The real reality story
The super-sized L.A. daily felt the need to put a story on page 1 of its sports section Thursday, headlined: "Bonds TV Show Is Called Out." Which really isn't quite true since the ESPN documentary series is going on hiatus in a couple of weeks (the deck head does somewhat clairify that) and then would come back later in the season.
But, now that you mention it, where did I read that before?
Oh, right. It was in the media column I wrote a week ago.
The angle was about how some of the people at Fox thought the daily Barry Bonds stories were getting repetitive and recycled __ even though they thought it was reasonable to cut in live to Bonds' at-bats during Saturday's upcoming regional telecast. "Bonds on Bonds" producer Mike Tollin told me that they'd stick with the series "at least until Bonds passes Babe Ruth and reaches 715, then take an hiatus and rejoin it later in the season."
That paragraph was then picked up by the Sports Business Daily on Firday.
And, to tell the truth, that's pretty much all of what Thursday's L.A. Times story said.
On Thursday. After ESPN had sent out a release telling everyone of the new plan.
My take on why this suddenly became a faux news story is because of what Tollin has said about the media's entire take on his show. They've hated the concept from the start -- not necessarily the execution or the content -- and few, if any, even watched it. Since this piece of info has finally got around to those who are used to having things spoon-fed their scoops, there's probably some self-serving sort of validation that they've helped bring this nasty thing to a close. Hence, front-page news chest thumping.
Make sure you know it's not going on hiatus because the ratings say it's been unwatchable (which the other story does get around to pointing out). It's just the reality of the situation -- once Bonds passes 715, what real news is there to deliver on a week-to-week basis? None, which is what Tollin said a week ago. Which is why he said it'll be on a as-need-to-see basis. Which makes perfect sense.
Media bashing of Bonds, and the show, will continue. It's the dog-pile effect we often get caught up in, despite what our readership tells us. Take the quip that Dan Shanoff had on Thursday's ESPN.com Page 2 "Daily Quickie":
"Putting 'Bonds on Bonds' on hiatus is the symbol: The biggest snub fans and media could deliver to Bonds is silence as we stop paying attention to him."
And then there's a poll on SI.com that asks everyone:
Who do you hate the most?
My boss
My in-laws
The Devil
Barry Bonds
As of Thursday night, Bonds led with 55 percent.
Fostering hate for another human being? Pretty classy....
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