Heinen: Our media diet of politics and sports has become unhealthy | MADISON MAGAZINE

Bread and circuses. Have we succumbed? Again? It certainly seems like it. Our analgesic diet of politics and sports have become a dependency on which we will spend obscene amounts of money and expend absurd amounts of emotional energy. I wish I had more than thoughts about how to bend our brains to other values. But since politics and sports are both deeply ingrained in the culture of Madison, this deserves a little attention.

I’ve been concerned about the influence of money and absolute power in both politics and sports for some time, with politics perhaps being the harder, and uglier, nut to crack. But I was a little surprised at how taken aback I was by the firestorm whipped up around the performance of the Wisconsin Badgers football team. Holy smokes. The anguish, the anger, the unhealthy obsession are all over the top. This is the fan in fanatic run amok.

Sports has long ago stopped being a benign entertainment by which to while away a few hours. Salaries (for coaches and players at all levels), profits, TV and streaming service revenues, ticket and concessions prices and now gambling have all contributed to turning spirited but enjoyable athletic contests into blood sport. And we’re hooked. Consequently, our mostly good-natured “dislike” of “our” team’s opponent, and our frustration with losing has become hatred replete with insults and threats, and demands for players to be benched or let go, and coaches to be fired.

We need to lighten up, folks. But we also need to recognize the disease that’s eating away at the idea of sports as entertaining skills competitions and turning it into a greedy, mean-spirited mess. It’s a similar disease to that afflicting politics caused by money and a grievance-driven obsession with “our side winning,” and the “other side” being destroyed.

I enjoy sports, or at least the idea of sports as I’ve experienced them for much of my life. I love baseball. I’m a Badgers basketball fan. I’m fascinated by Badgers volleyball. I appreciate other sports. But not the way I used to. I’m realizing there are other pleasures in life far more worth focusing on.

Still, I try to dissect what exactly is going on. Like so much else, the influence of social media is inescapable. But the out-of-whack role of big money — obscenely big money — is a bigger factor. There was a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a few weeks ago that the continued poor performance of the football team, and the accompanying apathy or antipathy of fans, could cost the city of Madison $160 million, and the state of Wisconsin up to $280 million “stemming from game-day spending, tourism and reputational value.”

Meanwhile, the media, TV stations in particular, have based their entire annual budgets on the biennial flood of political spending on election ads. We’re talking big, big money. So yes, politics and sports have big impacts on real people. But it’s such a weird stew. And it feels so perilously unsustainable.

First, there’s the simple economics. The budgets of professional sports teams, college athletic departments, and election campaign funds for candidates from Supreme Court to school board are just out of whack in comparison to, for instance, those for health care, cancer research, environmental protection and basic needs like food and housing, just to name a few. Second, the emotional investment — again, most easily if unreliably measured by social media metrics — feels profoundly misplaced and wasted.

As a whole, it all feels like another crack in the social divide. One more reason to be unhappy, angry, irritated and whiney. As I said at the beginning, my thoughts don’t lead to a satisfactory conclusion. No one, not even those most negatively impacted by the current systems, seem willing to do what it takes to limit the spending. And the “fans” are not about to suddenly develop the patience and perspective to replace “fire Fickell,” with “good game, we’ll get ’em next time,” or, “wait until next year.”

But I believe we’d be better off with different priorities. Let’s reduce the ugliness of politics and the obsessive intensity of sports to the sideshows in life they are, and focus more on what brings us together in a community. In Madison, that looks like keeping our city healthy, safe and fun, taking care of our beautiful lakes and parks, enjoying our abundant arts and diverse and innovative food scene, supporting our United Way-led, volunteer-driven, service providers, filling the River Food Pantry and more. You know, stuff actually worth cheering about.

Neil Heinen is the former editorial director of WISC-TV and Madison Magazine. This column is part of a web series called “I Have Some Thoughts.”

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