Chicago Media

[Bucky F. Dent]

Here's the thing, and if this is repetitive of something that has previously been beaten into the ground (and probably said better) then I apologize, but I feel like I gotta get it out there.

I was thinking about this while I was listening to Mack Jurko & Harry ramble on mindlessly yesterday about how and whether and why they could or should (it was pretty disjointed) support the Sox given the fact that they were on this incredible run.

And as I was listening to them try to justify how they gave more time to another Cub shellacking, while they gave scant attention to the fact that Sox had beat the Yanks and were 35 games over five hundred (I can't help but keep repeating that), it came to me why this pissed me off so much.

I have no problem with the fact that there are Cub fans out there, and that they dislike the Sox. That's fine, that's what a rivalry is. I'm a Sox fan, I dislike the Cubs. SO long as you don't spit on my kid or bust my car window, I've got no problem with a rivalry.

And everybody, even radioheads and reporters, come to their job with personal history and personal biases, I understand that, but these alleged professionals have an obligation when they are on the air or writing their story beyond merely being a fan. They've got an obligation to talk to us about the important sports stories in the City. And they fail miserably to fulfill that obligation on a daily basis, and that pisses me off.

Why are they asking the listeners whether Dusty should be fired, when they could be asking whether Ozzie gets manager of the year?

Why are they talking about being swept by the Reds, when they could talk about beating the Yanks!?!

A couple of years back when the Cubs were on their run, and the Sox were wallowing in mediocrity, they deserved the stage, no question.

But turn about is fair play.

So a hell of alot less about the disappointment that is the Cubs rotation, and a hell of alot more about Buehrle, and Garland, and Garcia, and the Cubans.

Less time on the Dusty death watch, and more time on Guillen's run for manager of the year.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

[chisoxfan64]

Those drillrods have even less time to talk about the Sox now because they have to gush all over the Bears pre-season.

[twsoxfan5]

I don't feel like they do a bad job of covering the Sox at all. Yurko and Harry are not even Sox fans but they still talk about the team a lot. Harry is even routing for the Sox and telling other Cub fans to do so as well, not that I want any Cubs fans jumping on the bandwagon, I don't. They have a responsibilty to talk about all Chicago sports and I listen to them everyday and in the last couple of weeks there have only been a hanful times that they did not start with the Sox and continue to talk about them most of the time. Sorry I don't agree, but there are plenty of people in the Chicago media who do a lot worse.

[downstairs]

Here's the way I see it. Roast me if you want.

Neither the Cubs nor the Sox diserve any of the attention they may be or may want to be getting. Neither team has won squat in almost a century.

The Cubs went the route of marketing their baseball (which has been terrible much more often than not) well behind their bar-as-stadium, their cute old announcer, and even their losing as "loveable." Its smart marketing, even though it flies in the face of what sports purists want.

But, it works. It works in all factions of life.

I don't sit there and count column inches or minutes of TV/radio time. (Sure, I make fun of the Trib in the Cubune Headlines thread, etc.) But it doesn't "piss me off".

We don't diserve it yet. (Heck, I don't even know if I *want* it... I used to have great awe for the Red Sox tradition... and now that's become another Wrigley).

Lets win the World Series. Then, in 2006... we deserve it. (And, I am positive we'll get it).

Until then, its a team that is all marketing vs. a team with average marketing that appeals to the purer side of baseball. Sans ANY championships, the former will win everytime. They don't diserve it, but neither does the latter.

Just let it go. If you want it, it will come in a DELUGE next year if we were to take it all.

(Oh, and with that comes impossible-to-find tickets, annoying uninformed fans, and the like. Yeah, I can't wait.)

[cheeses_h_rice]

I think the Sox are getting most of the props on Chicago sportsblab these days, and really, it shouldn't be any other way. Besides sociopathical Flubs-centric idiots like Mike Murphy, I think the rest of the sportsblabbers realize that there's only one story in Chicago now and that's how they're skewing their shows.

The thing that pisses me off, though, is the disparity in the treatment the 2005 Sox are getting vs. the 2003 Cubs. If you'll recall, the White Sox were still very much in the AL Central race in September '03, yet the media (especially TV) was breathlessly covering the Flubs, and this only got worse once they actually made it into the playoffs. The city completely lost its objectivity in their rush to cover the "great" storyline of the Flubs finally achieving postseason success. In 2005, there simply is no excuse for bending over backward to give the Flubs equal ink or "balance" -- they suck and they're out of the playoff hunt entirely. If the teams' situations were reversed, I guaran-****ing-tee you that the White Sox would. be. an. afterthought in Chicago media circles.

My question is: why aren't the Flubs just an afterthought now?

[maurice]

The thing that pisses me off, though, is the disparity in the treatment the 2005 Sox are getting vs. the 2003 Cubs.

Seriously, at this point in 2003, media outlets doubled their cub coverage at the expense of the Sox, sent scores of reporters to every road series, reported live from various stadia, and kept telling Sox fans that they should become cub fans, because "nobody cares about the Sox" and "it would be nice for a Chicago team to win the WS."

My question is: why aren't the Flubs just an afterthought now?

You already know the answer to that question: pervasive anti-Sox media bias.

:knue
"What do you mean? We treat
both teams exactly the same."