Week In Review: I’ll take Manufactured Controversies for $500, Alex
Mar 18, 2011, 7:05 PM EDT
The headline you see here comes courtesy of Tauntr.com, those sprightly satire gremlins known for ripping headlines from the day’s sports news and adding the most absurd, topsy-turvy skew possible. The problem is, when we see something at Tauntr, we know it’s satire. When we see the same thing being spouted from actual U.S. politicians, it gets a little scary.
On Wednesday, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus (prounounced: blu-min loon-a-tick) denounced President Obama for spending 10 minutes on ESPN filling out his NCAA Tournament bracket. Of course the Republican echo chamber took up the call, as Fox News and various bloggers similarly expressed their outrage that the President, with terrorists and tsunamis at our door, would waste valuable time with basketball.
Has it really come to this? I’m not trying to be partisan here, I’m really not. It’s just that Ronald Reagan spent more time at a single White House Easter egg hunt than Obama could spend at a hundred NCAA bracket sessions combined. And we had Russian nukes aimed at us then. And didn’t George W. Bush read My Pet Goat to children while we were actually being attacked?
No, what the detractors are really saying is that Easter egg hunts represent traditional, American white guy Presidential values, while filling out a college basketball bracket is something that a black President who wasn’t born in this country would do! Richard Nixon had a bowling alley in the White House, but he wasn’t a secret Muslim!
Or, this criticism of Obama could just be displaced rage over your own NCAA bracket. I imagine Rush Limbaugh being clobbered in his office pool by one of his female assistants, and just seething with rage. Shouldn’t have picked Louisville to win it all, big guy.
But there were other stories this week. Here are some of them:
- Speaking of manufactured controversies, the Fab Five vs. Duke War of Words show no signs of abating.
- LeBron says he picked Ohio State, but he really picked Duke.
- Caught on film: Drunken Mark Sanchez fan attacks Maxima.
- The Mets are broke, the County of Port St. Lucie, Fla., is broke, so the two do the logical thing. They team up to buy $15,000 worth of custom dirt.
- UC Davis doesn’t have many sports left, but look at the lovely drapes!
- Headline of the week: Britney Spears’ son plays for the Yankees.
- Bobby Knight thinks the NCAA Tournament could bZZZzzz zzzzzzzz …
A big thanks to all readers. As Ralph Kramden said, “Baby, you’re the greatest.” Enjoy the comedy stylings of Rob Sylvester this weekend, and, oh yeah, a little NCAA Tournament game called Michigan vs. Duke. I hear they have some kind of a history.
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