There was a time when a full back page in a NY tabloid would constitute news. Friday's scoop by Bill Madden, about how none of the Yankees made Bob Sheppard's funeral, was essentially ignored in the national broadcast on Saturday by Fox and friends. In the old days, you just put up the newspaper, because a published report meant that news had been made, and required a comment. Then you get a rebuttal, a few opinions, and journalism is alive and well. Not as far as I could tell. I watched as much of the Fox broadcast as I could justify, and never saw a mention. It was a day for paying homage to the pinstripers, not to question their hearts.
Bill Madden appeared on radio station WFAN, stood by his story, and called the superficial newscasters who questioned his story as people "who didn't do their homework." The pinstripe propaganda was that an accident made the commute to the funeral impractical. Horsespit according to Madden, a hard boiled baseball/newspaper man. Now that's good theater in the guise of journalism. Two sides, plenty of tension, viewer makes a choice. Keeps the discussion lively, makes the viewer an important part of the equation, as the court of public opinion gets shaped.
But instead we had a well-scripted homage to the World's Most Powerful Sports Franchise. And what self-respecting TV sports entertainer wants to get on the bad side of the Yanks? Wish they brought Madden in for an inning. Seam dreams, it seems. Add journalism to the list of deaths in the Bronx this week.
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what are you crazy folks saying? I'm going to the U.S. Government and get a translator. :)
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