I know that there are always “so what?” stories that pass for “Breaking News” or front-page headlines, but this week seems particularly bad on that front. Here are three of the current non-stories that I refuse to follow:
1) Those NRC Rankings: I’ve just gotten word (via emails from several different colleagues) that the National Research Council is finally about to release its too-long-awaited departmental rankings. I think that they are providing limited access next week and making the information “public” the following week. Some people aren’t quite sure how valuable such a ranking would have been four or five years ago (when the data was collected), but I fear that only historians will find the information useful at this point.
2) The Book-Burning Pastor’s Latest Claims: I barely followed this non-story before 9/11, even with the insensitive threat of burned Holy Books hanging in the balance. But how can any news outlet justify the tiniest mention of Terry Jones on 9/16? This very morning? I’ve been to Gainesville. There are more interesting news items to be found down there.
3) Last Night’s Derek Jeter Fake-Out: There are seven different televisions in the workout room I use in Penn’s gym, all tuned to different channels, and it seemed like every single one had a story about Derek Jeter pretending to be hit by a pitch last night. He was awarded first base for his convincing performance. The ESPN folks seemed like they were going to have a heart attack over the entire affair. Fine him. Suspend him. Ban him from the game. But please no more holier-than-thou pronouncements. If this were a real story, the entire NCAA basketball season would be about how many awful and unethical defensive players try to sell their silly flops to the refs. Cheating is a serious matter, but do we need Derek Jeter to open up that important discussion?
Of course, I realize that my mere mention of these silly stories makes me complicit, but I’ll live with that piece of hypocrisy. And needless to say, I don’t plan to type another word about any of these three topics ever again.
2 Responses to Seriously, Who Cares?
jffoster - September 17, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Evenin, Prof. Jackson, Thre is one anthropologically interesting aspect to the Jeter “fake Out”. It has to do with what kinds of trickeration baseball tolerates v. the kinds that it moves to stop. It was a few episodes of a similar bit of trickeration back in the 1890s that led to the adoption of the series of definitions and rules that together constitute the strangest rule in baseball, the Infield Fly “Rule”.
gnemeno12345 - September 20, 2010 at 11:59 am
It seems that Jeter can’t get a basehit to save his life. So, he stole first base, so to speak. Just like some of the excuses that people use is that they stole because they were in need. Free o2 sim card