CBS continues to feed our nightmares with MMA

Shooting from the lip
Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Worst programming
The sour taste left in our mouths by CBS showing mixed martial arts in May had finally disappeared when CBS sunk to its lowest depths again Saturday by showing another MMA card. We saw more blood, more over-the-top announcing and more disturbing images of men and women beating each another into submission.

Sen. John McCain has come up with the perfect description for MMA: human cockfighting. Still, it has an audience, and that's all CBS apparently cares about. The network makes money, and who cares if our children see on free TV faces split open or blood soaked into the mat?

Yes, I know. If you don't like it, you can turn the channel, and if you don't want your kids to watch it, then monitor what they watch. I know all that. It still doesn't excuse one of our major networks from taking responsibility for showing this monstrosity.

More from MMA
One more thing about this CBS-MMA mess. Announcers Gus Johnson and Mauro Ranallo don't sound like they're calling these fights. It's more like they're selling them to the public. Is that really their job? Shouldn't they just call the fights instead of telling us how great this alleged sport is and making it sound like a two-hour commercial? Johnson could be heard encouraging the audience to applaud the fighters. Can you imagine Joe Buck doing that at a baseball game? Or Al Michaels at a football game? Even HBO's Max Kellerman and Jim Lampley don't do that at a boxing match.

I don't expect much from Ranallo, who is nothing more than an MMA shill, but Johnson is better than this. He's a good announcer who does great work on college basketball. But when he works MMA, he sounds more like old wrestling announcer Mean Gene Okerlund than one of the more solid broadcasters in the business. He's too good to be doing this.

Most irresponsible story
ESPN's Outside the Lines does such outstanding work that it's all the more noticeable when one of its stories fails to meet the high standards it sets. And when a story fails to meet most journalistic standards, it's disturbing.

Such was the case with Steve Delsohn's sloppy, irresponsible story on Penn State football. The piece tossed out a bunch of numbers to make it appear as if Joe Paterno's program is out of control because of off-the-field incidents. The emphasis was on charges and arrests as opposed to convictions. though all numbers were revealed. Worse, the numbers were given no context as to how Penn State compares with other Division I programs, or even the regular student body. That's Journalism 101.

Only a couple of incidents were mentioned in detail, giving the viewer no clue as to how serious all of the incidents have been. (The highlighted incident appeared to be little more than a late-night party fight.) And the most powerful interviews came from students whose credibility could not be verified.

Paterno, on air, said the piece was a "witch hunt,'' and he's right. It's as if a bunch of producers sat in a room, decided they were going to go after Paterno and his program, and then geared the story, statistics and interviews to fit their agenda. This story fails to pass journalism muster, and it's quite shocking that a quality show such as OTL would air a piece with so many holes in it.

Funniest line
Chip Carey, who calls Sunday baseball games for TBS, is not a favorite, but he did have the best line of the weekend. When asked by partner Harold Reynolds if he had ever been hit by a baseball, Carey said, "No, my family crest was the yellow fleeing chicken.''

Is that your final answer?
During Saturday's Red Sox-Yankees game on Fox, analyst Tim McCarver talked about Francisco Cabrera's hit that drove in Sid Bream to give the Braves the 1992 National League pennant. McCarver said, "Still the biggest hit in Atlanta sports history.''

One could make that argument, but seeing as how the Braves didn't win the World Series that year and went on to play in three more World Series and won one, can you really say it was bigger than Hank Aaron's 715th homer in 1974 to break Babe Ruth's all-time record? One can't help but wonder if it's just another example of Aaron being the most underrated and overlooked star baseball has had.

Most awkward moment
It started with a little playing around. Fox baseball insider Ken Rosenthal was asked during the pregame show if analyst Mark Grace was a Hall of Famer. What made it awkward? Both were on the air at the same time. Rosenthal said, “No.'' Everyone laughed uncomfortably and Rosenthal continued, "I love Gracie, but is he a Hall of Famer? No.'' Grace (.303 average, 173 HRs, 1,146 RBIs) held his poise and didn't say anything. And Rosenthal is right. But, geez, how embarrassing.

Best on-the-money remark
Let's see. Brett Favre remains a great quarterback, yet the Packers don't want him back and only a few teams seem interested in acquiring him. As Mitch Albom said on ESPN's Sports Reporters: "There's something weird going on here that still hasn't been answered.''

Best pregame show
The Rays On Deck pregame show has become entertaining, informative and a splendid way to get you ready for the Rays. Actually, with the way the Rays played Sunday, the pregame show was the most enjoyable part of the broadcast. Sunday's show included well-done features on broken bats, the Rays' bullpen and infield defense, and, in its best moment, a quick tutorial from analyst Joe Magrane on how pitcher Andy Sonnanstine's recent troubles might be attributed to his grip on the ball. Magrane is at his best when he is explaining baseball intricacies in everyday language. Sunday he did it again.

Good work
Some highlights from Fox's baseball coverage:
• Pregame analyst Kevin Kennedy delivered the goods when, talking about the Red Sox's problems with Manny Ramirez, he mentioned he once had problems in Texas with Juan Gonzalez. He could've said, "I once had a player …'' Instead, he named a name, and that's what fans want. And deserve.
• Game analyst Tim McCarver showed some reporting chops by relaying a conversation with Sox GM Theo Epstein in which Epstein said the Red Sox would entertain trade offers for Ramirez if Manny ever waived his no-trade clause.
• Announcer Joe Buck delivered the best line in talking about Ramirez: "He is untradeable.''

Comments

[Boe]

Tom Jones, June 1, 2008 - "CBS will surely show more Saturday night MMA fights. Lots of people will watch. I won't be one of them." What happened Tom? If you are going to actually watch MMA why not watch the UFC which replayed a recent pay per view for free at the same time Saturday night. The fighters and announcing are much better. You'll come around eventually. Maybe once boxing is extinct.

[Tim]

The same crowd that would watch something as ridiculous as wrestling is the same crowd for this MMA junk. 15 - 25 yeard-old male still living at home with mom and dad and playing their video games.

[chris]

Ignorance running a muck.
You also don't hear Jim Lampley talk about when he was charged with felony domestic abuse.
What is boxing?

[PSU ALUM 93]

On behalf of everyone in the Penn State community, thank you very much, Mr. Jones. Yes, some problems exist at Penn State - and all Penn Staters are cognizant of that - but there is SO MUCH more to the story than what ESPN and Steve Delsohn chose to "report". As you say, Outside the Lines is normally a very fair and honest show. That's why it was so sad and shocking to watch that episode, particularly for Penn State fans. To quote a poster at another website (Black Shoe Diaries):

"What I didn’t like about the story is that OTL went in with their minds made up. They made a case against Penn State, rather than reporting a story about Penn State."

In all, it's fair to say Steve Delsohn didn't do his career in journalism any favors by putting together that piece of contrived rubbish.

[john hillman]

(i also post at thebiglead.com, so i am thieving my own post from there)

last year during a press conference someone asked paterno about the texting issue that the ncaa wanted to outright ban. paterno thought the reporter was asking about “the testing issue.” when the reporter kept asking about “texting,” paterno, confused, asked him to spell the word in question. paterno confessed he had heard of “texting” but didn’t know exactly what it was and, of course, didn’t know how to text.

i also think it was last year or two years ago some chick working for a feminist group was outraged about something paterno had said and during a press conference bragged how she sent an email to paterno to complain. paterno said he never received it because he doesn’t know how to use a computer, thus he doesn’t get email.

didn’t someone in that OTL segment refer to the school as “the university of penn state?”

i too believe joepa is a bit out of touch with his program. i mean, doesn’t the guy work from home? how in-touch can he be if he is working off campus?

the segment infers that joepa has thrown away decades of credibility of running a clean program in order to bring in questionable characters to the team can compete. the last time the team had a solid season, i wasn’t aware the best players (poz, robinson, levi brown, connor, jay alford, tamba hali, tony hunt, et al) were dirtbags?

it seems OTL added two and two and came up with five.

is there a reason for concern? yes. but with a modicum of digging, many of the questios could have been put to rest.

eagerly awaiting OTL’s investigation of other programs like usc, bama, florida, florida state, miami, texas, iowa… to name a few.

[Andy]

Didn't Jo Pa have an incident of road rage last year?

[Jim]

Yesterday, two grad students (husband and wife)that I know were driving on campus and being followed closely by a white car. The white car passes them and then cuts them off and pins them against the curb. The driver gets out and starts screaming obscenities at the woman (who was driving), flipping both middle fingers and repeatedly saying "do you know who I am!". The irate screaming and cursing by the driver of the white car continues long enough for the campus police to arrive at which time the driver of the white car takes off. The woman is so shaken up that the police ask here if she's OK to drive. The only thing they can think of that set the driver of the white car off was if they were driving too slow. They were both in some state of shock the rest of the day that Joe Paterno, a man they both admired, could act this way.
...

They said Joe was in an extreme hurry (before they knew it was Joe), the car was tailgating them and they were driving the campus speed limit, which is 15 mph if I remember right. They were dumbfounded, and so was I upon hearing the story. The husband told Joe he should "just move along" a number of times and this seemed to make Joe more upset. After the police arrived the husband said "I can see why we're losing" which elicited a round of laughter from the students that had gathered.

No charges were brought in the case.

[Jason W]

I too had a problem with the Braves biggest hit comment.

Aaron's HR was one of the most important plays in baseball history. Cabrera/Bream play was exciting, but far from the biggest in team history..

Just McCarver being McCarver.

[Brian]

In response to Jim's irresponsbile reporting....I wonder if he works for ESPN on OTL?

The Wizard of Odds bring us the latest update on the JoPa road rage incident, with confirmation of the story from Paterno himself. Paterno spoke about the incident at the Quarterback Club luncheon on Wednesday.

He told more than 300 people at the Penn State Quarterback Club luncheon about his near miss. Information exchanged at the weekly luncheon is normally treated as off the record and not open to the media. But multiple sources who attended told the Post-Gazette about Paterno's exchange with the audience.

According to the sources, Paterno said after his close call he pulled his car over to the curb and got out.

He then approached the other vehicle and shook his finger at the driver. He warned her to, "Watch it."

"Be careful," Paterno said. "I have your license number, and I will call the police on you."

According to the sources, Paterno said a male passenger then walked up and chastised him, saying, "That's my wife you're talking to."

Paterno said, "That's your problem."

The woman then snapped back at Paterno, telling him, "I'm going to call the police on you."

Paterno reportedly told the woman to go ahead.

She did just that.

"I've been accused of road rage," Paterno said. "I was only doing something I've done plenty of times to students."
But did you give the double-eagle, Coach??

"I pointed my finger at [the woman driver]," Paterno said. "I did not give her the middle finger, even if I knew what that meant."

[Mike]

The comments on the Joepa witch hunt precisely hit the issue on the head. Evidence was all culled to make Paterno and the program seem much worse than they are. The truth is out there, but ESPN didn't want to find it. Joe has always been consistent. He gives people second chances. Kerry Collins got a citation for underage drinking when he was a student, Larry Johnson got a DUI, Bobby Engram was implicated in a dorm theft, Dan Connor made harassing phone calls to a former coach, and the list is much longer. Most of these guys learned a lesson and became productive members of society (after suspensions and time in the dark and dank Paterno tough-love doghouse). Those who continue to break the team rules or get into trouble with the law (Austin Scott, Lavon Chisley, Chris Bell) get tossed from the team. Just google "Florida/Michigan/LSU/Texas/USC/Ohio St etc. football player arrested" and you'll see how universal the problem is.

[SC]

Its time for JoePa to call it a day. PSU has had 46 players arrested since 2002. JoePa just kicked 2 DT's off of his team today. At 81, its time for him to go quietly into the sunset. Thanks for the memories, Joe.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/The-Stacy-Cole-Show Come listen Monday-Friday 8:30-9:30 PM www.stacycoleshow.com

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