Courtesy of Casey Lartigue Jr.
By Casey Lartigue Jr.
As a former political analyst, media specialist and failed athlete, I learn with nice curiosity David A. Tizzard’s current commentary mourning the lack of objectivity in journalism and politics (“Korean politics: Where did we go wrong?”). The declare that “We get sports activities proper, however not politics” depends on selective commentary and a romanticized view of each journalism and sports activities commentary.
Tizzard asks: “So why can we demand objectivity in sports activities however settle for pure subjectivity in politics?” I’m not certain if he’s proper about this subject associated to Korea, however I’ll add a primarily American perspective.
Let’s begin with Stephen A. Smith. A journalist turned pundit, he’s recognized extra for his passionate rants than calm, analytical breakdowns. He simply signed a five-year, $100 million contract, getting paid extra for speaking about what others are literally doing. His model is constructed on opinion, provocation and emotional depth. Sports activities journalism on the highest ranges is fueled by bias, exaggeration and tribal loyalty. Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd and numerous others draw audiences by leaning into their biases.
Flip by way of native crew broadcasts and also you’ll get two fully completely different variations of the identical recreation. The hometown announcers grudgingly admit when gamers on their groups are at fault. Calls which are apparent fouls on one station are horrible officiating on the opposite. Arguments amongst sports activities commentators — a lot of whom are present or former journalists — are way more heated than political arguments. Even nationwide announcers who attempt to current each side usually get denounced for being biased, particularly if they’re former athletes calling video games involving their former groups. Followers and gamers are keen to just accept unhealthy rulings by referees when they’re of their favor and are outraged when the opposing crew receives favorable calls.
I’ll say there’s a key distinction between sports activities and politics: the scoreboard. Regardless of how a lot followers argue, the crew with essentially the most factors on the finish of the sport wins. Interval. You would possibly complain concerning the referees, however the result’s remaining, and most followers transfer on to the following recreation or season.
In politics, it’s not that straightforward. A candidate can win an election and nonetheless face accusations that the outcomes have been rigged, the machines malfunctioned, the ballots have been mishandled and that the voters for the opposite candidate are silly. Disputes over election legitimacy have change into a recurring function of contemporary political life, in South Korea, the US of America and possibly different international locations. In sports activities, the scoreboard ends the controversy. In politics, the election end result might be the start of latest arguments and countless allegations, and till the following election, the losers will proceed to doubt the outcomes and try and undermine the opposing occasion that gained.
I as soon as heard conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh cite a professor who mentioned that sport is the one place in life the place persons are allowed to be fully passionate, with no penalties. Joe Madison, my former fellow speak present host at XM 169, used to ask why folks prevented political fights, particularly after they known as his present. He argued that folks have been extra animated and keen about sports activities than politics.
Tizzard’s deeper argument, partially based mostly on a ebook he learn, is that politics has by some means devolved into an enviornment of emotion, spectacle and commodification. However politics hasn’t change into contentious and emotional lately. At the least within the American context, the Founding Fathers of the US deliberately designed a system of presidency that thrives on stress and friction. The checks and balances baked into the Structure assure that no department holds absolute energy. Factions have been anticipated and disagreement was in-built. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 10, the aim was to not get rid of factions however to handle their results by way of a republic, not a pure democracy.
The South Korean system appears to be a hybrid of different programs and has additionally taken on related political stress, with one occasion capturing the presidency and the opposite ruling the Nationwide Meeting. The stress is baked within the Korean democracy recipe, and a few folks overreact as Tizzard’s scholar who mentioned she didn’t need to reside in the identical nation as President Yoon Suk Yeol. Wanting on the historical past of how former South Korean presidents have been impeached, imprisoned, exiled, dedicated suicide, been assassinated and the way political battles usually spill into the streets with mass protests and counterprotests, I’m not certain when there was an age of peace in Korean politics. In historic instances, kings and queens have been even blamed for droughts and Kim Younger-sam was known as the “bad-luck president.”
And so far as folks changing into emotional these days about politics, in 1804, sitting U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton useless in a duel. In 1856, Congressman Preston Brooks practically beat Sen. Charles Sumner to dying on the Senate flooring. Smear campaigns within the 1800s have been vicious, Andrew Jackson fought duels within the 1810s. Let’s not faux we’ve fallen from some golden age of civility.
And about media bias, Tizzard wrote, “Journalists aren’t journalists anymore. They’re agenda pushers.” When have been journalists not agenda pushers? From the brazenly partisan newspapers of the early republic, to the yellow journalism of the Nineties, to wartime propaganda, Chilly Conflict polarization and even the uncritical reporting that helped justify international locations getting into varied wars, they’ve lengthy been agenda pushers.
In the course of the early republic, American newspapers have been brazenly partisan mouthpieces — the Gazette of the US for the Federalists, and the Nationwide Gazette for the Democratic-Republicans. There was no golden age of pure, apolitical journalism; journalists have lengthy been agenda pushers. To faux that bias is a contemporary illness or distinctive to at the moment is to disregard centuries of media historical past.
Tizzard’s frustration with performative journalism is comprehensible. However idealizing sports activities as a mannequin of objectivity misreads each fields. Sports activities media thrives on ardour and bias. It simply occurs to be a bias we forgive. Political journalism, against this, is predicted to be above the fray, even because it offers with larger stakes.
That’s why the comparability in the end fails. It’s not that sports activities are extra goal. We settle for its subjectivity as a result of the outcomes are clear, the stakes really feel secure and the eagerness is accepted. Politics is messier as a result of it shapes our lives, rights and futures.
Casey Lartigue Jr. (CJL@alumni.harvard.edu) is the co-founder of Freedom Audio system Worldwide with Lee Eun-koo; and co-author with Han Music-mi of her memoir “Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Seek for Her Mom and Herself.”
