In a very timely state of affairs, I am currently watching perhaps the most groundbreaking "Frontline" report PBS has run in the last year or so: "League of Denial," which depitcs the eventual unravelling of evidence that the NFL was covering up the possibility of traumatizing and life-threatening head injuries constantly exposed to its players.
But what makes this all the more ironic (and relevant to this class) is that, in the case of League of Denial, ESPN originally had agreed to back the documentary. However, for unkown reasons, the company backed out (although its two lead reporters, the Fairneau brothers, on the case did not) and PBS jumped in to support the documentary.
What many are speculating is whether or not the NFL said to ESPN, "if you run this, you won't be able to broadcast any more of our games," showcasing the monopoly and politics that goes on behind the scenes in sports and in television today. Which is also what makes the fact that PBS--a network which, as pointed out in this week's reading, only 2% of the American population watches--was the one that took the doc on all the more amusing. Because although Jerrod Star argues that PBS hasn't done a very good job of educating like it intends to do (and which is part of why it has failed), it does a good job of both educating and selling here-- although clearly not on the level as ESPN might have been had they run the program. Whether it was because of the people involved in this film or not, it got people tuning into PBS--so perhaps what PBS should be trying to do is to break/investigate more cases in the field of popular culture in order to gain "popularity" with the public. After all, doesn't "Public Broadcasting" scream "give the people what they want" in a democracy?
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