Poking, Prodding Behind the Scenes

Last weekend, after Adam Scott won a PGA Tour tournament, who did the media focus on? Steve Williams, of course, Scott’s caddy. What made Williams noteworthy was that he also was the fired caddy of Tiger Woods, and the media was intrigued by the irony of Scott winning with Williams’ aid, while Tiger struggled to a 37^th-place tie.

“The public’s right to know!” is the standard cry of the media. Maybe so, but who really cares? The traditional role of the media (including sports) is to report the news, not to make the news. But increasingly, the media seems to be deciding for us what is the news. And then they’ll beat us over the head with it, whether we like it or not.

Few fans lose sleep over whether Brett Farve is going to un-retire one more time, but the media keep harping at the question. They simply must inform us what Lebron tweeted between bites of pasta at the famed Miami restaurant. They rant over ethical molehills until they transform into mountains before our eyes. ‘Cause the public’s gotta know, right?

Now the media's spending time watching the every move and listening to every word of…a caddy! What’s next? Asking the water boy exactly how many cups of Gatorade were consumed by the Cowboys in their game against the Broncos – and how it affected the game? Interviewing the batboy about how he felt when Slugger Smith tossed his bat halfway down the first base line after the popup?

Cornering the exercise girl and asking whether she thought she might have walked the second-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby too fast prior to the race? Inquiring of the gas can man whether the fuel flowed as smoothly as usual during the last crucial pit stop?