We Got The Ball So Let's Go Let's Go

The role of media by definition is like that of a referee or mediator during a sporting event. Today's media referee's can seem almost fair when 'their team' is in a dominant position and sure of a victory. However when the team they are rooting for begins to be beaten by equitable opposition, they slant and skew the rules to give unfair advantage to the losing team and/or penalize unfairly the winning team. This is standard operating procedure in our main stream media today.

If Referee's behaved this way in soccer, football, baseball or basketball then ticket sales will dry up and fans would stop following the sport. (I omitted hockey because the players themselves would most likely rectify this situation post-haste increasing ticket sales.) This is exactly what we have seen as ratings for CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and others have lost viewer ship in steadily declining progression. Newspapers are going bankrupt or near bankrupt for the same reason. The suggestion of Rosa Brooks, Obama’s newest media-meld appointee that the federal Government needs to give American tax dollars to newspapers, would be like the sports team owners exacting charges on the ex-ticket buyers credit cards without their permission, in order to continue paying bad referees to mismanage their duties and manipulate outcomes.

But that is the past and as we have been told, we shouldn't dwell on the past (unless we need to make baseless comparisons to heroic veterans by dredging up references to Timothy McVeigh). However Wednesday April 15th, during the coverage of the "Tea Parties" across our nation we had a new Referee development occur. What we saw from a CNN reporter Susan Roesgen in Chicago was tantamount to the referee in a soccer match steal the ball from the opposition team, race down the field and score a goal then declare it a goal! Sadly, for the most part the fans boo, the team complains and the tainted match continues.

The tea parties could be likened to a group of people, who used to be fans or players, beginning their own grass roots sports league of like minded folks and launching their movement in an organized effort, to explain why the have bailed on the old sports model and how they want to proceed. Even as the 'Negro" league in baseball or the ABA in basketball was not taken seriously and downplayed by those in power, so too will this movement be underestimated. The ABA fought and struggled for 9 years before the NBA finally admitted 4 teams into the league. Why was that do you suppose? Do team names like New York Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs ring any bells? Thanks to the efforts of those upstart grass roots efforts of the ABA we have a better and a more competitive sport. Interestingly the ABA trademark icon was a Red, White and Blue basket ball.

If tea party organizers will continue their efforts offering regular folks a platform to show up and communicate their ideas, we will see a similar success as we saw with the ABA. In conclusion, if we cancel our credit cards, stop rewarding bad referees with a paycheck and increase our stature in numbers and following, we will take back this country and to coin a phrase from our President, "We will make sure that nothing like what has happened here in America can ever happen again"