February 15, 2006: A White
Russian Commentary
By White Russian
The State of the News
There are three long-standing criticisms of mainstream news outlets. One is
that there is very rarely any good news, another is that there is an extreme
bias reflected in the reporting, and the third is the way stories and non-stories
are subject to overkill, which really became all the rage with the advent
of the 24-hour cable news channels. This overkill factor has reached the point
of ridiculous. Take two of the top stories in the news for example –
the government response to Hurricane Katrina and the hunting accident involving
the vice president.
The Katrina story has been going on and on for months. Okay, we got it – the response by the government should have been better. How many hearings, statements and press releases does there need to be? The hurricane happened, lives were turned upside down, and, big surprise, the government turned out to be inefficient. The government is inherently inefficient. People need to stop looking to the government to do something and start looking to themselves. It is sad and tragic and rotten and horrible what happened, but it happened. Now it is time to move on and rebuild. People who were affected should stop playing the victim and stop blaming the government for what it should have or could have done, but did not do or did not do quick enough. And stop playing the race card. The government response to Katrina was what it was because that is the way government is – it had nothing to do with skin color.
The Cheney hunting story is really a non-story, yet it has been at the top of the news every day since it happened. There are claims that the presidency is being secretive and has some diabolical intent because they did not notify the news agencies before taking the wounded man to the hospital. All that happened was a simple hunting accident. It happens. The difference here is that the vice president was involved. The actions taken after the accident are what you would expect to happen. The man who was shot was rushed to get medical attention and the proper authorities were notified. There was nothing unusual in the way the situation was handled. The only thing unusual is how the mainstream news has pounced on the story like this is some kind of big scandal. There is no scandal. There is nothing to cover up. It is a sidenote.
The Olympics
If
it weren’t for digital video recorders the Olympics just might be unwatchable.
During prime time there are lots of commercials, too much figure skating,
and too many special interest stories. During the weekend, there was a cross-country
ski event that may have been a real exciting race, but the way it was covered
was awful. The start of the race was shown, including when a group of skiers
fell at the start. One of those that fell was the guy who tied for gold four
years ago. Then came commercials. After the lengthy break, they rejoin the
race and recap how the fallen skier got back into the race. It seems his fellow
countrymen rushed to the front of the pack and slowed everyone down. The rest
of the pack complied in a show of sportsmanship and the fallen skier got back
with the leaders. Why this was shown as a quick recap is unknown. Due to the
time difference in Italy, the race had long been over and they could have
shown any parts of the race they wanted to in real time and not act as though
this wonderful thing happened while they were away at commercial. After the
quick recap came more commercials. This went on for a while – there
would be the ever so brief snippets of the race surrounded by commercials
and an occasional update from the main studio. Eventually we saw the end of
the race and the fallen skier ended up with a silver medal. Actual time elapsed
was probably about an hour. The actual race took a little more than an hour.
Actual race time shown was probably about ten minutes.
It is funny to watch the commentators during sports where the difference between winning and losing is fractions of a second. Take luge for example. Unless someone crashes or is having obvious trouble, all of the luge runs look the same. Yet the expert in the booth points out the little things that explain why a particular run is going good or bad. The thing is, it turns out the expert’s analysis often does not match the results. There have been a number of runs where the commentator is saying how bad it looks, then at the end the time will be very good, and the opposite as well, where the run looks really good, then the time turns out to be very bad. And the difference between very good and very bad is about half a second.
And then there is the event where results are based on judging. It is the most crooked Olympic event around – figure skating. In the short program for the pairs, the expert commentator was saying how one particular couple just didn’t look very good. Like they had no emotion. When the scores came in, they were among the leaders. And there was no further comment about them from the expert.
In the women’s half pipe, which does not seem like an Olympic type of event even though it is entertaining to watch, the competitors all seemed about the same, with each one going down the pipe showing off a few skateboard moves. Obviously there is a range of ability and some are able to do fancier stuff, but eventually they run out of things to do. The one that was impressive was the one from the United States who was the favorite to win gold. She was consistently higher than anyone else. So much higher that even a casual viewer could see she was in a class by herself. So high that the expert commentator got really excited that she was getting as much air as the men were. And then she fell at the end and finished fourth.
Grady Little
The
manager who left Pedro in when everyone watching knew he was done is getting
another chance – this time with the Dodgers. Little seems like a genuinely
good guy and he will probably do a good job in Los Angeles...until he has
to manage in a big game. What is not understood is why he still stands by
his decision to leave Pedro in. In a recent interview with the L.A. Times,
Little said about that fateful night, “You think about a lot of things,
what could have been. I’ve managed a lot of games, and the next day
a lot of times I wake up and think about what I could have done differently
to change the outcome of the game. This particular one, I wouldn’t have
done anything different.”
He wouldn’t have done anything different, even though the Red Sox had just taken a 5 to 2 lead and were heading into the 8th inning. Pedro had thrown 101 pitches and shook hands in the dugout as if he were finished. During the season, it was a well-known fact that Pedro after 100 pitches was nowhere close to Pedro before 100 pitches. His effectiveness was consistently lower once he hit that number. And still Little sent Pedro out to start the 8th, even though his bullpen had been golden during the post season. Naturally, Pedro got in trouble in the inning, prompting Little to go to the mound. Everyone thought Pedro was coming out, including the fans, the announcers, the opposing players, and the Red Sox bullpen. But he left him in and the rest is history. Pedro gave up the rest of the lead and the Sox lost in extra innings.
And Little says he wouldn’t do anything different.