Towel Talk: Beckham boots Bush off the front page

Posted Jan 12th 2007 1:25PM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: Television, Internet, Rants and Raves, Microsoft (MSFT), General Electric (GE), Dow Jones and Co (DJ), Business of Sports

Dow Jones & Company Inc.'s (NYSE: DJ) Wall Street Journal (A.K.A, The Towel) occupies a unique spot in the media firmament. As I pointed out earlier in the year, it changed its footprint and now looks to me like a Holiday Inn bath towel. Towel Talk offers a perspective on its news and views.

Yesterday David Beckham booted George Bush off the front page of some leading Internet sites. As always, this item seemed to flow from somewhere -- maybe the White House -- to the power spot on drudgereport.com. And from there it landed on General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) msnbc.com's post position.

Call me naive, but I would have thought that Wednesday evening's cringe-inducing Iraq speech and Congress's reaction were of greater significance than a contract with a soccer player. But that was before my realization of two important realities -- the need to get that Bush speech off the Internet headlines and the need to promote the Republican-Celebrity-Industrial-Complex (RCIC).

Count me among those who are a bit tired of the daily pablum which spews forth from my local TV news. Every morning and evening, my Boston NBC affiliate greets me with the daily dog (DD) -- a heart-warming story about a dog (sometimes modified to enlighten me about a local moose, coyote, cat, or snake) and the store smash (SS) -- the travails of a local convenience store or home that gets smashed in by a wayward minivan or SUV. Don't get me started on the national news -- which as far as I can tell is a life support system for vendors of adult diapers and osteoporosis pills.

In the case of David Beckham, I needed look no further than my trusty Towel to read "Will 'Brand Beckham' Sell in the U.S.?" [subscription required]. Here I learned that David Beckham will receive $250 million to play soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy -- owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group.

Anschutz is owned by billionaire Phillip Anschutz who gave $300,000 to the Republican party between 1996 and 2000, alone. Anschutz uses those big bucks to defend our country from gay marriage, Darwin's theory of natural selection, and indecency like Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction.

Many American children play soccer but I'd be willing to bet that Anschutz will have a really tough time getting Americans as excited about soccer as they are about football and baseball. I humbly thank the Towel for showing me the wisdom in the RCIC's decision to boot Bush off the front page while boosting Beckham's contract.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm, and a Professor of Management at Babson College. He owns shares of GE, subscribes to the Wall Street Journal but doesn't have any financial interest in Dow Jones or Microsoft securities.

Tags: Anshutz Entertainment Group, AnshutzEntertainmentGroup, Besckham, Dave Beckham, DaveBeckham, Los Angeles Galaxy, LosAngelesGalaxy, Phillip Anshutz, PhillipAnshutz

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

1-13-2007 @ 1:03AM

Bob said...

Not surprising ....we live in a country whre most of the public can't name the vice president or any senator....but we know who that last american idol was. or where to find the latest video game.

Now soccer? Pretty Boy Beckham? PLEEEEEEASE. You've got to be kidding me. Doesn't the media have anything else to do? More segments of the media are turning into the National Enquirer every day.