Here’s some news that’s fit to print (in The Onion). First the good news:
- INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Peyton Manning Breaks Ground on Peyton Manning’s Children’s Hospital. Hospital will specialize in children’s care, neck injuries, and parlaying career-threatening injuries into $100M contracts.
- DENVER, CO – Tim Tebow Organizes Mission to Haiti. Performs several life-saving medical procedures. QB moved by faith and halftime voicemail from James Earl Jones “playing God”.
- SAN FRANCISCO – Giants Closer Wilson Donates Beard to Homeless. Fur provides coats for 40 Mission district youths.
And now the not so good news:
- NEW YORK, NY – Burress’ Second Self-Inflicted Wound Ends Career… And Burress Lineage. Wide receiver regrets delay in inventing sewn-in sweat-pant gun holster.
- CINCINNATI, OH – Bengals Defensive Line Working Chain Gang This Sunday. Inmate teammates already accustomed to orange uniforms.
BRISTOL, CT – Pube-tober-fest!: Notorious celebrity hacker Christopher Chaney uncovers megabytes of “sext” messages on Suzy Kolber’s iPhone. Forrests of gray short and curlies linked to Brett Farve, Anthony Weiner, and several “playas” to be named later.
If these mock headlines were actual stories, which would actually be more surprising; the good news or the bad?
If these events had actually unfolded, all in the same day, which stories would ESPN, Bryant Gumbel, or your local 11PM sports report give more airtime?
Which of these would be considered “news” and which would be relegated to “human interest” stories? Would any of the “good news” pieces be awarded the 10 minute “feel-good” segment Chris Connelly is occasionally afforded on the Sunday morning SportsCenter?
Is our society’s appetite for bad news is more voracious than Kobayashi’s gluttony over hot dogs?
The unfortunate thing is, this phenomenon is not limited to sports. When the government was busy bailing out General Motors and Chrysler, how many stories did we hear about Ford? Was no one interested in learning how Ford had taken steps several years earlier to avoid the issues GM and Chrysler were facing?
As a freshman at Penn State, I thought I could get an easy “A” by taking a class from Professor Patrick Trimble in a subject called “Integrative Arts”. How hard could it be to study television, right? Well, after nearly failing his first exam, Pat Trimble got my attention. He also planted in my head a classic question, which I continue pondering to this day: Why does it have to be like this?
More technically, Pat Trimble got his students thinking, “Does the media perpetuate existing dominant ideology, or can the media shape what the dominant ideology will become?”
To fit this issue more specifically, I’m asking you: “Do we actually expect and prefer stories about bad behavior, since this is what we expect from athletes? Or, can our media, by shining a light on the good works these individuals perform, inspire our culture to hold these people to a higher standard?”
I am not naïve enough to think that showing only good news will lead to a society on its perpetual best behavior. Never the less, I could use a little more good news, and a little less muckraking.
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, “I know it when I see it.” The same is true for muckraking. On October 5th, Brett Favre may or may not have mocked his successor for having only won a single Super Bowl. The sports media ran with this as a lead story!
I have to believe, somewhere out there, someone in the sports world did something a little more positive than that. I have to believe, whatever that story was, it would have done us a lot more good to hear about that instead. I know that was not the first day our sports media could have done better. I know it will not be the last day they let us down.
I also know that any additional time our media is willing to spend on good news, the better off we will be!
