Matt Snider
In the
Blackistone article “The Whitening of Sports Media and the Coloring of Black
Athletes’ Images”, the writer’s focus point is the differential treatment
receives by athletes of different races in sports. This is then, in turn,
exemplified by the predominately white reporting staff that writes and covers
most of sports. He cites numerous examples such as the difference in coverage
between the scandals of black athletes and white athletes.
Although
we as a society like to believe that things like race do not matter when
discussing people it is an apparent fact that it is present. Take Blackstone’s
examples of Ben Roethlisberger and Tiger Woods or Michael Vick for instance. The
Tiger Woods debacle dominated news facets like ESPN for weeks if not months
while the Roethlisberger case would warrant the brief update on how things were
proceeding and that was about it. One could probably wager that the average
sports fan on the street would know infinitely more details about the Woods or
Vick case over Roethlisberger’s. It was a similar, yet opposite case, as
Blackistone points out within the world of NCAA basketball a few years ago with
the glorification of Jimmer Fredette. Yet again, another incident arose a few
years ago in the NBA with the emergence of Jeremy Lin who, although not white,
still dominated the media outlets.
It is
in the same sense that the media portraying these actions are failing because
of a lack of diversity in the newsroom according to Blackistone. Again, finding
out the validity of his statements can be as easy as turning on the TV. Take Comcast
Sportsnet for example. During most post-game shows, the recap will feature two
to three middle-aged white men to talk about the game, unless it is a former
player or Derek Gunn. The lack of diversity within just that aspect is
unsettling.
To take that same approach to a
larger scale, according to Blackistone, the public would also notice the
frequency of more black reporters for sports such as basketball and football as
opposed to baseball and hockey. While hockey is a predominately white sport,
the amount of black athletes participating within the NHL is at all-time high
as well as other sports. Yet, the reporters and TV anchors you see reporting on
these sports do not reflect that rise.
The Whiteside article, however, hit
many other points facing sports journalists of today. One major point in her
piece that stuck out at me was the point about home team favoritism still
present within media. Although it may be hard to realize, especially when it’s
your team, the local media still paints a biased view of hometown sports teams.
This is something I’ve personally noticed in a big way in not being a
Philadelphia Eagles fan, yet a follower of football. Most often on the radio,
the announcers paint a picture that the Eagles are a mighty, yet unlucky team
while the opponents are inferior players yet just get lucky. One of the biggest
perpetrators of using this imagery is Merrill Reese. Often, when the opponent
is running the ball and is tackled by an Eagle, he is “flattened”, “crushed”,
or “drilled”. Yet when an Eagle is tackled they are “tripped up”, “brought down”,
or just simply “tackled”
Paper Topic: I was planning on doing the "Miracle on Ice" that took place during the 1980 Olympics if that isn't too far in the past.
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