Sunday, February 22, 2009

ESPN Bassmaster Classic Day 2 Coverage

This morning I read several complaints on message boards about ESPN's Day 1 Classic coverage. They said it was mostly commentary and background story's with very little on the water video of the anglers. I did not wake up to see the Day 1 ESPN Recap, so I can't judge that. There was quite a bit of commentary on the Day 2 review show and they definitely could have used more on the water footage, but I wonder if that is necessarily totally ESPN's fault. I don't know that the anglers give the editors a whole lot to work with. People can say what they want about Iaconelli but at least he knows a little bit about mugging for the camera and giving the video editors something to work with. The most compelling video clip was of Boyd Duckett breaking off a fish and then going on a calm mini-rant about what it feels like to loose a fish in that situation. When the guys are catching a fish on camera for the most part it is all business then they seem to get right back to fishing quickly many times without acknowledging the camera very much if at all. I understand this is a bass tournament and you are judged by the fish you catch, but it is also important that Professional Anglers provide some entertainment and educational value to their target audience. I think if the anglers were better at this aspect of the game than there would be more on the water footage and less fill in commentary. I think it would be in the best interest of ESPN to work with the anglers and train them in the art of making good TV.

I am all for women anglers but I found a Toyota add focusing on women to be a bit over the top in some of the things the lady anglers said. Then there was the little controversy segment where Bernie Schultz flat out stated that he didn't think Kim Bain should be there. None of the other anglers were as demeaning in their comments even if some were less than totally enthusiastic about Kim's presence. I think Bernie looked like an idiot and his sponsors should take him to the wood shed. I have no problem with Professional Women Anglers getting a seat at the table at the Classic. In fact I think this development has taken about 20 years longer than it should have. The old BassNGals circuit and B.A.S.S. had a mutual interest in promoting bass fishing among women, but they didn't do much if anything about it. Having a spot for the BassNGals Champion in the Bassmasters Classic would have been a smart move for BASS to make but apparently nobody was that smart or visionary. I don't know why it took BASS so long to recognise the women bass angler niche, when BassNGals went defunct in 1998 they had over 33,000 members which seems to me to be a pretty good sized drop in the bucket. It could very well be that all of those 33,000 BassNgal members were also B.A.S.S. members. I obviously wholeheartedly think visibility of women in tournament bass fishing is good for the sport.

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