I met Chris Harris today, senior fantasy football writer at ESPN. With this thread in mind, I talked to him about producers telling analysts, specifically former players, what to say and how to say it. I assumed that most networks told former players to dumb it down for their audience.
What he told me was actually pretty interesting. Harris said that when it comes to the players, it's "what you see is what you get" and that generally, the way they come off on camera is the way they are. He did say that producers tell him and other analysts, who are armed with more technical information, to focus on just one stat and to dumb down their information. I was surprised that the role was actually reversed.
He also said that the idea that a lot of outside minds have about ESPN, that it's one giant conglomerate and producers have little control over how the network presents their information was actually not very accurate. He said each producer is pretty much entitled to do their own thing, and that each show has free reign to essentially do what they want.
Thought this might be an interesting tidbit to add to the conversation.