More on Race, Sexuality and Media...

Not that anyone is still reading this blog, but I thought the following article on ESPN.com's Page 2 about the HBO series "The Wire" shares some interesting perspectives on race and homosexuality.

Thursday, November 16, 2006
Will HBO series change attitudes?
By LZ Granderson
Page 2

Be the change that you want to see in the world
-- Mohandas Gandhi


With all due respect to the good people who hand out the Emmys, the best show on television has nothing to do with horny housewives, castaways or Jersey. It's "The Wire" -- HBO's gritty depiction of Baltimore's war on drugs. It's dripping with so much political corruption and unsettling social commentary that it's hard to tell whether you're watching a TV show or the news.

The series has been the darling of critics since it debuted four years ago. It has also become one of the most-watched programs among black athletes.

Carmelo Anthony loves the show.

As does Steve Francis.

Larry Hughes is also fan.

The Baltimore Ravens? Half the squad TiVo's it.

"The things in the show are some of the things I saw growing up in Detroit," says the Ravens' Derrick Mason. "Maybe not that drastic, but it's pretty real."

It should be. David Simon, the show's creator, was a police reporter for the Baltimore Sun. His writing partner, Edward Burns, taught social studies for seven years in the Baltimore school system after serving for 20 years as a city police detective. If those two can't get it right, no one can.

"A lot of black athletes like the show because it really tells it like it is," says Hughes, who grew up in St. Louis. "It goes beyond just who got shot, which makes it more interesting, because life in the 'hood is more complicated than that."
Which brings me to my point.

Omar -- the gun-slinging vigilante who, without question, is one of the most respected and loved characters on the show -- is gay. And I'm not talking the secretive and shady Haggard/Foley variety. I'm talking waking-up-buck-naked-with-his-buck-naked-Latino-boyfriend-on-the-other-side-of-the-bed gay. Everyone on the block knows. And so does the audience.
Can you think of another show or movie in which pro athletes openly root for the gay guy? I can't.

Detroit native Derrick Mason follows the HBO series "The Wire" and says it's a fairly accurate portrait of inner-city life."The thing is that's such a small portion of who Omar is," Mason says. "He is respected because he is tough, he doesn't take any stuff from anybody and he doesn't apologize for anything that he does or who he is."

Hughes says he just "closes his eyes to that part."

"He's one of the best characters on the show," the Cavs guard says. "I think Omar is very believable. If you can have a businessman be on the down low, why can't you have a gangsta?"
Or athlete?

"That's different," Mason says. "Because Omar does his thing but you don't have to be around him all of the time. In football, you spend so much time together and you're in the shower … it's just different. I still think if an athlete comes out, he would be committing professional suicide."
But Mason's teammate, Bart Scott, has a different take.

"I don't care what he does in his personal life," the linebacker says. "All I care about is, 'Can he help me win football games? Can he help me win a Super Bowl?'"

Simon says people often ask him why he made Omar gay. He says the real question is, "Why did I make the other characters straight?"

"With each character on the show I tried to base it on one or two people who I actually knew of in Baltimore," he says. "Omar is no different.

"Look, the world is a complicated place. Nothing's black or white … not even race."

Michael K. Williams, the actor who plays Omar, says he believes one of the reasons athletes are not put off by his character's sexual orientation is because of his overall strength.

"Brothers approach me all of the time thanking me for giving them a TV character they can identify with," he says. "They tell me how they are tired of sexuality being the only thing gay characters talk about on TV and how Omar is so much more than just a gay dude. He has a code that he lives by. He has the respect from other people in the 'hood because if you cross him up, he's going take his shotgun out and handle his business.

"But the big thing is Omar doesn't apologize for who or what he is. He lives his life without shame."

After talking to a number of athletes about "The Wire" and specifically Omar, I came away with the feeling that male athletes aren't opposed to gay teammates simply because they are gay. It's because they perceive them as being weak, and they may continue to believe that until a gay athlete finally comes out during his playing career.

If a current gay athlete came out, could the scenario be any more difficult than what Jackie Robinson faced when he broke baseball's color barrier in 1947?I know that at the heart of it all, it's a fictional show. But the way I see it, if Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony can fight for a woman's right to vote in the 1800s; if Jackie Robinson can integrate baseball in 1947; if Rosa Parks can say "No" on that bus in 1955; if Don Haskins and the young men of Texas Western can ignore death threats to win a championship in 1966; if Hank Aaron could muscle the courage to break Babe Ruth's record in 1974, then what on Earth is stopping gay athletes from saying "Yes, I am" in 2006? How can they possibly believe their situation is any worse than those mentioned above? Yes, it's insightful to hear the story of a guy who comes out of the closet after he retires. But isn't it about time someone does it beforehand and be the change, as opposed to just hope for it? It won't be easy, but few things in life worth having are.

On the HBO Web page for "The Wire," there is a steady stream of blog posts about the show and its characters. One of the bloggers describes Omar as "that badass mother------ with the shotgun, smokin' on a Newport cigarette, and runnin' corner boys off like little bitches."

I believe what it doesn't say, says it all.

LZ Granderson is a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine and host of the ESPN360 talk show "Game Night." He is currently working on his first book. LZ can be reached at l_granderson@yahoo.com.

Is baseball still our nation's pastime?

Related to this week’s readings discussing motivations for watching sports on television, team identification and fandom, a recent AP-AOL poll found that only one third (32%) of Americans are fans of professional baseball (http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061020/NEWS/610200410/1005). A total of 2,002 adults were included in the telephone poll, conducted earlier this month during the League Championship Series. Among other findings:
· more Americans 35 years and older than under 35 considered themselves baseball fans;
· whites were more likely than minorities to classify themselves as baseball fans;
· nearly half of all baseball fans (48%) are hoping Barry Bonds falls short of Hank Aaron’s career home run title;
· more Americans (28%) consider exorbitant salaries as the biggest problem in baseball, followed by cost of game admission (21%), and steroids (19%).

Moreover, Neilson ratings for the baseball playoffs are down considerably this year (http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_4519951), with this year’s World Series between the Tigers and the Cardinals expected to break record low ratings set last year when the White Sox defeated the Astros.

But despite this apparent drop in baseball’s fan appeal, MLB’s single-season attendance record was broken for the third consecutive season, surpassing 75 million people for the first time (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060930&content_id=1691363&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb).

I find it surprising that baseball would only appeal to one-third of Americans. From my observations going to sporting events, baseball seems to have the broadast fan base, with fans from all demographics attending games.

My question is: how many people are baseball fans, will you be watching the World Series this week, and if so, what motivates you to watch (assuming you’re not a fan of either the Cardinals or the Tigers)?

ESPN SportsCenter - Y2K Test

After class I thought I should post my fav commercial. Enjoy -Ben Handelman

Sports Isn't Free

It is no shocker to everyone these days our world of sports television is growing rapidly. You can't turn on the TV without at least flipping by sports programming. Even non sport stations like TBS, CNN, and HBO all give extensive time to sports every day. Now with new sports stations on the rise, questions are being raised on the effect of new sports channels on the market as a whole.

In an article released on Reuters this week, discussion is being brought to the table by one of televisions most powerful men. Chairman and CEO of Comcast Brian Roberts is worried about the rising cost to viewers from all the new sports media appearing on cable television. Comcast is in a unique position because not only do they hold the nations largest cable company, but they own a regional sports network and the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Fliers.

Roberts says in the article "I think we should have a dialogue on each team starting their own channel, every league starting their own channel, taking up a lot of bandwidth, a lot of consumer money...Everywhere out there you raise the question: who pays for that channel, and is that going to be all viewers or those who are sports fans?".

Roberts is bringing up questions in my opinion at the right time. We are on the verge of sports television explosion. We have discussed in class that the NHL is starting a new network to compete with the NFL network and NBA TV. The article says that the US Olympic committee is considering a television channel as well as several college outlets. In our region alone we are flooded with individual teams sports networks such as NESN, YES, Sports Net New York, MSG and so on.


How far are we away from every team having their own channel in every sport? Should there be a limit on the amount of new sports television stations? Can we go too far? Can they be profitable? And MOST importantly is it fair to the customers? While your Royal loving buddy Steve is loving the new Kansas City Baseball Network, who will pay? Cable companies will raise prices to offer more programming that your grandmother who loves knitting, not sports, will be forced to pay for.

I am interested to see what opinions everyone has about the possibility of being OVER saturated with sports television.

I think Brian Roberts should get a collective thank you from his customers and cable customers for starting this discussion. Clearly he is worried about the possibility of sky rocketing costs to his viewers, many who do not even watch sports.

KDKA loses Pirates broadcast

This story relates to our discussion this week about radio. KDKA Radio has been carrying Pittsburgh Pirates baseball broadcasts since 1921. But the team has dropped the old-school AM station in favor of a Clear Channel affiliate, ending one of the longest running broadcast partnerships in sports. Here's the story from the Pgh Post Gazette.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06256/721380-63.stm

Sports Role in post-9/11 Society


September 11, 2001 is a day that will remain forever embedded in the minds of all Americans as the day terrorism hit home and changed our lives forever. We all remember where we were, what we were doing and how we reacted. We also remember how we dealt with the tragedy.
Sports was one of the many coping devices Americans used to deal with the devastating attacks and, as a result, the deep social significance of sports in our culture was further revealed.
Our reading for this week discusses the coverage of sports in the print media, beginning with issues of sports journalism as a serious form of journalism. Wayne Wanta of the University of Missouri (Wanta 105) writes, “Newspaper editors often consider sports a necessary evil: Sports sections are among the most read, but sports are not viewed with the same respect as other newspaper staples, such as crime news, politics, and business. Add to this the impression held by many editors that sportswriters do not take themselves seriously and sometimes engage in ethically questionable practices, and it is no wonder that sports departments are often looked upon as the “toy department” of newsrooms.”
Although sports sections may have the knock of not being as “respectable” as hard news, 9/11 showed us that sports and society are tightly intertwined. Sports offered Americans a temporary escape from harsh reality of the attacks and a sense of return to “normal life” by taking in a game.
Flip Bondy, a contributing writer to MSNBC.com and a columnist for the New York Daily News summed up sports role in post-9/11 American society in his September 5 article "After 9/11, it was no longer 'just' sports “We could take the good from it, revel in the triumphs, forget any disappointment at our convenience. There were no real ramifications. It is why sports can bring us such comfort, when real life brings us such great pain. It is why they resumed the games in New York, after the planes hit.”
Baseball returned to New York on Sept. 21, 2001 with the Mets hosting the arch-rival Atlanta Braves. Mike Piazza, the heart and soul of the New York Mets, would provide fans with something to cheer about as he blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning that would prove to be the game winner.
"It is kind of an iconic moment," Piazza said as reported on www.mlb.com, "to say there's a beginning to the healing process, to try to get back to living our lives.” http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060906&content_id=1649210&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym
It was moments like this that were played out in stadiums all across the country that gave Americans a little relief from the heartache and a reason to join together and cheer. Sports gave Americans a temporary reprieve from the attacks and a chance to honor the men and women that lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
On Monday as we take time remember and honor the men and women who lost their lives five years ago we can also stir up the memories and images that helped us deal with the tragedies.
One of mine is Piazza’s home run against the Braves on the night baseball returned to New York.
What’s yours?