Is the Media Destroying Sports?

(Photo by Kevork Djansezians/Getty Images)

I went to my mailbox yesterday as Thursday is generally the day I receive my new Sports Illustrated in the mail.

I've been an SI subscriber since about 1985 and it's a ritual I've come to love.

Opening the box, I was hoping to see a cover featuring the Lakers-Rockets duel, the great series being played between the Penguins-Capitals, or perhaps even a cover featuring the fantastic Manny Pacquiao.

I know the last one was wishful thinking but I'm a huge boxing fan.

Instead, I was treated to a photo of Manny Ramirez and the latest superstar to be caught using steroids.

Let's see...two biggest baseball stories this year have been A-Rod and his steroid confession and Manny and his positive steroid test.

What have been the biggest football stories? Anquan Boldin and his contract hold-out. Brett Favre and his latest retirement/unretirement/retirement. Jay Cutler whining his way out of Denver. Michael Vick and his never-ending saga with pit-bull fighting.

It's no secret the mainstream media thrives on negativity. Editors aren't stupid. They know a story featuring Alex Rodriguez and a stripper or steroid allegation is going to produce many, many more article reads than a feel-good story.

I'm even guilty of writing about A-Rod and his steroid abuse—although as a Seattle Mariner fan, I should be given a certain amount of leeway in anything relating to Rodriguez.

They know the public all too well.

Put a story up about an athlete and his charitable causes and the public yawns. Put a story up about an athlete in a strip club and the everyone is grabbing for a paper.

And, compared to 20 years ago, there's unprecedented competition for the public's dollars. It used to be three or four channels and a couple of newspapers. Now it's hundreds of channels, web sites, satellite radio, 24-hour sports AM radio, and more magazines than ever.

Every little tidbit of gossip or scandal is blown up and up and up.

How would Babe Ruth fare in today's game? Or those Yankees team featuring Micky Mantle?

Certainly, those guys were no saints and engaged in a fair amount of debauchery, womanizing, and boozing.

But the public never heard about it.

The media, to a certain extent, protected players.

Now, the media seems so negative. So mean spirited. 

I can't watch Jim Rome, or Pardon the Interruption, or any number of mind-numbing shows featuring shouting without substance or style.

Personally, I'm not sure I want to know how much athletes make, or what drug they're guilty of using, or what their social life is comprised of. I'm not really sure why that's "news."

I don't know what my plumber makes annually or if he's cheating on his wife, and I don't care. I just want him to fix the damn pipes.

It also makes me glad there's a media outlet like Bleacher Report because I'm starting to lose faith in the mainstream media. I actually find many of the writers on Bleacher Report to be on par with paid writers at newspapers and magazines.

But there isn't the cynicism for the most part. It's mostly very passionate fans who love writing about and discussing sports.

I find myself more and more going to Bleacher Report to read about sports rather than si.com or other traditional sites.

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