Who's Side Are You On?

As anyone who knows me knows, I love baseball. To me it is the greatest sport ever invented.   This is not a popular notion where I live, where football remains king, but I still feel that way.  People who say that baseball is boring never watched Game Six of last year's World Series or sat through the final innings of last night's perfect game by San Francisco Giant pitcher Matt Cain.

In fact, I would be so bold to say you wouldn't think baseball boring if you sat with me at a game.  I love the game within the game.  There are so many moving parts during a game that the less than average fan would miss it.   The communication between the bench and the catcher...the signs flashed to the pitcher.  The shortstop and second basemen signaling which one will cover the bag in the event of a stolen base attempt.

My usual comeback to people who tell me that they find baseball boring is: "Well, it is a thinking man's game."  Sure there is more full body action during hockey or basketball; and football offers explosive plays. But for me the NBA has gotten to be a joke until the finals.  Give both teams 100 points and put 2 minutes on the clock and lets save some time.

Baseball is still a regional game.  It has lost some of its appeal as the "National" Past Time because of the NFL's one game a week hype by its rightsholders.  Here in the south, college football is more religion than it is an athletic competition.

The regional nature of baseball makes it difficult to gauge its national status.  MLB has never been healthier and when you look at the ratings of local baseball broadcasts it holds it own.  Baseball fans are loyal to their team.  There is a difference between a Cardinals fan and a plain ole baseball fan.  Some people will watch baseball no matter who is playing.  Other are only interested in watching their team.  Fantasy leagues and the various viewing packages have increased out of market games.  I find myself checking in on other games to see what my fantasy players are doing.

I am such a baseball/Cardinals fan that I have XM in my car and MLB.TV on my computer so I can listen/watch all their games.  The way it works with my packages is that you only get the home team's broadcasts.   So, I get to listen to a lot of different announcers.  Maybe it is sour grapes from a former minor league announcer but there are a lot of pretty bad P-B-P guys working right now.  (topic for another blog maybe)

The point of this blog entry is to hold a mirror up to baseball fans and reflect how Americans get their news.  Say what?  Bear with me a little longer.  Because baseball is such a regional sport fans get used to the way the games are called by their favorite team's announcer.   Mike Shannon and John Rooney do the Cardinals games and there is no question who they work for.  Same is true with Marty Brenneman of the Reds, Milo "we and they" Hamilton of the Astros or even Vin Scully of the Dodgers.  That is just the point.  We want our announcers to be for our team. 

In most cases, a typical local broadcast is going to center on the home town boys at least 75 percent and the other team about 25 percent...give or take.  But when we watch a nationally televised game on Fox or ESPN the crew has to be more balanced.  They generally try to be 50-50.  Of course, the game often dictates some of that.

Now comes the interesting part.  Fox broadcaster, Joe Buck says that whenever he does a World Series game he gets angry letters from BOTH sides telling him that he is biased against their team.  Texas fans complained that he was pro St. Louis.  St. Louis fans told him he was going out of his way to talk about the Rangers.  Sounds to me like he must have gotten it right.  We are not used to hearing the other team get half the attention.  It is not what we want nor expect. 

So how does that apply to news?  I am glad you ask. Look around at your friends and the people you enjoy hanging out with.  If you are like most people you find friends that have something in common with you.  You share the same interests, hobbies, same type of movies, etc.  I know some people who just like to argue or debate but for the most part most people want to be around folks that tend to think the same way they do.

The same is true of the type of news programming you prefer.  No question MSNBC leans left and Fox News leans right.  In my opinion, CNN falls somewhere in between.  I have already debated that statement with some folks...but lets go with that for now.   Jumping back to the baseball analogy, if you are a left leaning Democrat you want to listen to like minded commentary and agree with MSNBC's approach. If you are a right wing leaning Republican you most likely prefer Fox News.  You see you want to hear it from your "hometown" announcer.  See where I am going with this? 

Don't get me wrong.  There is enough bias to go around.  But sometimes the bias is in the eye of the beholder.  My whole point is this country no longer knows what news is.  We have "News Channels" but the biggest part of their programming is commentators analysing the news...giving their opinion.

As for me, I watch them all.  I want to see how Fox is covering a story and how they can make it Obama's fault. I am interested how MSNBC will spin it so that the Republicans look bad.  Here is my thinking: When someone has to tell me they are "Fair and Balanced"  or "No Bias No Bull"  or to "Lean Forward" red flags go off for me.  Ye protestest too much!

The news is no different than buying a car or a flat screen TV.  Test drive it.  Check it out.  Compare. Don't just buy it because your dad always drove Chevys.  We as a nation have a responsiblity to be better consumers of news.  If we demand more, if we expect more...eventually the quality will improve.  Don't just get your news from one source..shop around.  You may end up back where you started but you will have done the heavy lifting to make you better informed. 

As for who's side is the media on...well they should be on OUR side.  That is their job...to seek the truth and tell it fully.  Go ahead and root for the home team; but the opponent can make some great plays too and it is unkind and unwise to think otherwise.

Thanks for reading.

Jeff