To hear the sportswriters tell it, it was “the best round of his life”… “a most improbable win”… “completed in stunning, awe-inspiring fashion”…
On Sunday, golf’s most popular lefty, Phil Mickelson, captured the coveted Claret Jug, as the winner of this year’s British Open. He was 5 strokes behind the leader when the day began, and as one writer penned, “Mickelson barely got a mention on the broadcast.”
Before we continue, friends, let me offer an initial, concise caveat. While the Intramuralist is without question a lover of sports, this is not a sports post. Not at all. In fact, with all due respect to the male members of my extended family, I’m actually not incredibly passionate about watching that little white, dented ball be smacked around on the grass all day. Play and partake? Gladly. Watch 4 hours on TV on a regular, weekend basis? No way. It’s just a little (ok, maybe a lot) too slow a sport for me.
Being that sports lover, however — and living in a household uniquely dominated by testosterone — it’s rather important that I am “up on” and equally knowledgeable regarding all that occurs in the athletic world; we have some great conversations around our house. Hence, I subscribe to regular sports updates from ESPN, the unquestionably successful Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Throughout the British Open, they sent me multiple daily texts, alerting me to the Open’s current status.
Here’s the non-sport-aspect challenge…
All 4 days of the British Open, ESPN sent me updates about Tiger Woods. Tiger was never in the lead. He spent most days somewhere around 6th place. But every text from the sporting news network — save for when Mickelson finally seized the lead — included information about Tiger Woods. In fact, going into Sunday’s final round, when Tiger had crept to a then current second place tie, the person with whom Woods was actually tied with was omitted from ESPN’s tweets. ESPN’s British Open tweets were always focused on Tiger Woods, regardless of who was performing better.
My “a-ha” moment came somewhere between rounds 3 and 4…
Does ESPN think I only care about Tiger Woods?
Why are they so seemingly fascinated with him?
Who then is deciding what is “news”?
Is the network deciding for me what’s newsworthy — even if it’s not?
I wonder.
I wonder how often media outlets dictate our news.
Are there times the media omits relevant information because of what they feel will gain greater ratings? … a larger audience? … and increased revenue? Are they, then, actually dictating what is “news”?
For the record, the answer is Hunter Mahan. Hunter Mahan was the professional golfer tied with Tiger heading into the fourth and final round of this year’s British Open.
Note: the Intramuralist will never intentionally omit a relevant detail in order to sway your response. We will not be the decider — nor, uh, the manipulator — of what is actually news.
Respectfully,
AR