On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 9:28 AM, Bob in Jersey <[email protected]>wrote:
> > PGage, to moi, in part: > >> Okay - but how is that political? The discussion of safety issues crossed >> over from the sports page to the general news page, but I don't see a >> political angle there - unless the liberal mainstream media has an agenda >> to ruin NASCAR. > > > You'd have to do some diggin', but back in the Presidential campaign > season you'd've found complaining from some who see the stocks' followers > as strictly rightie. > I have read over my posts on this thread and see that it might appear I am being argumentative, but that is not my intent. I actually have an interest in the overlap between politics and sports, and have my own pet theories and hypotheses, many of which my friends think are whacky. So my interest here really is just to follow the logic or narrative connection that is being suggested here. Yes, I am familiar with the suggestion that NASCAR fans skew conservative politically - the demographics alone make that almost certain. I doubt anyone would be surprised to learn that close fans of the NBA were more likely to have voted for President Obama last Fall, while close fans of stock car racing were more likely to have voted for Mitt Romn...er, well, to have voted against President Obama. I doubt any serious political observer ever literally said, or meant, that NASCAR fans are strictly conservative, but even a 60-40 split would be very significant. But I don't think any of that means that liberal political commentators (and now I am decoding Bob's phrase "political types" as "political liberals", given his reference to MSNBC and the conservative lean of stock car fans) will be unique in calling for NASCAR to increase attention to spectator safety. Indeed, when I got up this morning and turned on ESPN, literally the very first thing I heard was an old veteran good old stock car boy (Bobby, Jimmy, Joe whatever) saying that NASCAR could push fans back from the edge of the track, starting today. OTOH, I don't think that Rachel Maddow is going to say tomorrow that NASCAR should be banned because of the incident yesterday. She might wonder, as do I, how committed NASCAR is to both driver and spectator safety given that all of their incentives lie in the constant threat of a spectacular accident. But then there was a lot of criticism of the NFL this last season over player safety issues, the only really legitimate concern underlying the PED controversy has to do with player safety, and the incentives sports owners have to turn a blind eye to the well being of their players, and untold millions of American youth, since the enhanced performance jacks up fan interest and revenues. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
