Thursday, July 21, 2005
The Selling of a Red Sox Nation
The team's newfound media savvy, of course, was not just some instant bi-product of sudden personality changes. The Red Sox, and their main cable outlet NESN, are partially owned, ironically enough, by the New York Times Company, which also wholly owns the Boston Globe. Hence, the major media outlets for the Boston Red Sox are connected, financially, to the team itself. Thanks to this all-too-common example of media conglomeration, the Red Sox management essentially had a say in which version of the Red Sox story got told in the public, even right down to the supposedly independent voices on the internet.
One of the most popular websites about the Red Sox, John Silva's Boston Dirt Dogs, was incorporated into the Boston Globe website, and it is no coincidence that Silva was more than willing to spread rumors and cast aspersions of the very same players that the Red Sox had no intention of re-signing (such as Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Lowe). The image of the happy-go-lucky Red Sox was as much of a marketing gimmick perpetuated by both the management (to sell tickets) and the media markets (to sell papers, or gain more viewers). Luckily, this line-up was a group of grown men, fully aware that they were essentially playing a children's game, who were able to remain calm despite the machinations and the hateful intensity of the notorious Boston sports media....
Hi, Ho, John Silva...I hope this John guy does a better job with the site than Steve Dirt Bag...
-Red Sox Hub
The team's newfound media savvy, of course, was not just some instant bi-product of sudden personality changes. The Red Sox, and their main cable outlet NESN, are partially owned, ironically enough, by the New York Times Company, which also wholly owns the Boston Globe. Hence, the major media outlets for the Boston Red Sox are connected, financially, to the team itself. Thanks to this all-too-common example of media conglomeration, the Red Sox management essentially had a say in which version of the Red Sox story got told in the public, even right down to the supposedly independent voices on the internet.
One of the most popular websites about the Red Sox, John Silva's Boston Dirt Dogs, was incorporated into the Boston Globe website, and it is no coincidence that Silva was more than willing to spread rumors and cast aspersions of the very same players that the Red Sox had no intention of re-signing (such as Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Lowe). The image of the happy-go-lucky Red Sox was as much of a marketing gimmick perpetuated by both the management (to sell tickets) and the media markets (to sell papers, or gain more viewers). Luckily, this line-up was a group of grown men, fully aware that they were essentially playing a children's game, who were able to remain calm despite the machinations and the hateful intensity of the notorious Boston sports media....
Hi, Ho, John Silva...I hope this John guy does a better job with the site than Steve Dirt Bag...
-Red Sox Hub
