As Told By Our “Experts” In Bristol

The media coverage of Monday night’s sporting events by ESPN reminded me of something you would see on MSNBC or FOXNews. Their bias was obvious, their portrayal of the two cities: Boston and Philadelphia, was clearly lopsided, and quite frankly, unfair.

“The Worldwide Leader in Sports” was more so being a follower in this instance. They were playing into the footsteps of other sports networks in their coverage of the games and it exploited Philadelphians, portraying them in a most negative light.

As the entire world knows by now, some punk 17-year-old, Steve Consalvi (from Berks County nonetheless) ran onto the field in Monday’s game at Citizens Bank Park and was brought down via taser gun. Classic, right? Well, not so much, whether it’s throwing snowballs at Santa Claus, (which still has not been forgotten 40 years later) or throwing D-cell batteries at J.D. Drew, Philadelphia fans always seem to be victimized by, well, pretty much all of society, thanks to a select few. Though I, personally do not condone what these people did, they are miniscule on the scale of passion that the “true” fans bring all across this great city, and that is a fact. Never anywhere else will you see last place teams consistently sell-out games all season long (Eagles in late-’90s, Flyers in ‘06-07.)

In watching ESPN, I was quite disappointed, not to mention with both the Flyers and Phillies losing, it was already a not-so-good night to begin with for many across the Delaware Valley. I get the ESPNBoston, ESPNDallas, ESPNNewYork, ESPNChicago, ESPNLosAngeles thing, but why go so over the top on this matter?

It was a great night for Boston sports with the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox all winning, and I can respect that, but not the way it was portrayed by ESPN. They praised their victories so much that they forgot to even mention just about anything else. There was a real visual bias in that entire segment in my mind.

Philadelphia was portrayed as losers, cry babies, cheaters, and degenerates, which is stereotypical to a tee. When Philadelphia teams made the highlight reel, it was for just two reasons. One being the obvious, the tased fan, or should I say, fool that ran onto the field, to be honest the kid got what he deserved. He’s lucky the mayor’s name is Nutter and not Rizzo. The 2nd reason was for Philadelphia’s top goon, Daniel Carcillo, who did indeed act on an early Boston penalty call, then later, in a scrum, claimed to have gotten bit by Marc Savard. ESPN clearly goofed here as far as I am concerned. Reminiscent of coverage in the ’08 Election, but we won’t go there.

Anyway, Philadelphia is a wonderful city, and by no means should play second fiddle to cocky Bostonians in anything. Who knows many may feel as though I am being biased in my writing this piece, but to be honest, I am not. I am just simply stating and reacting upon what I saw. Just sayin’.