Preaching to the SportsCenter congregation.(televising sports news)(Brief Article)

Coincidentally, the Leonard H. Goldenson Theater in North Hollywood resembles a church with a 20-foot Emmy crucifix out front. There, on a heaven-sent night last week, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences held an unprecedented worship service in the name of journalism, ESPN and SportsCenter.

Can I get an `Amen!'?

Officially, it was one of the academy's industry seminars. The invitation read: "Years ago, sports news consisted of three-minute local reports. That began to change in 1979 when ESPN launched SportsCenter, television's first program devoted totally to sports news. Today, sports news drives entire networks and the sports and entertainment industry are merging like never before...."

(This wasn't a night for heretics who consider ESPN 2001 an evil empire of multimedia, sports bars and X Games, Not the time to discuss strong-arming cable operators into paying higher rates. Not the time to discuss a Forbes article that noted slipping ratings and deduced, "a middle-aged paunch is settling on the 21-year-old channel." Not the place for SportsCenter to face continuing charges of crass cross-promotion, hyper-hammy narrators and promoting a society that applauds only homers and in-yo-face dunks.)

In attendance were producers, affiliates, advertisers--perhaps 300 of the 45 million who watch SportsCenter each month, maybe even the scriptwriter who keeps inserting ESPN's name on Friends.

ESPN dispatched old-timers Bob Ley, Dan Patrick, Stuart ...