Sports Media Milks the Boston Marathon Bombing

Click on these photos of text to see a bigger version so you won't lose your eyesight trying to read them. — Click on these photos of text to see a bigger version so you won’t lose your eyesight trying to read them.

I typically don’t write about a topic two days in a row because I have the attention span of a gnat and the same computer I type these articles on has my porn, so you do the math. But the way ESPN and Sports Illustrated have glommed on to the terrorist attack in Boston on Monday because of its tangential connection to sports is disgusting (unlike your friend and humble blogger doing it, which is born of my inability to come up with article ideas).

The photo above is a screen capture of Sports Illustrated’s website on Monday, the day of the explosion. The first 14 articles on the right side of the page pertain to the incident, which would be fine if SI gave two shits about marathon running any other day of the year. It’s a heartless, calculated move to load their site with keywords pertaining to the Boston Marathon Bombing in order to spike their traffic. The logic is sound. Everyone frantically searching for information on the bombing isn’t casually looking up last night’s box scores. Why not kill two birds with one stone and give the audience what they crave?

I could almost forgive the balls it took to make such a move on the day of–editors have to make split-second decisions. But two days later, this is Sports Illustrated’s front page:

Still at it. ESPN is no better, mind you. Yesterday, I flipped over to the worldwide leader to find that tree-dwelling cue ball Jay Glazer doing his best Walter Kronkite-announcing-Kennedy’s-assassination voice discussing the bombing on a somber, blackened stage. And here’s a capture of their front page today:

You know what might help in the search for normalcy, ESPN? Returning to the overanalysis of athletes and informing me what foods were found in Kobe Bryant’s stool over the weekend. Sports are an escape. Stop forfeiting that to boost your Google ranking. Can you imagine how unreadable these two sites would have been had they existed during the OJ Simpson trial?

People can argue that SI.com and ESPN.com are simply giving the customer what they want, but there is something to be said for journalistic integrity, not to mention sticking to what you’re supposed to provide. We’d all enjoy a blowjob with our ice cream: It doesn’t mean Baskin-Robins should join forces with a brothel.

Does the automotive world try to insinuate itself into the legend of James Dean because he died in a car crash? Do aeronautics claim a special bond with Buddy Holly because he died in a plane? Of course not. So why is no one calling out sports media for their insistence that the Boston Marathon Bombing is about sports and not terrorism?