming the WWL “didn’t handle (Tebow) very well.” Skipper became irritated after Doug Gottlieb’s “can’t talk enough Tebow” statement.

“The quote that I hated was from Doug Gottlieb. … I didn’t love that. I want people to think about what works for the next 10 minutes might not be the best thing for us for three years. That one hit home with me.”

Skipper claims he is trying to get ESPN producers to deploy some long-term perspective, instead of just hitting the Tebow button like trained lab rats to get better ratings.

“We’ve had some good discussions internally about trying to be careful. In some ways, the more difficult internal conflict is between long-term story telling and ratings. We all know that if you focus on the Tebow story, for the next 10 minutes you’re going to do better. But the question is trying to take a long-term perspective and saying, ‘Guys, let’s not get over excited about one story and hyping it.’”

One could claim ESPN’s quality control element has scored a victory over the “embrace debate” cabal here, though does Skipper come out with this comment if Tebow had not been milked dry? He is behind Greg McElroy in the pecking order. He has already been supplanted by the next media darling backup quarterback who can discuss his faith. He is whatever the opposite of now is.

With five weeks of hyping Notre Dame in the BCS Title Game left, is there any need to distort reality to troll for ratings?

[Photo via Presswire]