End of the World Media

A Few Words

One thing that I learned over the last few years as a journalism student in college was the role of the media. I learned that the mass media was supposed to serve as a watchdog over important groups, organizations, and institutions. The main goal was to hold the government responsible and report the truth, and holding anyone in a position of power responsible and reporting the truth is what the media should do. I don't see much of that happening anymore. The media has turned into a mass scramble for ratings. It's become a write, report, say anything business, as long as you have one "source" you can pin it on. This has led to an "end of the world" daily report from the media. The smallest stories get blown out of proportion, or falsely reported. It's a sad disease that has infected most of the media in the U.S. 

Twitter Culture

With a scramble to be the first to report something and the ease of spreading a message to millions, the media has traveled down a bumpy road. There are countless issues that have been incorrectly reported through social media, such as, Twitter. 

One of my favorite to discuss is the misinformation of Joe Paterno's death. Some people look at it and say, "well he was on his death bed so it makes sense that they thought it was true." That isn't how the media is supposed to operate. When something seems likely, you investigate into it. You do your homework. Make some phone calls. Talk to a credible source. Don't take the word from some guy on the street in a Nittany Lion hat. Get in contact with his family, close friends, someone who can give you proof that he has died. 

The first people who reported it were the Onward State, an independent news organization out of Penn State. I wasn't that angry at them for making the mistake of reporting information from bad sources. If they made the sources up then I take issue. But, if they really had two people say, "hey Joe Pa's dead." I understand that you want to get that story out there. My issue is with the mainstream media. The CNN's and CBS Sports who saw the post from Onward State and decided to just run with it. They didn't make any attempts to check sources or anything. They just said, "we better get this out there before everyone else does," and that led to misinformation. You know who I respected the most in this incident. The news organization that said, "hold on a second. Let's make some phone calls and see if we can talk to his son, Jay, or someone close to him." Those people didn't look like fools and they were the heroes who showed everyone it wasn't true. 

In today's society, there is an opening for anyone to act like a reporter with cell phone cameras, smart phones, and etc. This puts the people who are actually paid to report information in a hot seat to get the information or take the information that this casual reporter finds and make sure it is factual and report it. It's hard to be honest when you have a boss breathing down your neck for you to get good ratings.

Heat Check

In this situation, there aren't fallacies being reported. This situation has overreactions constantly. When the Miami Heat win they are the greatest group of players to ever step on the floor. They are the tri-fecta - the father, son and the holy spirit on the court. When they lose... They need to trade Chris Bosh before the next game starts. Dwyane Wade is too old to be efficient and needs to retire. And, LeBron is a basket case who can't figure out if he wants to be a big man who scores inside or a distributor outside.

The overreaction of the media with teams like this is ridiculous. The Miami Heat are the perfect example of the "end of the world" and overreactions of the sports media. There is no analysis of what actually happened. There isn't a discussion of how the game actually went. The media just plays a name game where they call out everyone and don't back up why they're doing it. 

What happened to sportscasters being experts in the sports they're discussing. What happened to a time where we intently focus on the action on the court and try to make the best analysis off of that. If I look at this series, I see a Miami team that doesn't really respect San Antonio's abilities. That's why they didn't show up in Game 3. They beat the brains out of the Spurs in Game 2 and thought they could give 80% and still win by five. 

Now, if the Heat don't show up again tonight and fall behind 3-1, then I think it might be time to worry and then we can say they're in trouble. I haven't seen Miami really challenged in this series. They played a bad fourth quarter in Game 1 and chalked it up to fatigue. They blew San Antonio away in Game 2 and looked like they could win in 5. Then, they didn't show up in Game 3 after the dominating performance and now everyone is saying get rid of Bosh and Wade, the Big-3 era is over. 

The big-3 era might be over but it's not because of this series, and i'm not going to call for it to end. There are obvious issues with this team. Wade can't stay healthy anymore and Bosh has been turned into a two-guard in the four spot. Miami needs reliable talent around LeBron or he's going to scamper away to LA or Brooklyn or anywhere that will surround him with talent. They need a strong big man inside to pose a physical threat to the Hibbert's of the NBA. 

I'm not ready to say it's the end of the world for Miami, though. If they win this series, they very well could come back and win their third straight next year with the Big-3. It just doesn't look like they have it in them. Chicago was missing its best player and even though Miami won in 5, the Bulls bothered them. Indiana didn't have Danny Granger and took Miami to Game 7 and looked like the better team most of the time. Now the Spurs are up 2-1 heading into Game 4 tonight and Miami has to win three of five to take the trophy home. 

Here's my request sports media. Please stop making everything into a huge push for ratings. You don't have to fill me full of lies to sell your story. You can simply report good information and give me some insight that I might have overlooked. Educate the masses properly. Don't fill casual fans with nonsense that makes them think they are sports gurus. 

I'm tired of hearing some idiot regurgitate what he heard Magic Johnson and the NBA analysts say in the post game as his own information. Oh, you think Miami is in trouble and your reasons are exactly the same as Magic's? Damn, you'd make a great DVR if I missed the post game, but when it comes to having a real opinion or educated assessment on sports, just shut up.