Arizona’s sports franchises have surprisingly been dragged into the debate around the controversial new immigration law, showing that when political issues so pervade a community, a sports franchise — from the owner to the players — can’t pretend they are somehow above or below the fray.

ESPN New York went live yesterday, and upon first glance it looks like the worldwide leader of sports has a legion of writers and content producers hellbent on making the sports section of the New York Times obsolete. But according to a new GQ piece, that might not be entirely true.

A colleague (who is handsome and wise) recently discovered an old Media Metrix report delineating “World Wide Web Audience Ratings” for December 1998. It’s a remarkable study, categorizing thousands of sites and conglomerated web companies. all of the component elements, but it’s unrecognizable. As though they’re all brands made up for movies.

HLN host and The View panelist Joy Behar and actress Cynthia Nixon received the top honors at the Gay an Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Awards handed out March 13 in New York. Behar won the excellence in media honors and Nixon received the Vito Russo Award for advocacy by an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender media person.

In anticipation of SportsGrid, Mediaite’s upcoming sports baby (babies having babies!), and the crazy Power Grid-related arguing which will follow that launch we’ve decided to count down our list of the top 25 most influential sports bloggers, writers, and tweeters currently shaping the online sports narrative.

ESPN has finally realized the ultimate way to connect with its fan base – throwing a house party. Still riding the wave of the undying phenomenon that is Fantasy Sports, the network is going one step further in engaging their Fantasy Footballers at the most crucial time of their year (the draft): local events and draft parties!

During the the Yankees – Red Sox game last night, ESPN was experimenting with a new technology – one that takes on extra significance in light of last week’s rigid internal memo clamping down on social media. ESPN told Mediaite the “specific tools and implementations are in development” for greater incorporation of social media into ESPN.com and beyond”, and last night that plan took effect. How did it go?