Sports vs. Tabloids (link)

In the Wall Street Journal, John Paul Newport compares why we watch sports to why people read tabloids (link):

Sports coverage fundamentally is about documenting effort and celebrating triumph. Yes, fans and commentators will tee off on losing coaches (like Charlie Weis of Notre Dame) or bonehead jocks who underachieve (the New York Knicks). But their disappointment is more or less righteous and pitched against a backdrop of desire for greater things. The payoff moments in sports are the record-setting performance and the come-from-behind victory.

The gossip industry, by contrast, is devoted to sussing out the very worst in human behavior and wallowing in it. Yes, reporters will occasionally don a moony face and intone sentiments such as, “The real losers in this sordid affair are the couple’s children.” But there’s no disguising those reporters’ squirming joy in having got the goods on the couple in the first place. The payoff moments in gossip are the gotcha video (or in today’s modern world, the gotcha text or voice message) and the lurid detail.

Just another reason why I love sports.