The Media and Sports

Axel D. Kin332I

It is amazing to see how powerful the media is and how such power serves the interests of privileged groups who ignore the main purpose of sports in society in order to satisfy their ambition. Enveloped in the ideology of individualism, success, opportunism and competition, reinforced at every moment in sports, these groups create an ideal world in which anybody can achieve their goals if he or she puts enough effort, discipline and determination. Reality differs from the ideal world when equal opportunities don’t exist, when resources are directed to certain sectors of the population and the cases of success from minority groups are scarce in proportion to the number of participants who dream in a successful career in sports. Worst of all, members of minority groups are used to create a circus in which two parties are necessary to promote a competitive event with mega revenues. In the film “Not Just a Game”, Mohamed Ali is portrayed as an activist demanding equal rights for the less privileged people. His activism and attitude was utilized by the media to make money. In the documentary “One Nation Divisible” Mohamed Ali promoted the fight of the century. Scheduled for March 8 1971, Ali promoted this fight to the top creating a division among the population. Ali accused Joe Frazier of being a white man’s puppet, and without any regards, he initiated a series of verbal attacks toward Frazier such as “ass kissing nigger, too ugly and too dumb to be a champion, flat nose gorilla and more.”  Sadly, the nation was divided and competition was created. The fight was televised to more than 300 million people all over the world creating good revenue. Each contender was paid 2.5 million dollars.  In the ring side during the presentation prior to the fight, Ali told Frazier, “2.5 million dollar baby, can you believe that?” At the end, the control and manipulation of reality lies in the hands of those in power who got the imagination and knowledge to persuade and preserve an ideology in which is difficult to determine who the real puppet is.