An Interesting Note on The Decision

With polls now coming out left and right on the popularity of Lebron James this article on Yahoo Sports actually brought an interesting question to the forefront of my mind.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-8801169

The article mentions the fact that ESPN, the media company that has profited the most from Lebron's fall from grace also profited from and was in essence the orchestrator of the mechanism of his downfall. That being his "The Decision" show. It was aired on ESPN networks with their blessing and endorsement. Meanwhile Lebron has taken all of the fall for the show while ESPN as a media company has not. They have essentially helped create the news that they also cover and put themselves in a win/win situation profiting both from Lebron's rise and from his demise. This brings into question many questions about the role of media and the impartiality of news organizations as well as the ethical responsibilities they have. Infotainment News such as on Fox News and MSNBC have also blurred this line by trying to separate what they call "hard news" programs from opinion programs and I'd imagine ESPN would put forth a similar argument in respect to "The Decision". However is that really a shield from criticism when the news organization itself is profiteering by selling this program to Lebron as a way of raising money for youth programs? Compartmentalizing business is not a legal defense for gangs and organized crime so I'm not sure why it should be for media companies. All the while Lebron's popularity ratings are as low as ever while ESPN's ratings (and thus advertising revenues) have never been higher.

On the actual substance of the poll it is astonishing. Lebron James, likely because of his refusal to apologize is lower in popularity then Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is a man with many parallels to Lebron James except for the fact that he actually did bad things in his personal life whereas Lebron made a bad business move. The major difference is that Tiger Woods has become contrite and exhibited humbleness and humility while Lebron James acts in press conferences as if he has never done anything even the slightest bit inappropriate. The media has now moved on to a new story in their portrayal of Tiger as a fallen hero looking for redemption. Despite the fact that what he did was worse he gets far better treatment from virtually all media outlets. I guess the moral of the story as it relates to media exposure is that doing bad things and apologizing is better in the eyes of people then saying bad things and not apologizing.