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A little bit after the midnight showing of the latest Star Wars prequel, on a couch in my living room…
ESPN’s SportsCenter treated me to a second showing of the final chapter of George Lucas’s prequel in a Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees highlight.
The segment began innocently with a clever comparison of Star Wars and the Yankees to set up the highlights. Steinbrenner is the dark Sith lord, ruler of the evil Yankees empire, who has coaxed former Seattle Mariners players, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson and Tino Martinez, to the Dark Side.
But then, the familiar John Williams tune sounded and “Revenge of the Yankees” began. Text scrolled up the screen, and a holographic image of an anchor dressed in Jedi garb reveals the empire has grown stronger since their defeat in the 1995 Divisional Series, and Emperor Steinbrenner has recruited three of the Mariners Jedi warriors to the Dark Side.
All of this led up to highlights of the game filled with scenes from the latest Star Wars flick. Alex Rodriguez hits a homerun, ESPN plays a clip of Anakin Skywalker wailing on Obi Wan Kenobi with a lightsaber. The rest of the highlight follows a similar pattern: highlight from game, scene from movie.
While ESPN and SportsCenter probably reached the 37-year-old-virgin-living-in-mom’s-basement-downloading-Internet-porn-faster-than-the-Millenium-Falcon-can-make-the-Kessel-Run (which is 12 parsecs) demographic, SportsCenter went too far with this highlight.
I love Star Wars, and I love sports, but this highlight was an unnecessary mixture of both. Five minutes devoted to two sub par teams sets off the alarms in my head.
SportsCenter has always been a source of great sports information, fantastic highlights and in-depth analysis. But in the past few years, the show has blurred the line between sports information and corporate-sponsored sports information.
With this Star Wars-themed highlight/advertisement hybrid, it becomes obvious the team at ESPN has allowed the corporate advertising to infiltrate pure journalism. The Budweiser Hot Seat and the Coors Light Silver Spotlight are prime examples of the melding of corporate names and sports news. On the Hot Seat, anchors ask athletes a variety of questions from what is in their CD player to personal thoughts on the steroid issue. The Silver Spotlight has six pertinent questions for analysts to answer about a specific sport.
The segments break up the monotony of just having sports highlights, but the fact that they are almost blatant advertisements cheapens the experience for me. I cringe every time I hear, “Your time on the BUDWEISER Hot Seat is up,” because instead of waiting for the commercial to roll after the segment, SportsCenter has to remind me that Budweiser is the King of Beers and without them this segment would not be possible.
Call me a purist, but I would much rather watch Sports Reporters or Outside the Lines where journalists present harder news devoid of advertising within the program than the formulaic, corporate-sponsored SportsCenter.
Every time a highlight/advertisement hybrid appears on the screen is a lot like the hijinx of Jar Jar Binks. It makes you wince and ask why is this here? If you are lucky to see through the cloud of the Dark Side, you will find the answer: money.
Any form of journalism has to sell advertising in order to make money. But there is a time and place for ads. The New York Times would not have an ad run on the front page. CNN would have Dr. Phil on one of their shows before Dr. Pepper.
SportsCenter has become a money-making machine, but the producers need to step back and reassess the situation. The Jedi code teaches that seeking money and power for personal gains is wrong. A journalist’s code is no different. Money from advertising is needed to bring the information to the masses, but getting the information out should come first.
Last Wednesday’s pseudo-highlight can only be a sign of things to come. If SportsCenter wishes to remain a credible source of sports information, then it must be able to separate corporate sponsors from its programming, even if those advertisers are willing to shell out hefty sums to have their name in the show
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