Drama And The Media (Blazers Edge)

[ABM]

http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/7/29/1595925/drama-and-the-media

One of the things I've been asked about this week is my perception of the Dramagate following Oregonian beat writer Jason Quick's recent radio announcements about drama surrounding the Portland Trail Blazers and the subsequent, anti-climactic newspaper piece "revealing" well-known (and well-trodden) trade scenarios surrounding Rudy Fernandez...a process for which Quick took a considerable amount of flak. I'm not as keen on addressing the specifics of this case as I am talking about drama, sports, and the media in general, of which this situation is a prime example.

Drama has taken over our cultural landscape. That's a nearly inarguable fact. Turn on the TV and you will see a multitude of once-normal acts--cooking, dating, living in a house, sewing clothes, going to parties--infused and impregnated with dramatic storylines and overtones and presented as "reality". While most people are able to make distinctions between this fare and actual daily life the message is clear: if it's not dramatic it's not interesting, not fit for consumption, and perhaps not "real". I get to observe this phenomenon daily among teenagers dating, people conducting marriages, parents raising children, folks trying to advocate a political stance or effect change in the world, even folks overheard chatting at the grocery store or on the bus. More and more drama takes the place of substance, making us feel alive and our actions feel important.

With society and its members trending this way, it's no surprise that the media has followed. Dramatic stories lead. Non-dramatic stories that must be reported nonetheless are mined for their most dramatic angles. The weather today? HOT HOT HOT! Also the Florida Keys are bracing for a HURRICANE and we have the live footage right after the break! Look at this reporter blowing sideways! Look at this microphone stuck in the face of this guy who just lost his home! Story on A3! Follow up tomorrow! Don't miss a moment!!! It's even less surprising that the fantasy/entertainment-based world of sports has been caught up in this dramatic whirlwind. We don't observe outcomes and give credit and analysis anymore. We root for the story. We assign blame. We make snap judgments about who is the best and what went wrong and what might have happened in alternate universes where the real reality didn't transpire.

Personally I find sports plenty dramatic enough without the extras................................

 

[HailBlazers]

Personally I find sports plenty dramatic enough without the extras................................

Soo True. Turns out It's not Just Women addicted to Drama.

 

[Idog1976]

http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/7/29/1595925/drama-and-the-media

To sum up, J Quick is a tool...but we knew that.

 

[Nikolokolus]

I don't like Quick and I rolled my eyes when he teased this story a day before writing it, but in a follow-up interview he mentioned that Rich Cho was able to placate Rudy's camp by actually taking their trade request/demand seriously instead of "blowing them off" (which was supposedly what KP and Penn had done in the past). I'm not sure what Rudy and his agents could have done except to go even more public with his demands and his unhappiness, but there's a chance that the supposed "drama" was averted or at least blunted.












Yeah, OK. I'm not buying that either. Quick caught a lot of heat for hyping this up and probably took the easy way out.

 

[RR7]

I don't like Quick and I rolled my eyes when he teased this story a day before writing it, but in a follow-up interview he mentioned that Rich Cho was able to placate Rudy's camp by actually taking their trade request/demand seriously instead of "blowing them off" (which was supposedly what KP and Penn had done in the past). I'm not sure what Rudy and his agents could have done except to go even more public with his demands and his unhappiness, but there's a chance that the supposed "drama" was averted or at least blunted.












Yeah, OK. I'm not buying that either. Quick caught a lot of heat for hyping this up and probably took the easy way out.

I actually do buy the first paragraph. Maybe he shouldn't have hyped it the way he did, but I do remember him stating a few times that it was something any Blazer fan wouldn't be surprised about. So many were able to assume it was Rudy. Yet even with that, the desire for news, scoops and drama became so much that people were speculating all over the place. And they allowed their desire for it to be something much bigger to overtake the actual story. There could have been mroe drama, as you stated. Who knows what would have happened, but to this point, all we'd gotten was snippets out of Spanish newspapers that veryone was discounting. Now we got it straight from our beat writer, with a mention of a sit down his agent had in December with KP and Penn. And how being essentially blwon off then could have easily led to something worse if it happened again.

 

[jlprk]

To sum up, J Quick is a tool...but we knew that.

To sum up this article attempting to change the subject, Quick is a bosom buddy of Dave of Blazers Edge. They link to each other and defend each other.