Paula Lavigne didn't have the resume of a typical ESPN hire.
For one thing, back in 2008, Lavigne had never worked in sports, making her a surprising fit for a network devoted to covering them. And as an investigative data reporter for the Dallas Morning News and Des Moines Register, she specialized not in breaking news or delivering strong-willed analysis but in filing records requests and probing legal documents.
But ESPN had been looking for someone like Lavigne, and at the urging of a trusted former editor now at the company, she accepted a job and began applying her investigative skills to the sports world.
"I had never reported on sports, I had never worked for a television network," she remembered recently. "But I thought, 'Why not?' "
For years, ESPN has faced criticism for its attitude toward journalism, with skeptics pointing to apparent conflicts of interest surrounding leagues the network both covers and partners with (with its withdrawal from a 2013 Frontline documentary about concussions providing the most obvious example), and the way it sometimes privileges hot-take opinion over thoughtful reporting. Just this spring, the company announced it would shutter its award-winning magazine, eliminating a key vehicle for its best work.
Still, the network continues to employ journalists like Lavigne, who has reported for ESPN.com and "Outside the Lines" on corruption in college athletics, sexual abuse across the sports landscape and a variety of other weighty topics. In mid-May, ESPN accepted a Peabody award for its coverage (much of which Lavigne worked on) of sexual assault in the Michigan State University athletic department, including the abuses of former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Some ESPN veterans call the "Spartan Silence" project the best journalism the network has ever done.
"People often use the term 'stick to sports' as a way to say, 'We don't want to deal with these messy issues, let's just talk about what happened in the game,' " Lavigne said. "That's just really ignoring all the people: the athletes, the fans, the patrons, everyone whose lives are affected by sports. They need someone to speak for them, and they need someone to provide some level of accountability and justice off the field as much as they need an official or a referee on the field."
ESPN's reporting successes, along with its perceived failures, beg a question that has followed the company throughout its history: What exactly is the role of serious journalism at the worldwide leader in sports?
