Skinning the Issues
November 19th, 2004So this is the country we now live in. Tonight I watched sports commentators talk in serious tones for twenty odd minutes about the issue of accountability as it related to the Monday Night Football skit featuring the Eagle’s Terell Owens. They were curious to know “whose head will roll” because a bunch men aimed at watching football were exposed to a nude woman’s back. Oh, the humanity.
Or, fancy this, maybe the issue really did have more to do with race than everyone’s willing to admit—and I’m not talking about Dungy.
Either way, the issue of accountability had already been percolating in my mind. Seeing Condi Rice not just absolved, but rewarded this week for her role in the infamous “Bin Laden Determined to Attack the United States” memo just put the icing on the big hypocrisy cake.
Accountability. Is the media only seeing what it wants to see at this point? Why do they insist on prosecuting trivial things? Can they at least play some lip service to issues that matter?
November 19th, 2004 at 3:12 pm
What’s easier - covering a story that wasn’t created to be a story, or to cover a story which had the whole intent of creating a story?
Can’t tell me this wasn’t ALL ABOUT Monday Night Football trying to do something to increase interest. They knew this would be a controversy - that’s the whole intent from the point they began manufacturing it.
November 19th, 2004 at 5:45 pm
Honestly, I don’t think the marketing aspect is as calculated as people like to believe. Certainly, this will solidify Owens’ status as a sex symbol but I don’t see MNF getting a lot out of it except bad PR.
But I will agree if there was any bait, the media took it hook, line, and sinker.
Actually, I see it more like they’re given a choice between the blue pill and the red pill, but that’s a whole other philosophical discussion.
November 25th, 2004 at 12:43 am
hmm. heads don’t roll at the CIA for dropping things either. they like to sex things up too.
And hey…how could broadcasters know that the red states don’t like sex? I thought they just didn’t like gay sex? oh…yeah, now i remember that black nipple that nearly laid me out comatose for a year. yeah, i musta submerged that memory for fear of permanently damaging my values circuits.