Newsflash: Sports is a Business

Jack Flack disagreed with Business Press Maven Marek Fuchs' conclusion that the news coverage of both sports and business are becoming more controlled by increasingly powerful flacks. But Fuchs has clearly cut a path into intriguing territory by raising comparisons between sports coverage and business coverage.

Jack Flack offers seven quick thoughts on the subject of sports news versus business news.

1. Sports, at least those sports covered by the media, are themselves businesses. Yet only a tiny percentage of the coverage focuses on them as such. Most of the coverage concentrates on the manufactured conflicts (games) between the businesses' principle "products" (teams).

2. Specifically, sports is a sub-segment of the entertainment industry. In fact, you could argue that sports events functioned as the original reality TV shows. There's no detailed script, but the cast has been hand-picked, the time and setting are predetermined, and somebody loses at the end.

3. Thus, the big unmentionable is that most sports journalism is driven by borderline pseudo-events, as the outcome of the Patriots-Colts game is not that different from the outcome of the American Idol finals, or contemporary American political convention. All are created primarily for media consumption. A lot of people get swept up in the entertainment of the story, but the outcome really doesn't influence much else that's going on in the world.

Disclaimer: Jack Flack enjoys the drama of sports as much as the next dude, especially when Larry calls the Dawgs, or when the Bokka prevent another four years of English smugness.

4. Business journalism sells best when it apes sports journalism, particularly in framing clear conflicts that elevate the mundane into something more compelling. That's particularly true of business television. CNBC struggled until Ailes focused it on the stock market, which effectively provided a scoreboard that sets the context for hundreds of little dramas each day. Squawk Box was supposedly modeled on ESPN's Sports Center, and each day is neatly summarized by market "winners" and "losers."

5. But business has a far more "real" impact on the world. When a factory is shut down, a new drug is approved, or exceeded earnings expectations push a pension fund's portfolio higher, it actually influences the circumstances of people's lives. But if the Sox get swept, for instance, the only people whose lives will see any changes are Boston bartenders.

6. In business, the "rules" governing the action can change quickly and profoundly. Google's rules changed Microsoft's rules, which changed Apple's rules, which changed IBM's rules, and each of those shifts changed society. Imagine, if you will, the same degree of rule-change in sports, such as the Knicks suddenly dominating the NBA by becoming the only ones playing with a smaller ball, larger hoop or jet packs. Thus, while sports should be more fun to cover, business should be more interesting.

7. In business, your foes actively work against you in the news media, providing reporters with plenty of alternative sources. Those adversaries not only include your competitors, but also angry consumers, ambitious regulators, advantage-seeking business partners and disgruntled employees. In sports, most players, coaches and management stick to the unwritten rule that you don't diss anybody else from your team, in the league, or on the planet. And sports people don't stay on message because a league flack will hammer them. They do it because they don't want to be ostracized, which is why the supposed candor of Sir Charles passes for controversy.

Bad karma, it seems, is bad for contract negotiations. And that's bad for, uh, business.