Proper Handling of a Difficult Situation

What happened next ought to become the textbook argument against politicians or executives from title sponsors of events ever being allowed to appear on camera again in any of these telecasts, horse racing, golf or whatever. Sadly, for many years, all the networks have rolled over and acquiesced in yielding the microphone to such foofs, mostly because they're paying all the bills.

Couldn't the governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, change his text on the fly instead of saying, "each year Kentucky shows the world what a great place this is to work and live and play. And what a race we showed them today?"

Couldn't track president Bob Evans not have quite so effusively thanked all of the sponsors "and you guys at NBC?"

And couldn't David Novak, president of Yum Brands, the title sponsor, not started off by exulting "what a great day for the commonwealth of Kentucky," in what surely had to be scripted remarks prepared for him beforehand by a company PR man? In this case, he'd have been much wiser to throw out the script, just as NBC in the future would be equally smart to eliminate the clause in any contract that says a title sponsor representative must appear on camera during the telecast.

In the wake of the Derby, NBC has made some changes for this week's Preakness telecast, including having Costas come back at the end of the broadcast to offer one last defining wrap-up on the events of the day, just in case another major story happens to break out aside from the winning horse and jockey.

And Costas also will be the host of that add-on 30-minute segment at 4:30 p.m. at the start of the telecast to examine the current hot-button issue of horse safety. He'll moderate a roundtable discussion that will include Bramlage, the Churchill Downs veterinarian; Larry Jones, the trainer of Eight Belles; NBC analyst and former jockey Gary Stevens and N.Y. Times columnist William Rhoden, among others.

Sadly, Sally Jenkins wasn't invited to be among those others. That's what you might call cowardlike.

E-Mail of the Week

As a former sports journalist and current occasional reader of Deadspin, I found your article on the Buzz Bissinger/Will Leitch controversy interesting, and maybe even the most fair look at things I have seen. However, there are still a few points the mainstream sports media just keeps missing. I agree that Leitch and the Deadspin faces are being disingenuous about the nature of their blog--it is largely about belittling sports figures and others. But much of the Deadspin deriders are mis-labeling it as well. Everyone needs to face the fact that Deadspin and its umbrella blogs are something completely different than journalism.

Deadspin is largely about making fun of things. You can look down upon this if you like, and maybe you're one of the very few humans in society who gets no pleasure from mocking or belittling others. But nobody is admitting how prevalent it is in the culture. The most ironic, and funniest from my perspective, thing about the Bissinger/Leitch showdown was that when Bissinger called Leitch "like Jimmy Olsen on percocet" he was exemplifying the very feature that makes Deadspin so popular. He might as well have been commenting on somebody's blog post about Leitch. "Jimmy Olsen on percocet" sounds exactly like a Deadspin blog comment to me. I'm not mocking Bissinger for being mean-spirited; I think it's a near universal part of humanity to make jokes at the expense of others¿It's just the way we are.

To me, that side of the argument reeks very much of discomfort with something new, unfamiliar, and highly popular, and finding a reason to debase blogs and Deadspin, even if it takes a hypocritical stance. Please realize there is a large crossover between Bissinger's readers, your readers, and Deadspin's readers. You may see yourself as completely separate from bloggers, but realize the audience and the crossover is only going to get larger. The readers of Deadspin largely digest traditional sports journalism too, it is not an either/or proposition.

Dan Williams

Arlington

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at len.shapiro@washingtonpost.com..