I arrived tonight at a new understanding of the out-of-the-mainstream media, courtesy of Brett Favre and ESPN. With Ms LP and the Kid LPs out of town, I found myself working late, after which I took to my favorite watering hole, hoping to find baseball highlights on TV. The bartender had tuned the bar set to ESPN SportSCenter, a suitable choice. After all, we're moving into the heat of at least five hot pennant races, and each game is increasingly tense. SportSCenter might cover amazing come-from-behind wins, terrific pitching performances, key fielding plays, even a home run or two.
What was on ESPN SC while I sat and had my dinner? A solid hour of coverage of the fact that the Green Bay Packers have traded formerly retired quarterback Brett Favre to the New York Jets. Now, Favre is a big story. But to pre-empt pennant races, weeks before the start of the NFL season? Why -- and what does it have to do with Barack Obama?
Follow me across the fold...
Never forget that the corporate media cares above all about ratings and advertising. That means they'll tend to gravitate toward stories about people with star power. Brett Favre has star power, so ESPN spent an out-sized part of SC tonight on Favre's trade. What did we learn from all this coverage? In approximate order of emphasis:
- The Jets sold Favre on the commercial opportunities associated with being in New York
- Favre shouldn't have any trouble handling the New York press
- There are lots of rolling hills in northern New Jersey, where many Jets players live. This provides opportunities for recreation, like hunting, which aren't so readily available in Tampa Bay, home of the other team mentioned as a possible final resting place for Favre
- The Jets have a great new practice facility in New Jersey, which must also have been a factor
- The reporters found the Favre story exhausting to cover, since it was sort of a 24-hour-a day thing for a couple of days
- The Packers' players are glad it's all over
and incidentally
- The Packers will still be a very strong team without Favre
- By acquiring Favre, the Jets might have improved themselves to a .500 team (actually, ESPN soft-pedaled this point, suggesting that the Jets may double last year's four wins)
Never mind the fact that Albert Pujols hit a grand slam, or the Tampa Bay Rays scored six runs in the ninth to win. We need to know that the Jets' new practice facility is a key to the Brett Favre story.
To me, this is just like the coverage we've been complaining about concerning Barack Obama. Why does Obama get the scrutiny, and McCain a pass? Because Senator Obama has the star power, As happy as it makes us, we don't actually much want to watch Senator McCain make an idiot of himself. We already know he's an idiot, and his next gaffe is sort of like another game-losing error -- not the highlight we want to watch. And McCain's base certainly doesn't want to watch him be an idiot, so the corporate media just don't bother. No ratings, no advertising, no story.
But Obama, oh my! There's star power. Love him or hate him, you want to watch him. So of course he gets all the coverage. And since the whole world, for some reason, isn't ready to vote for him, the negative gets more play than we think is reasonable.
So when you're watching traditional TV, and they seem to dwell more on Obama's small missteps than on McCain's newest hypermoronitude, relax. It's all about star power and ratings.
And please -- what did the Giants do today?