You're Tuned To "The Tiger Channel": All Tiger, All the Time

So it's the week of The Masters golf tournament, and of course the major story is Tiger Woods and his return to competition after his much-publicized hiatus due to his martial issues and "sexual addiction" treatment.

One of the most anticipated events of this week is today's news conference with Tiger. This was announced a few weeks ago, and of course it has received enormous coverage. But ESPN has dedicated three of its channels to covering the press conference live! ESPN, ESPN-2, and ESPN News all have the press conference in its entirety, with ESPN and ESPN-2 preempting normal programming (i.e. opening day baseball games) to carry the press conference live.

I have no problem with ESPN News having the press conference live. However, why must all of the ESPN networks carry it? Even if you make the argument that ESPN News isn't on as many cable systems as ESPN or ESPN-2, why do both of those channels need to simulcast it? Never mind that the press conference was also on MSNBC, Fox News, CSNBC, CNN, and The Golf Channel simultaneously. Heck, I think it was also carried live on Animal Planet. Overkill, anyone???

The whole point of ESPN having multiple channels is to carry more programming. What is the fucking point of simulcasting the press conference and the mind-numbing analysis that followed by Tirico & Co.?? You have two channels so you DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS, yet you do it anyway.

Critics of media convergence and the current state of media ownership cite a complete lack of diversity as one of the problems when huge media conglomerates own multiple media outlets. Those critics are speaking more of diversity of viewpoints and ideas rather than simple sports programming when they make those arguments, but I think it applies here. ESPN is doing no one a service by carrying Tiger's press conference live on three networks--and ESPN doesn't care. Having the press conference on multiple channels makes ESPN feel like it's more credible, when the opposite is true. The funny thing is, in the next few days some people on ESPN will start complaining about the fact that people won't let the Tiger story die--when they're very network is on of the big reasons these types of stories get overhyped in the first place.

Yeah...."What I said"

O'Hoolix is still a bit perplexed by his 0-2 finish to the CBB season rounding out at 24-16-1. O'Hoolix's knows that Tom Izzo has forgotten more about basketball than the furry space alien picking point spreads.......BUT Coach Izzo should have read my post before the game.

Sparty had ZERO chance trying to run with Carloina. Didn't State coaches watch the game prior to their game with UCONN???? Anyone could have deducted not to run with Carolina and yet that was the exact tactic State tried in the championship game! I mean, after the first two minutes of the championship game, State should have immediately called one or two timeouts to settle their players. Also, the coaching staff should have told them to work the shot clock on every possession and limit the touches UNC had. Sparty continued to run and got run right off the court. Next time, all coaches should log on to www.lomhenn.com and check advice from O'Hoolix!

O'Hoolix wonders when the Government is going to regulate sports player's salaries and bonuses.......is it around the corner???

Look out Tiger Woods is back, John Daly and Phil Mickelson are still fat and that spells another Green Jacket for Woods.

If O'Hoolix is a seafarer on the high seas near Somalia, he is loading his rig down with: AT-4's, .40mm grenade launchers, .50 cal machine guns, clubs, knives, shotguns, hand-held Death Blossoms and anything else he can get his hands on.

Happy Easter weekend!