Election coverage vs. Sports Journalism

I'm an avid sports fan. Let me put it another way: I'm a die-hard all-things-Philly-sports fan. So with the Philadelphia Phillies of the World Series, not only did I get the chance to attend Game 3, but sports journalism is probably what I read most these days.

This is all going somewhere, I promise. I want to make a connection here between election coverage and sports coverage. The connection is horserace journalism. Basically, instead of focusing on analyzing players and candidates or issues and team trends, pundits often focus on predictions. Who's going to win? What will be the final score? The funny thing is, I've heard pundits make these predictions and then say, "You know, this is really impossible to predict."

Wow. That's practically breaking news in itself. But seriously, these predictions are senseless. Predictions at the beginning of the primaries that Hillary Clinton was going to win the presidential election were absurd. In sports, ESPN has all of their analysts predict who will win the World Series. I'll bet none of them picked the Phils vs. Rays. Then right before the start of the series they all predicted again the winners, and half of them are wrong after three out of a potential seven games have been played.

The media need to focus on what's in front of them. No one knows who America will win the election next Tuesday. No one is sure who will win the World Series even after three games have been played. Media should dig up and analyze facts. Even a donkey can make a prediction.

And just for good measure, this from Jon Stewart is hilarious on the candidates and their sports alliances.