The Role of The Media                               #175

by Hank Silverberg

I am not much of a tennis fan. Before this week I did not know much about Naomi Osaka, but her decision to avoid a press conference after her first round victory at the French Open has highlighted some significant issues. 

It is clear coming out of the pandemic that millions of people may have experienced some mental health issues. Isolation, loss of purpose, poor nutrition, lack of contact with extended family, unemployment affected us all and has probably increased the impact on those who had already been dealing with their mental health. Some people handled it. Others have not. 

But that is no excuse for a well-paid athlete to attack the media. 

Osaka is the number one ranked female player on the professional tennis circuit who has earned millions of dollars on the court since she turned pro in 2013 at age 16.   The four time champion said she was not going to attend the press conference after her first round victory. She said though social media that she had experienced "long bouts of depression" after previous media appearances. She did not talk to the press and was then fined $15,000 for violating her contract when she skipped the post-match press conference.     

Here's her twitter post...

 

While I have some empathy for anyone dealing with a mental health issue, I have little tolerance for someone in the public eye, like a professional athlete or a politician, who blames the media for their troubles. We are not talking about paparazzi who follow cars into tunnels, or fly drones over the high fence at someone's home to get a picture or a tidbit of gossip. That is a whole other issue. 

As part of her contract to play in the French Open, Osaka was required to meet the media after the match. Former tennis star Billy Jean King, who knows all about extensive exposure in the press,  expressed some sympathy for Osaka and her decision to quit the tournament, but King also put it in perspective, noting that players "have a responsibility to make themselves available to the Press." 

Billie Jean King Delicately Reminds Naomi Osaka Of 'Responsibility' To Press | HuffPost

King also noted the positive impact that the media has had on the sport of tennis which grew substantially during her era, mostly because of media attention. Female players in particular got more attention and much more money because of media exposure.   

But Osaka was very young when she started to get extensive exposure, and maybe that's part of the problem. She describes herself as a introvert.  

There is a solution here. Many minor league baseball players are actually schooled on how to handle the media as they climb the ladder towards the Major Leagues. Maybe tennis, where talented teenage starts climb faster,  needs to do that same thing, paying more attention to the emotional development of the young stars. But anyone who blames the media for doing their job is simply wrong. 

The role of the press in sports is to provide fans with an accurate description of what happened in a sporting event and provide commentary and analysis on why it happened. Like most events that often requires interviews with the principles involved, both winners and losers. Athletes know going in they are subject to questions and in sports, unlike politics or other public events, it is almost always in a controlled place for a limited time with credentialed reporters. There are few surprises. 

I note that this scrutiny is also applicable to inexperienced politicians and entertainers who enter the limelight often thinking they can keep their personal lives and business dealings private.  If you become a professional athlete, an entertainer or are elected to office, it is part of your job to talk to the press in good times and bad. Bottom line, if you seek fame or popularity, you'd better be ready to take the heat, or get out of the kitchen. 

I hope this young, talented tennis player gets some counseling to help her cope with the ups and downs of fame.  If not, someone needs to help her find another line of work. 

One more time I will write this to be clear.  Someone's mental health is not something to take lightly. I do have empathy for those with this type of issue. But the focus should by on the individual and getting them help. The media and specifically reporters who sometimes ask tough questions,  are not the cause of the problem. 

 

Herd Immunity?

You have probably eased up a bit on your Covid-19

caution. In much of the country, mask mandates are gone and some entertainment and sports venues have been slowly increasing the number of people they let in while still maintaining some social distancing. But are we out of the woods yet? Not really. They know that, in New York, where Yankee Stadium only allowed 20 thousand people in to watch their first big series with the Red Sox this season. That's about 50% of the stadium's capacity.  

In the D.C. area, The Washington Post is reporting that 70% of the adult population could be fully vaccinated by President Biden's July 4th estimate. Maryland is already there, D.C. and Virginia are close behind. Infection rates here in my region  have fallen to their lowest levels of the pandemic. But some experts are cautioning that this could give unvaccinated people a false sense of complacency. And that could fuel a resurgence of the virus in the fall when people go back indoors. 

The more threatening issue may be vaccination rates for children. The CDC says hospitalization rates for adolescents were up in March and April, even as they stabilized in the 65 and over population. Vaccination of young people has been slower than older populations, and a return to school in September could become a major spreader if teenagers are not vaccinated. Add to that, there is no vaccination approval yet for children under 12, even as school districts get set to reopen elementary schools full time in the fall. The virus is still rare in children, but you might want to continue some pandemic precautions for a while until the shots get in the arms of a majority of children. And if you are a parent, get your child vaccinated as soon as possible. 

CDC says COVID hospitalizations increasing for teenagers (msn.com)

And there is one more variation. Rural areas across the country are, in general, way behind urban and suburban communities on vaccinations. Part of that is logistics, part of that is hesitation. If you travel to that type of community, take precautions.  No matter where you go, do not assumed a unmasked person is vaccinated. Many people just aren't following the rules.    

Whale update!

A few weeks ago I reported the good news about whales. The North Atlantic Humpback whales are having a baby boom, with 17 newborn calves arriving from December to March. (See reference in blog at this link.) 

                                                                         Time to Think (hanksilverberg.blogspot.com)

But now there's another negative sign for the world's oldest and largest species. The Right whales, as they are officially called,  are getting smaller! And it's our fault. 

A study published in the journal Current Biology released this past week, says entanglements in fishing gear, collisions with ships, and climate change moving the food supply north, are creating stress that is shrinking the new Humpback generation. 

Making them smaller is endangering the overall species because they aren't big enough to nurse their young or even get pregnant. The average Humpback whale used to grow to 46 feet long. Now the average is under 43 feet. 

Despite the baby boom that  I reported a few weeks ago, there are only about 356 Right whales in the North Atlantic right now, down from 500 in 2010. And yes, scientists actually count them. 

 New study says endangered whales have shrunk in size three feet over 20 years | TheHill

The Humpback whale species was nearly wiped out because of the whaling industry in the 1900's. They are not threatened with extinction again. 

Dejoy Under Investigation!

Here's a story you may have missed. Last week I reported on the increase in postal rates and the continued call for Postmaster General Louis Dejoy, a Trump appointee, to resign because of his controversial and continuing restructure of the U.S. Postal Service. 

Dejoy was a major donor to the Trump campaign and a long time Republican campaign fundraiser. That's probably why he got the Postmaster job in the first place. Now comes word that he is under investigation by the Justice Department for a campaign finance scheme. He is alleged to have had employees at his former company make campaign contributions to GOP candidates and then reimbursed them for doing so. If proven, that would be a violation of the law. 

The Washington Post reports that Dejoy has been subpoenaed as part of the probe. A USPS spokesman is declining to comment on all this, though he acknowledged that DeJoy has received the subpoenas.  

 Louis DeJoy Under FBI Investigation For Alleged Political Donations Scheme (forbes.com)

Dejoy donated $1.2 million to the Trump Victory Fund since 2016, and also donated more than $600,000 to the Republican National Convention host committee from 2018 to 2020.   

 

Dumbest Quote of The Week:

The tweet was sent on Sunday, June 6th, 2021, but has since been deleted. It's from Georgia's Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger. Granted, Yom Kippur is not on the same day every year because it's based on the lunar calendar. I'm not sure what the Secretary's background  is, but if you ask most Americans when Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar is, they will say "sometime in the fall." It's possible the Secretary or someone on his staff mixed the holiday up with the solemn remembrances of  D-Day (June 6th ,1944), but I doubt it. Please note the date and time on the bottom of the Secretary's tweet.  

Maybe the Secretary is still rattled by all those threats he got from President Trump during the 2020 vote counting.  For the record, Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement is on September 16th this year.

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