{"id":3218,"date":"2005-04-14T10:04:22","date_gmt":"2005-04-14T18:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mossback.org\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/04\/14\/bread-and-circuses\/"},"modified":"2005-04-14T10:04:22","modified_gmt":"2005-04-14T18:04:22","slug":"bread-and-circuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/2005\/04\/14\/bread-and-circuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Bread and Circuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tJeff Jarvis is down on sports:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

In newspapers, according to studies I once read (but can’t Google now), about 20 percent of a newspaper’s audience reads sports. And sports sections get little advertising, apart from tire ads. Yet a large proportion of the editorial and paper budget of a paper goes to sports and in these days of declining revenues, that’s an important consideration. (More on that in a bit.)<\/p>\n

On cable TV, I have to pay for lots of sports channels I never watch. Why should I? Maybe everybody else should help pay for my broadband internet bill, huh?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s correct one misunderstanding: Jeff isn’t paying for “a lot of sports channels” on cable TV. He’s paying for ESPN, and the sports fans who subscribe to the extra-cost channels are subsidizing his TV bill; he should thank them.<\/p>\n

Then he shoots at an easy target, public funding for pro sports stadiums:<\/p>\n

\n

In New Jersey, the state just agreed to build a new $750 million stadium to keep the Giants — a profitable, independent business, last I checked — with considerable taxpayer support. But very few taxpayers will ever get to see a game at that stadium; hell, season tickets are only inherited. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a complicated fiscal issue. While it’s not clear that public funding ends up costing the tax payers in the long run, it is clear that pro sports are manna for working people. So it’s appropriate for people in Jeff’s income bracket to show a little appreciation for the people who wash their toilets and cut their lawns by giving them a few bucks toward a baseball team.<\/p>\n

When did we get so miserly that we begrudge people of modest means a little happiness? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Jarvis is down on sports: In newspapers, according to studies I once read (but can’t Google now), about 20 percent of a newspaper’s audience reads sports. And sports sections get little advertising, apart from tire ads. Yet a large proportion of the editorial and paper budget of a paper goes to sports and in … Continue reading “Bread and Circuses”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbifyw-PU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bennett.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}