It appears as though the last few months in sports have had one thing in common. Domestic abuse allegations seem to be running wild. There was a point in which every day it seemed another athlete was accused of some sort of domestic assault.
Some stories caught fire quickly. Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson have gone from being high profile NFL stars to social pariahs. Everywhere you look, someone is talking about domestic abuse. The public is becoming more aware. It is not going away.
However, there is one case that media outlets are trying to squash. It has been almost one month since Kurt Busch was accused of domestic assault. The Associated Press first broke the story early in November. NASCAR was racing in Phoenix that weekend. Kurt Busch was there. He was going to drive no matter what.
For roughly a week the story was kept warm. A few articles written here and there. A mention of the allegations on a news program every so often. Overall very few people were discussing this. NASCAR made a statement in which no action would be taken against Busch until any legal proceedings were finished.
After that, poof. No more. The story was gone. Talk concerning the case has been relatively minimal. The story itself never grew. There is simply no excuse for this.
Fox, NBC, and ESPN all own rights to the NFL. All three networks discussed domestic violence in the NFL until none of us could bear any more. Conveniently, all three networks also owned rights to NASCAR. Regardless of whether the case had any weight to it remains a massive question. Only slight mentions of the Kurt Busch case made their way onto SportsCenter, Fox Sports Live, and NASCAR America.
If these networks had no trouble at all exposing and slightly tarnishing the NFL, why can they not do the same to NASCAR? NFL fans grossly overpower NASCAR fans. Yet just as NFL fans will still watch the NFL no matter what, NASCAR fans will still watch NASCAR.
The purpose of journalism is to expose the truth. Even if the truth isn't interesting that shouldn't warrant ignoring the story.
Some stories caught fire quickly. Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson have gone from being high profile NFL stars to social pariahs. Everywhere you look, someone is talking about domestic abuse. The public is becoming more aware. It is not going away.
However, there is one case that media outlets are trying to squash. It has been almost one month since Kurt Busch was accused of domestic assault. The Associated Press first broke the story early in November. NASCAR was racing in Phoenix that weekend. Kurt Busch was there. He was going to drive no matter what.
For roughly a week the story was kept warm. A few articles written here and there. A mention of the allegations on a news program every so often. Overall very few people were discussing this. NASCAR made a statement in which no action would be taken against Busch until any legal proceedings were finished.
After that, poof. No more. The story was gone. Talk concerning the case has been relatively minimal. The story itself never grew. There is simply no excuse for this.
Fox, NBC, and ESPN all own rights to the NFL. All three networks discussed domestic violence in the NFL until none of us could bear any more. Conveniently, all three networks also owned rights to NASCAR. Regardless of whether the case had any weight to it remains a massive question. Only slight mentions of the Kurt Busch case made their way onto SportsCenter, Fox Sports Live, and NASCAR America.
If these networks had no trouble at all exposing and slightly tarnishing the NFL, why can they not do the same to NASCAR? NFL fans grossly overpower NASCAR fans. Yet just as NFL fans will still watch the NFL no matter what, NASCAR fans will still watch NASCAR.
The purpose of journalism is to expose the truth. Even if the truth isn't interesting that shouldn't warrant ignoring the story.
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