Regional Bias

By Keith Antigiovanni

On Christmas Eve I was driving somewhere and put the radio on and the New York Jets- New York Giants football game was on. I am a fan of neither team and wasnt much interested in the game until I heard the announcer, Howard David in his east coast accent, commented about how important a specific call by the referee would be in the game and if he made a mistake it would be magnified because two New York teams were playing.

The game was also the only one televised locally.

My first thought was who cares if two New York teams are playing the guy needs to get the call right.Then he followed up his comment with the fact that this particular official worked in his words "an unimportant" game the previous week when the Tennessee Titans played the Indianapolis Colts.

I know that the Colts have been out of the playoff race all year but the Titans are competing for a playoff spot just like the Jets and Giants are at this time.

The ignorant comment made by David illustrates the "East Coast" bias in the media as if only the results of east coast teams are important as opposed to teams in Nashville, Tennessee or Indianapolis, Indiana. That would be fine if he was talking to an east coast audience but the game was broadcast nationally.

Obviously the east coast fans care about as much about Tennessee-Indianapolis as someone on the west coast cares about the Jets/Giants. Isnt the NFL, the National Football League? Not the east coast football league? If the NFL is serious about presenting itself a national sport then its about time they hired announcers who do their homework and know all the teams and not just the ones they cover locally or regional announcers will continue to show their bias and present the NFL as a less than national sport.