The Media Learning Curve: May 22-29

Rick Reilly now owns the rights to the phrase "Life of Riley"? Brand right he does. Apparently (linked here, with all the paperwork) so that Pat Riley wouldn't beat him to it someday while renewing the trademark of "three-peat."

Seems like R-squared is just doing the safety dance.

Which reminds us: Erin Andrews on "Dancing With the Stars" -- as a competitor? It would be to ABC's benefit to have the lady with the tight dress come on each week in even tighter clothing and try to dazzle the judges. Especially after her performance in Thursday's ESPN and ABC coverage of the National Spelling Bee.

While she lobbies for that honor (linked here), we also learned this week that, in the world of media graffiti:

== ABC could use some help with its graphic spelling -- or an alternate pronounciation -- especially during the Spelling Bee (linked here)

== And an ESPN.com writer makes a pitch for having learned new sports words this week (linked here).

== Yes, Conan O'Brien is directly responsible for the NHL starting the Stanley Cup finals with back-to-back weekend games on NBC (linked here)

== And yes, a stupid cartoon gopher is directly responsible for the NASCAR ratings taking a dive on Fox (linked here)

== The coaches who decide their national football champion for USA Today will keep everything non-transparent starting in 2010 (linked here)

== If you believe Manny Ramirez should be eligible for fan voting into the 2009 MLB All-Star Game, join those who voted "yes" at this ESPN.com poll (linked here).

== Why spend the time and money printing actual media guides any more, when the media would just a) throw 'em away and b) go looking for the PDF online anyway (linked here).

== AND FINALLY ...

== After seeing this during the ABC Indianapolis 500 coverage on Sunday, yes, it's wrong: