“Fake outrage”: Flacco frap widens gap between media and fans
“Some members of the local press see the Flacco frap as an opportunity to rally Broncos fans. Others see it as a chance to chastise us for our hypersensitivity and lack of intelligence. “
Read More …
All of the city is abuzz over the Joe Flacco banners that desecrate Mile High Stadium and the 16th street mall. Fans are furious and the various media outlets in town are fanning the flames of our discontent.
Some members of the local press see the Flacco frap as an opportunity to rally Broncos fans. Others see it as a chance to chastise us for our hypersensitivity and lack of intelligence. It’s a situation that has already widened the gap between people in the media and devoted fans.
On their show “The Press Box” this morning, hosts Peter Burns and Oren Lomena made the issue of the banners the central one to the discussion. They chose the tact of belittling fans for their angst. Not only did they rip the Broncos faithful on air, they took to Twitter to blast people, too. Mark Kiszla, the third host on the Press Box stayed largely neutral on the issue, having been in Denver long enough to understand the fan dynamic here. He was the voice of reason … for once.
This is Broncos Country. It’s a concept that some in the media can’t seem to understand. It’s hard to blame them for their lack of understanding, though. Some of them consider themselves to be “journalists”, which means that they have to put up a wall between themselves and those who wear the orange colored glasses. They feel like they have to be able to establish some neutrality, which is forgivable.
What’s much more difficult to understand is why members of the Denver media would lash out against fans. Are we sometimes myopic? Of course we are. That’s what makes us fans. It’s no reason to tell us to “grow up”. After all, aren’t we the reason Denver has three sports radio stations, two cable sports networks and four TV network sports desks? Is sports not a fan-driven endeavor?
The Broncos playoff loss to the Ravens last season was one of the most painful in franchise history. And the wounds are still very raw. Broncos fans have every reason to protest the deification of Joe Flacco on the very walls of a football stadium we paid millions to build. Perhaps we aren’t exhibiting the highest level of maturity by making a big deal of it, but who said that we had to? Fans are consumers. It’s our behavior and biases that corporations pay billions of dollars to influence and understand. The media only exists as a conduit to reach us. In other words, it’s our opinions that matter – not those of the talking heads who would seem to judge us.
The pursuit of a show like the Press Box is to connect with fans – not to create division. Perhaps the decision to take an oppositional position with Broncos fans was fueled by the desire to play devil’s advocate. Maybe Burns and Co. knew that the guys over at the Fan would be aligning with the popular position that the Flacco posters were offensive and decided that they would approach the subject from the other angle. That would understandable. But it would also mean that a conscious decision was made to “force” an opinion. Call it “trolling”. Otherwise, the fellows really are just that disconnected from what Broncos Country is all about.
