Ralph Nader Claims Sports Media Dropping the Ball on Social, Cultural, and Economic Issues in Sports
League of Fans Calls For Sports Journalists to Fulfill Their Journalistic Duty
Asks Fans and Other Stakeholders to Demand More From the Sports Media and Its Large “News Hole”
Ralph Nader announced today that his League of Fans organization is starting a campaign to ask the sports media to increase their work on the social, cultural, and economic aspects of sports.
“The sports media are falling dreadfully short when it comes to the in-depth examination of why our major sports problems exist and what can be done to fix them or prevent them,” said Nader. “They’re overloading their audiences with sugar – the entertainment aspects of spectator sports – and giving them very little in the way of healthy fruits and vegetables – the “whys” and “hows” of our current sports issues. That has to change.”
Ken Reed, League of Fans’ sports policy director, said that from a journalistic ethics perspective, the sports media has the corporate social responsibility to give us more than game coverage, trade rumors and injury reports from our big-time sports leagues.
“As a whole – and there definitely are exceptions — the sports media too often simply identify the symptoms of problems and then stop,” says Reed. “Rarely, do they dig for root causes, or examine important sports issues from a holistic perspective, including social, educational, economic, safety, and health angles. And they don’t ask questions like, ‘Is sport, as presently constructed in this country, meeting the needs of participants, spectators, taxpayers and families?’ There’s virtually no examination of the core sports systems and models at work. For the most part, they’re taken for granted.”
League of Fans is calling for sports media organizations to 1) establish a sports issues and sports reform beat; 2) add an ombudsman function to investigate complaints from fans and other sports stakeholders; and 3) cover all aspects of sports, including participatory sports, not just highly commercialized spectator sports. In addition, League of Fans is asking fans to demand more from traditional sports media and utilize the tools of the Internet to challenge sports media conglomerates.
“Media routines and ruts have been successfully challenged throughout our history,” said Reed. “Traditional sports media companies can be improved by public demand. It’s time to engage in the struggle.”
The announcement came in conjunction with the release of the League of Fans’ eleventh report, “Sports Media Dropping the Ball on Social, Cultural and Economic Issues in Sports,” from its Sports Manifesto. The full report is available here.
Sports Forum Podcast
Episode #30 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The State of College Athletics with Dr. David Ridpath: Problems and Potential Solutions – Ridpath is a sports administration professor at Ohio University and a long-time member of The Drake Group, a college sports reform think tank.
Listen on Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor and others.
Follow on Facebook: @SportsForumPodcast
More Episodes on Apple Podcasts; Spotify; Google Podcasts; PocketCasts; & Anchor
Episode #29 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: The Honorable Tom McMillen Visits League of Fans’ Sports Forum – McMillen is a former All-American basketball player, Olympian, Rhodes Scholar and U.S. Congressman. We discuss the state of college athletics today.
Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world. We discuss problems in youth sports today.
Episode #27 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Kids’ Sports: How We Can Take Back the Game and Restore Quality Family Time In the Process – Linda Flanagan is author of “Take Back the Game: How Money and Mania Are Ruining Kids’ Sports and Why It Matters.” We discuss how commercialized and professionalized youth sports are hurting kids and their families.
Episode #26 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: How Can We Fix Youth Sports? – John O’Sullivan is Founder and CEO of Changing the Game Project and author of “Changing the Game: The Parents Guide to Raising Happy, High Performing Athletes and Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids.”
Episode #25 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: Physical Education Should Be a Critical Component of K-12 School Design – Michael Horn is co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- Reed Appears on Ralph Nader Radio Hour League of Fans’ sports policy director, Ken Reed, Ralph Nader and the New York Times’ Tyler Kepner discussed a variety of sports issues on Nader’s radio show as well as Reed’s updated book, How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Reed's book was released in paperback in February, and has a new introduction and several updated sections.
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
Books