peeeeeeeeeeeeeve...

[madamesilverspurs]

So the local news just spent the first five minutes of their broadcast talking about the Broncos' game. Interviewed fans who were quite literally crying, sobbing over a fucking football game. Did a review of past games that have been worse. Finally got around to discussing the snow falling in the mountains, kind of important for those travelling that way and for those who have family in the area. Some mention of the latest political polls, followed by a promise to further discuss the game after the commercial break. By a quarter after the hour seven whole minutes have been spent on other-than-football; now it's time for the sports section.

"News" that treats a game as though it is earthshakingly important. Fans who cry over the score. And we're puzzled that Buck and Tancredo and Palin have fans who support them. Riiiiight.


=

[mediaman007]

1. Along the same line:

I watched the ending of the Green Bay/Minnesota game. The network tried to follow Brett Favre off the field since it was most likely his last game in Green Bay. Sensing this, many Packer players and personnel took the time to give Favre some face time. Just as the Favre reached the end zone on his way out of the stadium, the fans erupted in a massive boo! These are the drunked up fans that would not recognize what Feingold has meant to our country either.

While I certainly don't think that this is nearly as significant as your issue, the behavior seemed parallel.

[Hissyspit]

2. Bread and Circuses

People don't even get the bread now.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. are you new to the Denver media market?

I lived in Vail for years. Back before the Rockies of the Avalanche existed. All there was for sports were the Nuggets (who mostly sucked) and the Brenver Donkos, err... I mean the Denver Broncos.

It got to the point that I wanted them to lose just so I could get one day without constant talk about Elway and the gang. Any week they won the media would go on about it for 4 days and then start talking about the next game on Friday. Any week they lost the media would move on after a couple of days and you could get a thursday, and sometimes even a Wednesday, without any Donko news.


I moved back to Michigan about 17 years ago but I still dislike the Donkos just because of the media coverage I had to endure. (although I am now able to like a talented player on the team now and then)


Good luck to you, I feel your pain.

[madamesilverspurs]

4. Colorado native, actually.

And quit being a fan of any team when everything important began to take the backseat in the media. Haven't watched any game since the day Elway's hiring was announced. We had a few weeks of relevance following 9-11, but it didn't last.

Enjoy Michigan! My dad was from there, in his 20s captained for the Detroit Yacht Club during Prohibition, ran bootleg whiskey from Canada. Grandparents lived in Iron Mountain and Pontiac. Have a pasty for me, will ya?

-

[Hawkeye-X]

22. Here, Denver Broncos was our religion growing up.

McDumbass still can't coach his way out of a paper bag.

This is supposed to be an rivalry, not a laughingstock.

I want to see McDaniel's walking papers this week.

[Sonoman]

5. The coolest musical event of the year was held in our town, last night.

I could go into details, but the gist is...

The local music community was celebrating the leaving (to NOLA, a story unto itself) of one of our local legends.

Everybody showed up. Some of us were playing with other locals we had never gigged with before, a really cool amalgam. We suffer no shortage of great players, here in Wine Country.

We were peeling the paint off the walls.

And in the corner of the hall was a big screen.

And a hundred fools who should have stayed home.

Some of the best music to be heard in Sonoma in a long time was punctuated by drunken cheers.

And the thing was a fundraiser for the Sonoma Developmental Center (a place for the really way out folks).

Don't get me wrong, here. I am an athlete and a coach. But this obsession with major league sports just baffles me. If they only put that energy into family/life/world things would be a lot different.

Transformation. Some things (Major League stardom) are virtually unattainable. Family/Community is right at hand.

Sonoman

[Warren DeMontague]

8. I'm familiar with the area, pretty well

if you don't mind my asking, who/where was it? I can think of a few "local legends" in Sonoma.

[Sonoman]

11. Sonoma Veteran's Center

The one on First Street West.

John "Big Daddy Murr" was retiring from The Crazy Place (and EZ Kewl)..

Going to New Orleans, where there is a band just waiting for him.

Everybody was there except Norton Buffalo.

RIP my dear Norton.

Pardon my drinking, just wanted to reply.

You should have been there.

Sonoman

[pinboy3niner]

12. The way you tell it, I wish I HAD been there

Been through a few Vet Centers, myself. Even wrote a story about one for the VVA Veteran titled, "The Last Vet Center." The Vet Center in Springfield, VA was supposed to be the last of the 187 Vet Centers planned by the VA. Now, there are more than 300, including one that just opened in my community. My best friend was hired as the PTSD Counselor, so I'm optimistic about their prospects.

Sounds like you had a good thing going on First Street West. Sorry I missed it, bro. RIP to Norton. He must have been a hell of a man.

:patriot:

[pinboy3niner]

10. Well said!

And so poetically, too.

Thanks for your report, Sonoman. I sincerely hope that, beyond your musical interests, you are writing, as well. I suspect you're probably good with music, but I KNOW you're good with words.

Thanks for this. :thumbsup:

[Jamastiene]

6. Be thankful.

If someone had prayed during the football game, you wouldn't have gotten even that seven minutes of real news. It would have been nothing but football and prayer.

Recced. I couldn't agree with you more. It is beyond annoying.

[pinboy3niner]

7. There are Liberal sports fanatics, too

Personally, after I got back from Vietnam I didn't give a shit any more about sports. After that experience, my sense of what was truly important didn't include sports at all.

Afterward, when I was going to USC, there was only one sports event I went to. We had a student program that was an outreach to inner-city kids, and we took them to places they'd never experienced, like Griffith Park and the beach. (Yes, we had poor L.A. kids who'd never been to the beach.)

And the only Trojan football game I ever went to was when we took our kids there.

I don't want to slam sports fans. I really can understand and appreciate their enthusiasm for their favorite teams. And I'm mindful that that includes Liberals. And I think our Liberal members who may cry over the score may be no less interested in our political battles and no less committed to our candidates.

I lost my interest in sports long ago, but I don't begrudge those who are fans. And I don't assume that their sports fanaticism prevents them from being oncerned, engaged citizens who also are invested in their political causes and candidates. Especially here at DU.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. +1

[pipi_k]

14. Thank you....one of the more disturbing aspects of political fanatics is

that they think other people should be just as fanatical as they are...nothing but political hand-wringing and drama 24/7.

If you're not doing that, you're not doing it "right".

Bad!!! Bad bad people who might want to take a few hours or maybe even (GASP!!!) a whole day off from the melodrama of politics.


Liberals are NOT supposed to find pleasure in anything the political fanatics think is worthless or frivolous or indicative of a "RW mentality".

Some of the more disturbing political fanatics even advocate ending relationships with family members who aren't Democrats. To them, all Republicans are nothing but scum, and all Democrats are the salt of the earth.

People can take sports and put it into perspective and yes, in the larger scheme of things, it's relatively unimportant. But do the same thing with politics... take a mental trip out to the farthest reaches of our solar system and look on this tiny little blue dot and do the same with politics. Even they don't matter much in the larger scheme of things.

It's only when we get to the individual level that things really get important, and it really sucks when other people try to tell us what SHOULD or SHOULD NOT be important to us based on what they think.

Sorry...didn't mean to rant. This is just one of those things that burns me up...people thinking that they're the only ones who know what should or shouldn't be important to others...

[blondeatlast]

20. +1. nt

[CBR]

24. I appreciate your post.

Studying public policy and being involved in politics is my job. It is nice to have sports as a refuge from it all. I have cried over the Phillies and WVU sports numerous times and I will continue to do so. It is not a reflection of my commitment or intellectual capacity.

[unblock]

13. i stopped watching local news a couple decades ago. "what can kill you today! news at 11!"

"coming up, what you need to know or you might die! after these messages!"

"still to come, what everyone has to do or suffer a grizzle premature death! but first...!"

"and finally, our last story, some doctors recommend annual physicals. thank you and g'nite!"

[pipi_k]

15. Yep...and to make it even worse...

What's about to kill us today, next week is actually GOOD for us...and vice versa.

The "news" these days is nothing more than bullshit. Oh, and one of the things I absolutely cannot stomach...there are a few "journalists" on TV whose reporting style make me nauseous because they're so fucking insulting.

Go into a preschool class and listen to the teacher tell the kids a story. The cutesy poo voice...the way her voice rises and falls when parts of the story get exciting (like when Little Boo Kitty catches a dandelion fluff ALL BY HERSELF!!! Oh, isn't that just wonderful, children???) and that's how these twits sound.

Like they're telling a Little Boo Kitty story to a bunch of 4 year olds.


One in particular I want to shove a sock in her mouth whenever Mr P tunes in to that channel (and it's not Fox News, either).


Please. Just give us the news without emoting like we're all a bunch of toddlers.

[unblock]

16. that's partly because the newsreaders don't understand what they're reading

and it doesn't matter because whatever it is, they have to make it seem more sensational and captivating than whatever's on another channel.

they'd add a spielberg-esque emotionally manipulative soundtrack if only they could figure out how to do that cost effectively.

[pipi_k]

18. There have been times when I've been appalled....

to hear one of them give a totally wrong interpretation of what was actually said.

Mostly I heard it during the 2004 election season when John Kerry would make a statement and I understood what he meant, but then some dopey newscaster would paraphrase what he said and it wasn't even CLOSE.

I still see it occasionally now, but not so much. Or maybe I'm just not paying much attention anymore...

[unblock]

19. they're especially ignorant when reading a medical or scientific story

they'll read a story about how super ultra mega doses of vitamin c might be useless or even harmful --

and then say "so, bob, i know you love your oranges, but maybe you should only eat them every OTHER day, huh?"
as if weatherman bob could POSSIBLY eat enough oranges to remotely get in the range of vitamin c dosage they were just talking about in the story!

[yesphan]

21. Do you

Live in the OKC market or is this just standard fair nationally ?
I'm actually embarrassed by my local news outlets. All of them.

[unblock]

23. i live in the greater nyc area, but it's terrible everywhere

i've lived in ohio, texas, massachusetts, new jersey and now connecticut

it's terrible everywhere.

[AngryOldDem]

17. I hear ya.

On one station here in Indy the Colts are almost always the lead story during football season. Last week, a 15-year-old kid disappeared during some convention that was in town, but first this station had to spend a good 10 minutes talking about the latest team injury.

Don't understand it either.

[DavidDvorkin]

25. I know. I really hate that.

It doesn't even have to be a game. A Bronco getting hurt or leaving the team or joining the team becomes the first story on the local TV news shows. Followed shortly after by the absurdly long regular sports section of the news.