Opinion : Sports Broadcasting

I have been watching a lot of ESPN lately (mostly background noise as I eat) and I am becoming disappointed.  I love sports, but I am not happy where cable sports broadcasting is heading.  There is very little actual sports shown and instead there is continuous news programming played on a minute loop.  While this is not a new format idea, several trends are making sports channels less watchable.
 First is the very narrow range of sports covered by the endless news programs.  Sportscenter yesterday spent hours yesterday talking about College basketball and NFL trades, with a little NBA and men's golf sprinkled in.  What about College Hockey or the NHL?  Soccer?  MMA? women's sports?  Baseball?   I understand that College hockey is not as popular as college basketball, but with over 6hrs of news a day, doesn't it warrant a few minutes of coverage?  

Second is the trend of airing news and documentaries instead of the actual sports.  At one point last week, ESPN was airing a documentary about Basketball players (Magic Johnson) when there were actual basketball games being played.  These are good stories, but ESPN is not the place.  as a fan who flips to a sports network, I want to see sports.  ESPN has a sister station ESPNnews  that was supposed to be the channel that allowed branded sports themed programming to be shown without displacing actual sports, but for whatever reason, ESPNnews is no longer in my cable package and its programming is constantly on the flagship network. I feel that this cheapens the whole brand.

Third, the competition is increasingly conforming to ESPN instead of innovating.  When NBC sports took over VS network, they started a branded sports news show and have moved away from the outdoor programming that defined the network.  They have even moved their offices to Connecticut.   Local sports networks keep getting bought out by the teams that they cover and get turned into a marketing exercise instead of a real sports broadcaster (See: Yes Network)  Networks founded by leagues seem to be an attempt to shake down cable companies as opposed to actually increasing the amount of programming available (see NFL network, Big Ten Network)

All of this has led mt to the following unfortunate point:  despite far more cable channels and broadcasting capabilities, there is no more live sports on TV than there was a decade ago (at least on my cable package on Comcast Philly).  This is a missed opportunity, as availability of sitcoms, reality TV and Movies has increased, sports has not kept pace.  I want to see more college and olympic sports and local coverage that extends past the major league level.  I can watch engineering lectures that are broadcast city wide by my college but I cant watch the school's lacrosse games.   The internet is great for stats and news but nothing beats watching sports live.

Opinion : the problem with the 2 party system

While I have supported both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama in the past, I am not happy about this up coming presidential election. Like many people, I feel that there is really no candidate that represents my interests. How have we come to the point where most of are elections are a choice between the lesser of 2 evils? One of the big problems is that our political institutions support an entrenched 2 party system. What America really needs is at least 4 distinct political parties, in a system that encourages compromise, similar to what exists in Europe.

It is easy to see how the uneasy alliances on each side of the isle would break to form 4 political parties. On the Liberal side there would be a intellectual activist group (similar to the Green party, could be lead by Al Gore and Obama) and a party of unionized workers (the Labor Party, led by Hillary Clinton?). This would allow all politicians to be more honest by unwinding some policy contradictions (like the UAW being opposed to environmental regulations). On the Conservative side, you have a party of wealthy libertarian types who do not care much for social policy (led by Mitt Romney and Donald Trump) and a party of social conservatives who want the government to legislate morality (likely led by Palin and Santorum). Again, with out having to please everyone under the "Big Tent", politicians could lead a much more honest public dialogue.

Unfortunately, The way our primary systems are set up, more than 2 political parties are currently impractical. If a 3rd party bid splits up 1 of the parties, the result will likely encourage the other party to stay together and win, not to follow suit to achieve needed reform (see: Ross Perot). Mediocre, insincere candidates will continue to be the norm for the foreseeable future, as these candidates have the best chance to unite the fundamentally fragmented parties.