Stanford women end UConn's record 90-game win streak-- is that news??

This is stuck on the CNN opening web page:

Stanford women end UConn's record 90-game win streak

This is today's world and this is CNN. Seriously. We have gigantic lobbies on both sides of the isle, we have entitlements, all sort of spending out of control, we are lagging in education and who knows, Iran wants to test its nukes in NK for plausible deniability. Ivory Cost troubles result in the death of many. But...

America do cares that Stanford won. Whoo-hoo.

Shame on CNN and the rest of plankton.

reply to post by buddhasystem


Yes. It's sports news. I know it must be difficult for you to understand that there are people in the world with interests outside of your own.

Originally posted by zerotime
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

Yes. It's sports news. I know it must be difficult for you to understand that there are people in the world with interests outside of your own.

It's not difficult. I actually am interested in a whole number of subjects from vintage synthesizers to just the right video clip of Rammstein to Python interface to Cassandra. This, however, does not a news make.

Originally posted by zerotime
reply to post by buddhasystem

 

Yes. It's sports news. I know it must be difficult for you to understand that there are people in the world with interests outside of your own.

News is synonymous with entertainment, god save the media.

While it is certainly sporting news, I have a major problem with the MSM displaying this stuff instead of pertinent governmental, international relations, etc. information. While there is certainly a time and a place for sports news I would prefer if the major outlets, barring the major sporting outlets, stuck to information that will have a significant impact on the world we live in.

My best example of this was the death of Michael Jackson. The Iranian protests were getting all the coverage, rightfully so, until Michael Jackson died, and then I heard nothing more about it on CNN. Michael Jackson trumped protesters in authoritarian Iran.

This is certainly not unprecedented though. They constantly pander the less pertinent information so they can avoid tackling anything of substance.

All news agencies must report news beyond the gloom-and-doom of world chaos, otherwise, people are going to read something else. It's human nature. There is only so much misery people can stand to listen too. People are working 40+ hours a week, taking care of families, surviving day to day, and it's this type of news that lets people lighten up and make it to the next week. This news, that some people see as frivolous, is actually extremely important to the human psyche.

I saw that, last night on my com. I was looking at the news and I went to CNBC and a big red banner at the top of the page announced Breaking News. Naturally being an ATS'er, I was expecting something important but when I read "Stanford women end UConn's record 90-game win streak" I was like, what? How is that important enough to be breaking news. Slow news day? I don't think they are really lacking for news. I mean , floods in Australia the size of Texas, floods in Egypt (whats up with that), snowstorms everywhere, even the Cannibal Killer in the U.K. I guess the U.S. takes their womens college (basketball?) seriously.

It's not much different than when they air the latest live shot of a car chase or a cow/horse/dog rescue.

Bread and Circus while the Empire dies.

Originally posted by kosmicjack
Bread and Circus while the Empire dies.

I suppose that it's a very nice, albeit sad, summary. That's my feeling as well.

To all of you who posted here, thanks. And to those who said there are things besides doom and gloom -- certainly! It's just that Stanford victory billed as THE news of the day in today's America, and the world... is ridiculous.

it was front page news in our local paper...and your right, it should have JUST been in the sports section. but, our "news" has for years been mixed with entertainment as a previous poster pointed out. by the way, our "world news" is on page 5 under "world briefs"...small paragraphs with no detail, but with much larger implications than a basketball game.

reply to post by buddhasystem


I agree in the big scheme of things, sports is not that important. But all work and no play makes a dull human. So while there are indeed big problems out there, where is the sin in folks watching a little sports on their day off? Like anything, as long as it is in its place, no foul.

Originally posted by ABNARTY
So while there are indeed big problems out there, where is the sin in folks watching a little sports on their day off? Like anything, as long as it is in its place, no foul.

As others said, and what I was trying to express, that's exactly how it should be. The positioning of the news piece struck me, not its content which is 100% legit. After all, I can afford playing a round of computer games after a days work. I just don't expect CNN to make news out of that. And please, no reality TV stars busted for drunken driving either.

Here we go again -- on front page of CNN -- Lindsay beats up a caregiver in her rehab.

That's some important news.

reply to post by zerotime


Sports are not news. Sports are forms of diversion. The fact that a whole sector of society makes millions upon millions of dollars controlling a game that has a rigid set of rules, a limited and rather banal set of physical movements, requiring very specific, narrowly-honed skills, for which millions are paid to individuals of a certain stature or skill-level who, by virtue of the rule-setting society, are able to make millions for the owners of individual groupings (i.e., teams) that happen to go by the name of your city or university - all appropriate merchandising included - does not make the outcome of sporting events "news". At best, this whole set up really makes sports a racket - pure advertising for advertising's sake.

You know what else is not news? Paris Hilton, Perez Hilton, American Idol, Justin Beeber (Sp?), Lindsey Lohan's rehab situation, Oprah's latest give-away, new Subway "restaurant" openings, or anything else of which the outcome is private, trivial or otherwise promotional.

Sports, like other forms of entertainment, exist to entertain the masses of people. People can be interested in sports - but sports are not news. In fact, I would argue that the mixing in of sports slowly over the years into the news has probably been one of the biggest reasons that sports (the watching of them) has become so diversified and inflated.

In the old days, you would play a game of some sort, probably an adaptation on some overlying cultural theme, with your own rules to some extent. Nowadays, less and less people actually play active games, a cult of rules and by-laws sprang up around a handful of "chosen" games (hockey, baseball, soccer, football, basketball and so forth) and only that way to play it is the "real" sport. A stick and a can, to be a bit facetious, would not qualify as "baseball".

The flip of it has been that sports has inundated our lives. I know a whole slew of young men who, on a day of mental clarity, might get angry and organize against the way they've been screwed by the system. But these young men are so preoccupied with sports that they could not tell you who is now speaker of the house, what the situation with the various wars is, or why it matters. They only talk about how many runs so-and-so got, how many touch downs, what's the stats on that dude, was it a hard hit, is he going to retire, retire again, whiffed the last shot with seconds on the clock, what are their average passing yards during winter away games, they haven't won any home games...ad nauseum.

You all have to admit, it's been a diversion ( meaning "fun", by the way) tactic from the get go. Before all this crap, back in the day, after you had done all your daily chores or work, you might run down to the ol' swimming hole, chase other kids, throw a ball around or ice skate on a local pond...whatever.

Today, we live vicariously through inflated-ego ultra stars who are especially good at a very narrow, not particularly important but highly specialized activity. We could make a sport for throwing your keys up twenty feet and then catching them...hell, I'm pretty good at that. What about hammering nails? They probably do at one of those lumberjack contests...

Ask yourselves the following questions:

1. Could baseball have five bases?
2. Could basketball be plated with a vertical ring (no net) rather than a horizontal one?
3. Could football do away with "feet" altogether (no extra point or field goals)?

Of course, but rules were made to sort of cement them as "official". Official rules does not, in my mind, differentiate the Chicago Bulls or Miami Heat from a couple of ten year olds running around after a ball in a field somewhere in a third world country. It's just fun and exercise. The difference is the kids will get malaria and the bulls and heat will go on strike over the difference between one million and a couple million dollars.

Originally posted by Sphota
1. Could baseball have five bases?

No, because that would be a pentagram hence invitation to satanic influence.

2. Could basketball be plated with a vertical ring (no net) rather than a horizontal one?

It did exist, in Aztec culture, just go to Chichen Itza and check out that ball court. Vertical rings just as
you describe.

reply to post by buddhasystem


Their trying to push women's sports on America after spending the last 20 years gutting most men's sports(except the ones that generate revenue that ends up being spent on the women's sports teams). From an intellectual point of view it is some what interesting. But I could care less.

reply to post by buddhasystem


That was my point, the arbitrary assignment of the rules of sports based on cultural preferences...That's why they are meaningless...rather, they aren't meaningless as a physical or social activity, for destressing and getting exercise. They are mindless as spectator sports and capitalist endeavors. You could just as easily start a league for Aztec basketball if there were a market for it.

I was referring to soccer with the third one.