The Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network decided not to broadcast the Red Sox Opening Day banner-raising ceremony. I don't know why this would surprise or offend anyone. I also don't know why the Yankee reaction to the Red Sox Championship is almost as big a story as the Red Sox Championship.
"In case anyone in the Yankee organization forgets, everybody - all subscribers - whether they be in Time Warner Cable's 2.4 million home universe or Cablevision's three million homes, had their cable bills jacked up so YES could be on basic cable. Not everyone in that total universe is a baseball fan. Some are Yankee fans. Some just want to see quality baseball aired in an objective fashion."
Is Raissman serious? Is Raissman seriously suggesting that there are some people watching YES to see "quality baseball aired in an objective fashion"?
(I guess the "quality baseball" is coming from the Yankee opponent, since the Yankees are aging, boring, and corporate.)
Even if this is true -- and I can't imagine who these non-objective observers of baseball are -- these people are certainly not the Yankee target audience.
"By making YES a one-sided network, the suits in charge have only themselves to blame for making this a content issue. And for anyone who is saying, 'If you are not a Yankee fan don't watch YES,' I say this: 'If I'm getting a biased broadcast that doesn't totally cover all elements of a Yankee game, why should I be forced to subsidize it?'
If YES is programmed and produced only for diehard Yankee fans, put it on a premium cable tier and let anyone who wants to subscribe pay $50 a month to watch Yankee games. Let's see how Yankee brass likes that? [sic] Let's see how some vocal Yankee fans - who are now being financially carried by all of us - like footing the TV bill alone and having their monthly YES rate jacked up every season.
The same holds true for any other regional sports network - like MSG or FSNY - that has decided to offer only home cooking on each and every telecast. And the same will hold true for the new Mets Network. If Fred Wilpon won't guarantee objective coverage that takes all baseball fans into account, put the Mets Network on a premium tier, too."
I don't really think it's a bad idea. Make everything premium tier or even pay-per-view. But the logic is kind of strained.
Because if Raissman wants to punish journalistic bias, he's just getting started. Every program is biased. Every sports program, every news program, every entertainment program.
I don't pay attention to closely to the Mets, but I hear replays of Gary Cohen radio calls. If the Mets get a sac fly in the third inning, he sounds like they won the World Series. If Braden Looper gives up a game-tying homerun, Cohen sounds like somebody just ran over his dog.
Cease and desist, Gary Cohen! Some of us just want to listen to quality baseball in an objective environment.
Not everybody is a sports fan, so they shouldn't pay for ESPN. Not everybody is an Ashlee Simpson fan, so they shouldn't pay for MTV. Not everybody cares about Alexander the Great, so they shouldn't pay for the History Channel. Not everybody is a book-burning lunatic living in the Dark Ages, so they shouldn't pay for Fox News.
At leat YES is upfront about it. Their bias is right there in the name of the network. If Raissman really wants to eliminate all biased media, or put all biased programming on a premier tier, then he'll either be staring at a blank screen or paying a heckuva lot of cash for his cable.
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