Letters to the Editor
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If the Media Covered Sports...
...the way they cover elections, would anyone read the sports pages?
It might be interesting to spends months discussing who's winning the game that's going to be played next fall, but why would people want to listen to journalists when, in the absence of real hard facts, they could just talk to their friends?
I think it's interesting that in the US, there's a strong social discouragement to discuss politics in many situations: at work, parties, the dinner table. People can (and do) discuss sports absolutely everywhere, and there's a gigantic media dedicated to covering it. It covers its subject incredibly well. The most detailed assessments are made of actual events, records are kept, and commentators usually support their opinions with several specific examples.
On the politics beat, people report stories. They can really get away with a lot.