Foucault Post-Class Thoughts (4-18-10)

I had a phone interview for an internship at CNN's video research library in D.C. on Thursday. Everyday, CNN tapes and gathers video of certain political events around D.C. and the responsibility of the intern is to keep track of these videos coming in and email/transport them to anyone around the CNN headquarters who might need it that day; also, the intern has to pull up old video on command, if need. Essentially, the intern acts as the omnipotent observer of all public, political action around the political headquarters of America. Quite an eerie responsibility now that I think about it. Surveillance is not exactly my cup of tea, but media relies on constant surveillance of interesting people and events to keep drawing our attention to their networks. Example: if ESPN did not conduct constant surveillance on all the most popular and interesting sporting events around the world, would they have such a dominant control on the sports media market today? Most likely, no, they wouldn't.

While we are on the topic of sports media, I had a conversation with Dr. Cummings after class the other day and I figured I could share it for ya'll (you all). During my lifetime, I cannot count on two hands the number of professional athletes who have damaged their legacy due to some life changing scandal, blown up by the media. Tiger Woods, Ben Roethlisberger, Ray Lewis, Ricky Williams, Mark McGwire, and Plaxico Burress are a few names that come to mind (Interesting side note: I typed all those names into google and the first links to show on the search pertained to those athletes' own scandals, not their stats or accolades). If we ask our parents, I doubt they can name 5 sports icons from their childhood whose names were tarnished by problems off the field. To some extent, I feel this rise in pro-players' scandals has a direct link to the closer surveillance following athletes today. Pro-sports commissioners have established their own panopticon on their athletes. Why? My guess is to keep the purity of the sport or make sure everyone "plays by the rules." It simply baffles me that professional leagues expect their athletes to be revered as shining sports idols, incapable of fallacy. Pro athletes are human too and they make mistakes like the rest of us. The sports media can build up Ben Roethlisberger one day as a dominating QB in the NFL and chastise him the next day for sexual assault charges the next day.

Sports commissioners expect their athletes to be idealized as the perfect humans, yet when they make mistakes like any normal person could, what do they expect then?