Just Write Communications
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • News
  • Clients
  • Testimonials
  • Writing Tips
  • Weekly Chuckle
  • Meals We Steal
  • Bad Golf

Partisan Announcing

4/8/2018

4 Comments

 
Picture
​Partisan announcing has been around forever. Every hometown sports team has guys and women on TV and radio who love to put on the blinders and pretend their players can do no wrong. There’s certainly an element of human nature in wanting to root for your tribe to win.
 
For some reason, partisan announcing often also includes demonizing the enemy or sports officials. This also seems to be part of our DNA: Put others down. Rather than building others up, and “may the best team win,” we want to badmouth the opponent in some way.
 
This happens in athletic contests all around the globe, whether you’re talking about soccer, football, basketball, baseball or almost any other team sport you can name. Our family lived outside Philadelphia for several years, and I both saw and heard of some of the most egregious stories involving fans of the Eagles verbally abusing people who cheered for the opponent on any given Sunday. And god forbid if you wore the jersey of an opponent. You just might get it ripped off your back and burned in a 55-gallon drum. Seriously. It’s happened.

So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I turned on the television to watch the NCAA men’s DI college basketball championship game to find two partisan Michigan announcers in the game against Villanova. I turned on the TV and wondered what the heck was going on, not knowing that today there is a standard crew to announce the game on the tube and if you want, you can turn to another channel and watch it with hometown announcers. Silly me. Good ‘ol home cooking to manipulate you into thinking your team can do no wrong.

It took me several minutes to even understand what was going on because I did not know you could choose who you wanted to listen to. Who knows when this opportunity started? It certainly seems to be a much larger part of the U.S. these days as we decide to only pay attention to viewpoints that support our own.
 
I settled into the couch and thought, “Hmm, these guys like Michigan.” Another minute or two, and I went to myself, “I think these guys must have gone to school at Michigan.” Indeed, it turned out to be the case and they were unapologetic about it, or about their bias. They said they were going to root for Michigan and that was that. Find another channel if you don’t like it. That’s when I understood you could choose your perspective to follow the game.

For kicks, I stayed with them. Sadly, they announced more about the three officials who were making the rulings on the court than they did about the plays. I started to track their chatter. It turned out 68 percent of the time they were judging the officials and their whistle choices, 18 percent of the time they were putting down Villanova and 14 percent of the time they were cheering on Michigan.
 
What is the definition of a fan? Isn’t it that you support your team? I don’t want to hear how the announcers judge the referee from a seat on the sideline. Let the officials referee the game, let the coaches coach, the players play and the fans cheer. It would be so much more fun that way. 

4 Comments
Former Co-Worker
4/9/2018 02:44:43 pm

Right on, Dave. Did you hear Nantz say "an athletic icon... the university of Michigan!"

Reply
Dave Simon link
4/9/2018 05:22:41 pm

Nantz was not on the channel I watched.

Reply
Avid Blog Reader
4/9/2018 04:05:47 pm

Thanks for calling this out, Dave. I also noticed announcer favoritism during the Michigan game against Loyola and thought the ideal for announcers was to be objective and unbiased as any journalist should aspire to be. Evidently too high a standard for these guys or for announcers at Sinclair stations. Journalistic standards eroding everywhere...ugh!

Reply
Dave Simon link
4/9/2018 05:24:43 pm

Can't expect a total unbiased approach, but the attempt to call the game openly towards both teams is a worthy goal. Dick Vitale is probably one of the best.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013

    Categories

    All

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.