Do the WaPo and NYT describe everything that conservatives complain about as "fury?" This time it's MAGA furious at Bad Bunny being picked. Are they? Football fans are pretty used to not liking the Super Bowl halftime show, because it tends to be someone who is supposed to attract the semi-fan, often female, who doesn't watch that often. They want those extra eyeballs for the commercials. I haven't seen it mentioned on conservative sites yet. I suspect there will be some grousing.
Fury. Well, I'm sure there are some people furious about Bad Bunny who are big Trump supporters, but I'll bet they get over it. Are their opponents trying to conjure it, trying to make people believe it, or projecting how they spend their mornings onto other people's screens?
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It smells like marketing, just like all the Hollywood movies that come out of the gate criticizing fans for negative reactions. I don't think it's good marketing, but it's a familiar pattern.
We haven't watched football since they started mixing politics with entertainment. Once an audience is left, it's hard to get it back. Indifference is not fury.
There is no spectacle without degradation -- Tertullian, "De Spectaculis", c. 197
@ Gerry Bowler - great quote.
This is just a feature of polarization. I see it running the other way on Quora a lot. Right-wing poster (inevitably American) post something that says, with one level of obviousness or other, "So, I bet [news event] really torques the left wing!" and a left-wing poster will reply "Not really."
Each side would love to get a rise out of the other.
I'll bet you are spot on. Sad to see it from theoretically objective news sources, though.
My X feed was pretty lit up about it. I wouldn't call it fury so much as disgust. There was talk of counter-programming, for those who can't bring themselves simply to ignore the Superbowl or its halftime show.
That was my take on what I was seeing as well. Nobody really expected a different performer given that, based on one posting I saw, Jay-Z's production company has a long-term contract with the NFL for the Super Bowl halftime.
The NFL is also caught in a bind between white suburban moms who don't want their boys bashing heads on the gridiron and black inner city kids who are likely more interested in the prospect of vaulting to the NBA within 12 months of being graduated from high school, even with FCS teams handing out NIL money. It's not just fans they have to worry about attracting, it's product.
It's the same old double standard in reporting that we're all familiar with. Righties criticize a man in a dress and it's "fury". Lefties burn down entire city blocks and it's "mostly peaceful protests". They lie and distort as easily as they breathe.
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