From: Mel Miller (nourmahal@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Wed Apr 07 2004 - 21:44:20 PDT
Absolutely correct Douglas!
Mel Miller
Corpus Christi, TX
On Tuesday, April 6, 2004, at 07:48 PM, Douglas Greville wrote:
> Nigel
>
>> Folks, I was vexed to find an item
>
> Good on you Nige. You do however realise you are p*ssing into the
> wind don't you?
>
> Lets get one thing really clear. The moment anybody gets money or
> "reward/goods in lieu" it becomes a job, not sport. Sport is something
> you do for relaxation or exercise and it's reward is limited to some
> cheap valueless trophy that forever more is a dust collector and gets
> thrown out when your relatives get to go through things once you are no
> longer around.
> What is really happening is that big business has made "sport" into a
> huge business.
> The "masses" have been duped into believing it is still sport and
> willingly go along with it because it provides them with a source of
> low mental effort entertainment after a hard day/week at work.
>
> In actuality it is the modern version of what used to happen in Rome,
> nothing like a fake war to keep everyone's attention diverted from
> how stuffed the medical and eductaion system is.
> It is a place for all the young "heros" (I detest the use of that word
> in relation to "sport") of the modern era to do battle.
> You only need to look at the amount of
> air time the major codes of "sport" gets in each of our countries and
> compare it to the air time Vietnam-ver-2 in which all of our countries
> are currently involved gets.
>
> "Defence" companies don't buy airtime to promote their products, but
> everyone from breakfast cereal to bedding manufacturers are only too
> keen to feature the latest "sporting hero" in their ads.
>
> No sport promotion = no hero = no sale of product = no paid ads to
> keep the TV station profitable. As to why our 2 government TV
> stations (for the yanks the BBC in Britain and ABC in Australia) also
> do this is beyond me.
>
> A bloke I know used to be involved in the TV world and had a very
> cynical opinion about the Evening News.
> He says:
>
> "It is a variety show masquerading as news. Analyse the content and
> you get:
> - Introduction 1 min 50% sport :50% "news"
> - Next 14 minutes usually consist of 2 min of sport breaking news, eg
> current glamour boy 2-times his wife or stubs his toe during training.
> Then allow 6 minutes of ads which gives you a max of 6 mins of actual
> news, mostly politics and disaster.
> - Next 6 mins is ads.
> - Next 8 mins is sport, often including a nearly verbatim rehash of
> the glamour boy's escapades.
> - Finale 4 mins is a mix of weather, tide times, radar camera locations
> and whatever other dross applies locally."
>
> The money involved has far more power than any minor event such as a
> world war 60 years ago. Lets face it, we are a statistically small
> group of anoraks living in the past. Our average age (collecting
> community) is in the high 40s and up. We are not even on the radar
> as far as the networks are concerned as we are not the average TV
> viewer. Nor do we buy the latest fashion goods: well, unless you
> buy fashion camo instead of surplus?
>
> Anyway, love your letter, but I think it will be filed straight in
> the TV executives' rubbish bin.
>
> Regards
> Doug
> I think I will duck for cover now........
>
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