Superville Review

(aol/people file photo)


Amiri Baraka's poetically hard line riff on society at large begins with these foreshadowing lines:

Something in the way of things
Something that will quit and won't start
Something you know but can't stand
Can't know get along with
Like death

Well, I don't know if Baraka's lines were a shot over the bow of modern day media and their coverage of the world, but they do fit that demographic, as well as the people who watch it.

The people who watch what is passing these days for media coverage are the something that will quit and won't start. These somethings and somebodies have quit looking for informative journalism and won't start on a path to demanding better from their media coverage by refusing to engage in the rumor mills that news coverage has become. When ESPN dedicates headlines to Alex Rodriguez and his wife's pending divorce request we know things done got too far gone; especially after the man tied all-time great Mickey Mantle's 536 home runs. The something that the somebodies know and can't stand is that they trade in a he-said, she-said brand of retro-gossip that harken back to days of high school soap operas brought to us by alienation, wistfulness, confusion and desires for popularity. The can't know/get along with like death is the idea that rummaging through time on the wings of minding other folks personal business is a waste of time. It is a type of mental death for meaningful knowledge.

Now, if A-Rod were a politician or pastor sworn to uphold certain standards maybe this coverage would be more worthy. Some would say taking vows before the Lord counts as a sworn upholding of God's law. That might be true, but that's before God and the family of that man and wife. Whether A-Rod is cheating on his wife is between God, him, his wife and their families. Not a public looking for a thrill to shock the doldrums out of their own existence. The sad thing is that for whatever A-Rod's faults might have been in his marriage, there is no proof that he was carrying on an affair with the Material Girl. There is no proof she is seeking a divorce from Guy Ritchie, her movie director husband. There is no evidence that Cynthia Rodriguez was doing anything other than taking advantage of a friend's offer of refuge during a crisis which is what Lenny Kravitz has publicly stated that he offered. But because "professional" photographers (see paparazzi)are allowed to tail folks around town and country based on their bank account or celebrity, and they snap pictures, and send stories down the grapevine, some that, at times, are whisperings from the Public Relations reps of the stars themselves, citizens are at risk for innuendo, lies or secrets being revealed. Does anybody in the media care that any of the above mentioned people have children? Probably not. That's not the "story." But is the state of A-Rod's marriage truly news?

I am lifelong Yankee fan. I would rather hear why A-Rod's general manager, Brian Cashman, has not been able to pull together a pitching staff that is consistent or why many of A-Rod's teammates' bats have gone soft. Professional athletes have long been known to carouse. All of them? No. A lot them? Yeah. But during the more archaic times in national media coverage, BI (Before Internet) and B24 (Before 24 hour cable news cycles) this information was kept between the athletes, teammates, beat writers and no one else. It was off the field and, therefore, irrelevant to the story of the game.

Now the media has made everything on the record and much of it seems to be no more than simple junior high mischief; and the viewing public eats it up and gets a glut of fast news that gets imaginations fat, but leaves intellects painfully malnourished. And there is wonderment in some quarters of America in regard to how the red, white and blue is ceding financial power to China after decades of financial dominance on the world stage. Well, Americans don't have time to think about these types of issues. A-Rod is sleeping around and his wife wants a divorce. Cue up the violins and soap detergent ads here. To quote Toni Morrison's classic character Sula Peace, "harrumph!" There's something in the way of things indeed.

Labels: A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, Cynthia Rodriguez, ESPN, Lenny Kravitz, Media Coverage