Culturegeist - Confessions of the Pop-Culture Junkies

Why I hate unbiased coverage of the World Cup

So we're out of the World Cup. There, I said it, even if ESPN won't - or at least will try not to. We are out of the World Cup. That's right, all impartiality is out of the way. I am a fan of the United States Men's National Soccer team, dammit, and I'm going to write that way! I suppose ESPN's coverage was actually pretty high on the support, as well - several of their analysts only thinly veiled their support for the US side. Julie Foudy, in a remote from her soccer camp, even took a job at the concept of impartially covering the event. I was initially going to write this post about the reaction of the international press to this "bias," but instead of defending soccer heroes cum analysts like Foudy, Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas, and Marcelo Balboa from the international press, I think I'm going to take on the idiocy of trying to cover an international sporting event without bias.

I don't mean we should insert politics or racism into sports coverage - this is a time for friends, after all. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there should be nothing wrong with being a fan, especially when the vast majority of viewers are rooting for the same team. Why do we treat national/international coverage differently than local coverage? Have you ever listened to radio coverage of a basketball game or watched WGN's coverage of the Cubs? There is no feigning neutrality in local sports coverage. The commentators are unabashed partisans, and that's okay. More than that, it's great. It makes watching much more entertaining when the announcer has a point of view. I would much rather listen to WFBQ's audio feed of Colts games than listen to CBS's commentators. So why is it that "local" coverage of the World Cup by ESPN and ABC feels like they must put up a facade of impartiality?

From my limited understanding of foreign coverage of the World Cup, we might be an anomaly. I have heard that Spanish announcers make no bones about supporting their side, even wearing their team's jersey while announcing the game. Obviously ESPN understands who is watching their coverage, and they do aim to please, describing on SportsCenter exactly how the US can advance. But they simply go out of their way not to use the word we to refer to the US side.

I do want to make one comment about Marcelo Balboa's complaints about the officiating. His comments about the Italy-USA match are obviously the most hyped of them, but they aren't the only ones. He's been vocally criticizing the referees in most games. Even the well-officiated matches he uses to criticize the poorly officiated games. Also, in case anybody is wondering, the man does have a point.

posted by The AMT @ 2:51 PM