Giving Steroid Sports a Cold Shoulder
Is this the autumn of the Tour de France? Its riders are dropping like leaves in the wake of a series of doping scandals.
The hard line the Tour has chosen to take on the drug use that threatens its integrity is difficult to imagine replicating in America, and so is the even harder line that has been taken by the German public media.
German public stations ARD and ZDF made an unprecedented stand when they followed through on their promise to halt coverage of the Tour de France if any steroid scandals threatened the credibility of the race. Last Wednesday, the two stations let screens go dark all over Germany.
The equivalent in the United States would be nearly unthinkable: Fox, for example, taking a contractual vow to end coverage of the World Series if a baseball player tested positive for steroids. This is not our media’s habit. It tends to grant such scandals additional coverage, not punish the sport with a cold shoulder. However ARD and ZDF’s boycott is proving a powerful mechanism in the push to change cycling, and other stations might do well to take note.
ARD and ZDF jointly hold 30% of the Germany market share, and Germany accounts for a third of the Tour’s television income. The financial blow is substantial - to the Tour de France, its sponsors, and the stations themselves. ZDF announced last Thursday it was holding the Tour responsible for its own lost revenue, saying it had "bought the rights to a clean sporting event."
Now, not only are corporate sponsors such as T-Mobile reconsidering their agreement with cycling teams, but a Berlin lawmaker has raised the possibility of cutting public funds for all sports.
This may go a long way to cracking down on sports dope. The embarrassment of bad press from individual drug scandals is nothing compared to the shunning of an event by the media.
So what then if Fox were to boycott the World Series. Would major league baseball tighten supervision with increased dope testing? Would sponsors respond? Would the public fight or support the decision?
Most importantly, would Fox - and do the German stations - indeed, should any network or station have the right to police sports standards in that way?
JakobB commented:
Well done. First impulse: Thank the blogger for spotlighting a bold act of moral courage in the German media, and for letting its shadow fall revealingly on the contrary "habit" of mainstream U.S. media.
But then I hit that provocative concluding question... No, we don't want the media to "police" sports standards, or anything else.
But remember the Rolling Stones at Altamont, where the Hell's Angels provided the "policing" and the much-anticipated free concert swiftly degenerated into a bloody Hell Night, with murder and other random acts of violence? We DO want effective and just policing of events -- and of society in general, including the conduct of our highest elected officials. And the media has an obligation to report any failure of that policing.
A well-publicized blackout is a pretty effective way to say "Something is wrong here." Especially if WHAT is wrong is clearly communicated. Failure of the media to react vigorously to misuse of steroids -- and more particularly to other abuses by those seeking ever greater power and advantage -- equates to complicity in the cultural consequences of that abuse.
I am puzzled but resigned if millions of people want voyeuristic peeks into the lives of Spears/Hilton/Lohan/etc and the media gives them what they crave -- there is apparently some need out there which I assume is real and human at its core.
But I would certainly want more coverage focused on things that are probably of greater consequence for human lives -- such as a WTO patent regulation that has apparently forced India to stop manufacturing cheap generic HIV/AIDS medications -- a lifeline for countless people in 200 countries who cannot afford any alternative (including God knows how many pregnant women who desperately DON'T want to pass the infection on to their offspring) -- which I saw briefly mentioned in a NY Times editorial, once.
It would seem that failure to really examine an issue like this amounts to a "blackout" far more questionable than anything ARD and ZDF have done in Germany.
jmarshall9 commented:
The one- hundred year history of the Tour de Dope is one of continued drug use. First the riders used cocaine in the early 1900's,which caused heart attacks. Then in the 1920's they thought nicotine would help them breathe better. Riders smoked cigarettes as they were racing. The 1920's saw heroin use and more dead cyclists. In the modern age, amphetamines led to more carnage. Today, THG,steroids, and blood doping are the lastest way to cheat. The Tour de Dope should never see the light of day ever again. Cheating is accepted behaviour by riders, sponsers, and officials. These bums shoulld not be rewarded with a lucrative TV contract. Let's all hope this is final time we see this fraud.
Regards